LANG'SYNE

Langsyne came from Bramen, near Wuppertal, and were formed in 1969, when Egbert Froese met Ulrich Naehle.They were both fond of Renaissance Music and classic Prog Folk acts such as Gryphon and Incredible String Band.They begun jamming together, while they were geeting deep into 70's Prog Rock and religion cultures such as Budhism.They had to break up around 1971 for couple of years to fullfill their military service and got back in 1973 more focused and tight than ever.Around mid-70's they met Matthias Mertler, who soon became the third regular member of Langsyne.In 1976 they recorded pieces of their six year history at the studio of their friend Hartmut Oberhoff, by the time all members had become accomplished multi-instrumentalists and handled a nice bunch of different instruments.They managed to release it via Duesselton, an obscure label specialized in German Schlager, but the album was pressed in about 200 copies.

The album swirled worldwide as a rare German Prog Folk obscurity, but I fail to locate the true progressive tendencies of the album.This is actually a mystic Psych/Folk work with a deeply esoteric mood, built around acoustic instrumentation and soft singing lines.The opening ''Medina'' sounds interesting, a good mix of acoustic Folk with laid-back keyboards and ancient flutes,but the rest of the album is a trippy Folk effort with dreamy, sophisticated, psychedelic soundscapes, much in a loose mood with stretched passages and use of pre-recorded effects, which are propably natural sounds.Vey hypnotic material with traditional instruments like banjo, harp, sitar, flute and percussion interrupted by monotonous keyboard tones.I do not see the reason why this should be considered as a lost and hidden album of the genre.There are certain African/Indian influences with the sitar and banjo occasionally creating imaginery soundscapes of the past and the vocals are nice, but the lack of energy, the rather minimalistic textures and the outdated sound actually make Langsyne sound pretty pale.

Froese and Naehle tried to resurrect the band a few times after its demise in 1977 and they teamed up briefly in 1992, when this album was re-released on Lost Pipedreams.Together they recorded a handful of new pieces, 15 short ones made it to the Garden of Delights reissue many years later.The stylle follows more or less the same style, mainly acoustic Folk with lots of acoustic tunes, maybe with an updated sound, even flirting with the works of MIKE OLDFIELD or RICCARDO ZAPPA at moments.

Not a really great effort.This is acidic Psych/Folk with an unfocused direction, mainly structured to be performed with nice vocals and trippy orientations, but lacking the actual depth.Recommended only to fans of the style.