Ash Ra Tempel - Join Inn (1973)

In Germany during the years 1968 - 1978 a whole decade of music was forged which has never been heard or seen again since, the music coming out of Germany during this period was so unique, so spell binding and so raw. 'Krautrock' as it is now called was a scene of music made by a small and select grouping of people in Germany which was so out-there, so experimental, so spaced-out, so unlike any other western music's which were happening at the time.

I would even say that 'Krautrock' could quite possibly be the best thing happening in music during the early 70s. A great number of German groups who formed during this heyday period of 68-78 became highly regarded amongst critics, bands such as Neu, Can, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Cluster and Ash Ra Tempel.

The story of 'Krautrock' is long and interesting, but what is often found when researching this music, is that fame, style, accolade and other exterior motives were not the goals of any of these musicians, the search from truth in sounds was!!! and just like the Heirophants of ancient Egypt and Greece, like the magi of ancient cultures, these long-haired proto-punk shaman's created musical alchemy in their studios, using warped guitar tones, synthesisers, pitch benders, ring modulators, oscillators, bass, guitar and drums... Some of the albums released by various 'Krautrock' groups are the trippiest recordings of the 20th century.

One of the most trippiest is Ash Ra Tempel's third studio album 1973's 'Join Inn'

'Join Inn' is a very very rare album to find and is extremely scarce, it is hard-to-find on both cd and vinyl and no modern labels have bothered to make a decent reissue of this album yet, I myself have been searching for 5 years or more for a copy to no avail and only have a cd-r copy which a friend did for me.

This was also the last Ash Ra Tempel LP which featured the electronic pioneer Klaus Schulze before he went onto a highly influential solo and production career.

The line up of the band during this album consisted of -

Harmut Enke - Bass

Klaus Schulze - Drums, Organ, Synthesisers

Manuel Gottsching - Guitar

Rosi Muller - vocals

'Join Inn' only consisted of two long pieces which each dominated a whole side of the vinyl.... please find below the tracks.

Freak'n' Roll

A guitar, drum and synthesiser crazed freak-out which attacks all senses leaving the listener somewhat reeling from the audio experience which they have just experienced, this is stoner orientated jazz rock of the highest order and is by no means phoney compared to it's American or British contemporaries, this is the real deal, these guys were head-loose in other realms and not really touching down on any real earth, raking in at just over 19 minutes long, it is a freak-out that must have induced panic based fear in the brains of the band members whilst recording.

Jenseit

This track is the reason I wished to write about 'Ash Ra Tempel' on the blog today, this 25 minute opus of pure cascading sounds, dream-like melancholy, spacey desperation and lunar longing has been constantly on repeat in my world for the last few days. With the autumn coming and my moods continually going up and down and finding no real solace or structure or no  real reason nor rhyme, musical oracle's like this one are the only things which have currently been keeping my mindset grounded whilst at the same time keeping me in starry-eyed oblivion undaunted by the harsh realities of the world around me, it is such a magical piece of moving music, I love everything about it, the organ drones, the tremolo guitar, the fluttering synths, the overall ambience and the cool German chicks strung-out and dreamy beatnik styled vocal lines which I have no real understanding of, the only line I get is when she sighs in gentle hushed-tones 'Eins, Zwei, Drier' half-way through the song.... A beautiful piece of electronic experimental music.

Don't get lost in the woods...

Paul Messis

Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth 1956 -1958 (Saturn Records - 1966)

Not many folks who are acquainted with me or know of me know that I am heavily into Jazz, particularly the experimental type of jazz which was coming out of the mid 50s to early 60s, the period of jazz which fused together elements of Be-bop, Modal Jazz, Hard Bop, Swing and the then new style of improvisations which later became Free Jazz, fusing all of the above to create a rich flavour of sound, this is the type of Jazz I hugely enjoy and have a vast taste for... it could be considered the age of 'Cool' in Jazz terms (if that even makes sense).

I have a large cd and Lp collection featuring many of Jazz's hip elite and pioneering luminaries names including Coltrane, Monk, Gillespie, Coleman, Taylor, Davis not to mention a whole host more.

One such name however which has always fascinated me was Sun Ra, even during my early teenage voyages into late 60s American Punk Rock music a'la The Stooges and MC5 alongside my vested enjoyment of Experimental Avant Garde music, the name Sun Ra always seemed to pop up and be sited as an influence and this in turn made me investigate the man and the music behind the name Sun Ra.

 
Born as Herman Poole Blount in 1914, Sun Ra and the life which would entail until his death in 1993 would consist of embracing and absorbing music as fully as a person can whilst at the same time living life as an outsider and virtual unknown for much of his life. Sun Ra is the only musician I know of who lived life completely in servitude to his craft and passion, this passion was his music. Sun Ra lived, breathed and walked music and possibly is one of the most intense and passionate artists of the 20th century.

Adopting the name and persona Sun Ra after studying Mysticism and having a life changing experience during his twenties, this is where Sun Ra's legacy begins.

A competent musician since his childhood, one could claim Sun Ra to have been a prodigé , During his teens and early twenties Sun Ra played in a number of jazz bands and groups.

The Story of Sun Ra is an interesting one and there is a wealth of media to explain about the man's life and music.

The discography of Sun Ra is something to behold, it is probably the largest back catalogue any one musician could ever have, proving that Sun Ra was for much of his life completely living his existence for the purpose of and for music.

I have a few Sun Ra LP's myself, however these are never really cheap and not at all common or easy to find (even online)... However once you've purchase one Sun Ra album you kind of want to own them all because they usually come adorned with beautiful sleeve designs and look amazing. The music on the records are amazing too, a strange form of Jazz like no other before or even after it, compared to other Jazz musicians of the time, none were anywhere in the same realm of Sun Ra and this is why Sun Ra himself is often not given as much credit as being an influence to music in comparison to his contemporaries who seemed to know how to 'play the game' a little better than he did.

Sadly he was also considered somewhat of an outsider in Jazz circles too, yet he remained true to his cause and beliefs and produced  some of the most dazzling and way-out Jazz recordings ever released and I feel some of the most interesting pieces of music during the 20th century.

My first ever Sun Ra Lp was the one in which this post is honoured, 'Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth', the record was released in 1966  and released on Sun Ra's own label 'Saturn Records'. The LP is split in two. Side 1 (of the vinyl) features cuts of tracks which were originally intended to be released on the 'Sounds Of Joy' album recorded in 1956 (which still wasn't released when this LP came out ironically) and Side 2 (of the vinyl) features various cuts by Sun Ra and his Arkestra in 1958.

Below are a few tracks which I really love from this album.

Planet Earth (this is my favourite, possibly of all Sun Ra material)

Eve

El Viktor

Please if you like the sound clips above, buy the record and also try and find more of Sun Ra's releases, he has been consistently good creating fantastic music in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and even during his last years in the 90s.

Cheers

Paul

Beyond Jazz - La Monte Young

Most folks who know me, know that I love music and that I am forever searching for music that will evoke strong feelings and raw emotions in my soul, even to some degree take me above the mundanity of every day life and out into the astral realms beyond the reality of body and mind.

Music which challenges my consciousness is the music that intrigues me the most and within a contemporary setting I have found that Rock 'N' Roll,German Krautrock and Psychedelic music has moved me and my mind in such a manner as expressed above, beyond the contemporary music genres such music as Jazz, Classical and various traditional world music's from the Far-East and India have really bended my mind, infact most indigenous music's do have very mind altering scales, patterns, instruments and sounds which are hypnotic and other-worldly in their nature.

I have a huge love for such Jazz musicians as Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and Thelonious Monk (more posts to come of these guys' at some stage later), what these Jazz musicians did in their music was magical, they used rhythms and sound textures to create a vibration and mood which alters the listeners mind set and head-space, to some degree's it even has the power to control it.

Experimental music is also a huge musical genre which I am interested by, the genre is the bridge between jazz and classical music, one of the pioneers of minimalism within the Experimental music field was La Monte Young.

I adore the pieces of music that La Monte Young composed, they are really very interesting and in my opinion are some of the best and most honest experimental pieces of music out there, also some of the most wonderful and mind expanding stuff I have thus far heard, to put it poetically, I consider it to be like being kicked in the head by an angel.

La Monte Young has taken influences from prior experimentalists such as Stockhausen mixed it with the jazz of artists' such as the ones mentioned above, mixed in a bit of indigenous traditional music influences from all over the world and also added a bit of mind altering substances and you pretty much have what La Monte Young's vision in music and sound was.

Like Picasso and his paintings, La Monte Young brought music back to it's most barren, barest and most primitive essence, he brought sound back to the zero point, he brought it back to drone, and inside that drone many wonderful worlds opened up, many textures eclipsed and danced around with each other, creating some of the most brilliant and some of the most perfectly human music in the world. If Blues music was an aspect of the soul of man and if early Gospel was the soul of a people and community.... then La Monte Young's minimalist experimental music is the soul of vibration itself.

Young has composed music since the early 50s and continues to make music to this day, during 1960 Young moved to New York and became a pretty known figure on the avant-garde scene which was happening amongst various sects of artist and musicians. The Early 60s saw the birthof what would later become La Monte Young's defining and most notable works. Around this period Young wished to create what was donned the 'Dream House' a potential haven in New York where musicians could come each day and create music twenty-four hours a day. In wanting to create the 'Dream House' Young formed 'The Theatre of Eternal Music', this group featured Marian Zazeela, Angus MacLise, Billy Name and later featured Tony Conrad, Terry Riley and future Velvet Underground member John Cale (please see picture below of 'The Theatre' with Cale pictured far right playing viola)

Since 1966, 'The Theatre of Eternal Music' has had an ongoing line-up of people who come and go, just like the music that is being played there appears to be no beginning, middle or end.

The Search for the 'Dream House' has never ended and La Monte Young and fellow musician Marian Zazeela have had their 'Dream House' featured as an art installation in various semi-permanent locations around New York including The Guggenheim Museum.

La Monte Young's music and sounds will forever be important and that is what is far out, his sounds will never get old, never be considered new, never lost in time nor dated, because it is forever NOW and forever EXISTENT. I guess that is what is magical about experimental music... I guess you called call it Living Sound (whatever that may be??)

I found the music of La Monte Young via The Velvet Underground during my teens, reading books as a teenager on the Velvets and reading the ever so tiny bit of information about this endless drone music that John Cale was involved with prior to the Velvets was enough for me to go instantly searching to find the music that I was reading about, it wasn't until a few years ago around the age of 22 that I finally 'got' it and really started having a greater appreciation for the music that experimental musicians create, I can now listen to the likes of Stockhausen (even though his work scares the shit out of me), John Cage  etc and various traditional music  from around the world such as Gamelan, Gagaku, Middle Eastern and Indian Raga music, with an open and enjoying mind... In fact I crave to find even more traditional music's from around the world, which may blow my mind and send my consciousness to new levels.

Please see below a few of my favourite pieces by La Monte Young, prepare for your minds to be blown to shreds.

I still don't own any La Monte Young items purely because they are so goddamn expensive and have never really had any real cd reproductions worth any creedance.... thankfully I have known a few switched on individuals over time who have 'taped' me stuff and obviously Youtube has been a great help in hearing more La Monte Young which would otherwise remain in the hands of collectors or the extremely rich.... be warned even CD's have gone for hundreds on ebay.

Drone On......

Paul Messis