CLUSTER

I suppose TRIKOLON were a product of the times. Like many German musicians in the late sixties they wanted to experiment and do their own thing. I find a lot of these late sixties Krautrock albums to be hit and miss and would suggest this is the latter. They were led by keyboardist Hendrik Schaper who also plays trumpet and adds vocals. A trio of bass and drums almost sounding like proto-ELP.

A product of the times would be covering other people's songs, but by now they should have been past that. Still, we get a Mozart cover and a David Ambrose cover. Ambrose being a British bass player who played with Brian Auger and formed FLEETWOOD MAC etc. Both of these songs were rearranged. So of the four tracks two are originals. Of those we get the organ and trumpet led "Trumpet For Example", and "Hendrik's Easy Groove" a tough 11 minutes of piano melodies. Not into that one at all. Lots of organ on this album, and a classical bent for sure with some editions having a bonus track of them covering Bach.

After this release Schaper and the bass player would form TETRAGON where they would go into a Jazz direction to great results. I'm a pretty big fan of the two albums they released. 3 stars is all I have for this one.