KONZERTE

I often went on a 'Krautrock' pilgrimage to the famous record store Saturn in the German city Cologne in the late Seventies/Early Eighties. In those days you could easily buy complete LP collections of bands like Jane, Eloy, Grobschnitt and ... Novalis. I bought their live LP entitled Konzerte, still one of my favorite German progrock albums along Battlement by Neuschwanstein, At Home by Jane and Live by Eloy.

Novalis was founded in 1971, in 1973 the band released the debut LP Banished Bridge but then Novalis started to sing in their native language and in 1976 the LP Sommerabend even turned the band into a national known progrock band, followed by a serie of concerts all over Germany. The spirit of Novalis on stage in that era is perfectly captured on the live album Konzerte, as a huge fan of live albums I am very pleased with their more powerful sound on stage, emphasized by the lush and omnipresent Hammond organ, often in great interplay with the powerful guitarwork. For the first time since the LP release in 1977, Konzerte is put on CD and we have to be grateful to Eroc for the wonderful job he did with the remastering.

As I mentioned before, on Konzerte the Hammond sound and the powerful guitarwork are main ingredients: in the progrock 'n' roll parts the legendary album Live (1973) by Uriah Heep comes to my mind, how propulsive and bombastic, I love it! But the most distinctive element of the Novalis sound is the German singing. Especially in the more mellow songs with twanging guitars, soaring strings and flute-Mellotron, a captivating contrast with the more heavy and bombastic parts featuring fiery guitar runs and some fat synthesizer solos (like in the long and alternating compositions Wunderschatze and the beautiful Sommerabend). The three bonustracks (at about 15 minutes) sound varied: intense classical guitar, Grand piano and warm vocals in the wonderful Wenn Nicht Mehr Zahlen Und Figuren, a swinging rhythm and a cheerful climate in the a bit sloppy sounding Astralis and a tight mid-tempo in Irgendwo, Irgendwann that sounds 'chart-potent' but also deliver beautiful work on the Mellotron.

This reissue in digipack contains a nice booklet with pictures and a history and 3 bonustracks, highly recommended!