BRÖSELMASCHINE

I stumbled upon BROESELMASCHINE by chance when watching some WDR video footage of old German rock bands from the famous "Krautrock" scene. I knew nothing about them but I caught the glimpse of certain "mystique" of their apparently psychedelic folk music.

There are things well-known, documented and researched, works of art from the well-established circles and headline news. When you first approach such works you usually have a plenty of reference materials to compare with and you either agree with the majority of scribes and critics and get to appreciate what has been an established artistic value, or you might disagree completely and abandon the issue as overblown or over-rated pomposity (and the latter case often happens with the popular music, at least in my case).

But, when you discover something completely unknown to you, something you have not heard or read about, you get a pretty different sensation. How on earth this piece of amazing music was not widely known, better appreciated or simply more popular? What went wrong with them?

Nothing I guess. BROSELMASCHINE's self-titled LP just happened in space and time because five seemingly modest and talented people gathered together and made some interesting, amazing music. Just once, never to repeat it again (OK, I don't count later incarnations of the band without lovely Jenni Schucker on vocals and flute). And that is pure art! Without calculation, without planning, not caring about production, technology, promotion or marketing, or even money.

This album is so simple in its approach to music recording and yet so rich in its spiritual and artistic values. Acoustic acid-folk enriched with Anglo-Celtic and Indian crumbs (broesel in German!) makes one of the most pleasant and soothing albums I ever heard. Got it? *****