FRIENDSHIP

3.5 stars. It almost seems fitting that long time friends Manual Gottsching and Klaus Schulze both passed away the same year, in 2022. This particular album called "Friendship" was a re-union of sorts between these two legends trying to rekindle that krautrock spirit in the year 2000. It must have seemed a like a long time had passed since their early seventies days in ASH RA TEMPEL with Schulze on drums, Gottsching on guitar and Enke on bass. They bought PINK FLOYD's sound equipment in London back then, and the rest is history. And I feel this duo did a pretty good job here, although this doesn't compare to any of ASH RA TEMPEL's first four studio albums. All four are classics in my opinion.

So we get Schulze on electronics, or machines as he calls them, and Gottsching on guitar, and that's it! And this is a long one with three mammoth tracks reaching almost 79 minutes. Or as I call it "way to long". A lot of repetitive music here that could be called background music. The first two tracks are quite spacey with the guitar helping out but it's not the focus. That happens on the closer when Manual takes charge. I feel this is more of an electronic album than it is a krautrock recording.

Not a four star record in my musical world, but much respect, and quite a bit of enjoyment as well at what they created here.