MOTHER UNIVERSE

Wallenstein was a German progressive symphonic rock band formed in 1971 in Viersen in Lower Rhineland, later based in Monchengladbach. Wallenstein was very active during its life releasing nine studio albums. It was disbanded in 1982.

Wallenstein was one of Germany's best known "space rock" progressive bands, clearly indebted to Pink Floyd but also developing a very personal style of their own. Jurgen Dollase founded the group Blitzkrieg as an international group with Bill Barone from the USA, Jerry Berkers from the Netherlands and Harald Grosskopf from Germany. Dollase had previously studied art and classical music. In the Autumn of 1971 Blitzkrieg had the repertoire ready for an album, but as a British group already was using the name Blitzkrieg, the German band changed their name to Wallenstein and kept "Blitzkrieg" as the title of their debut studio album. This featured four very long tracks in a symphonic progressive rock style, all written by Dollase. It's almost a completely instrumental album. This is a dense, complex and powerful stuff.

"Mother Universe" is the second studio album of Wallenstein and that was released in 1972. The art cover of the album pictured Dollase's grandma acting as the grandmother of our universe. Musically this was a more dynamic album than the previous one, introducing some quieter folky passages with acoustic guitar between the more usual powerful and pompous electric guitar work and the organ outbursts. Jerry Berkers wanted to do more of these folky things, and quit Wallenstein to record his own solo album "Unterwegs", which musically I find it to be in a rather dull singer and songwriter tradition. After Dollase and Grosskopf had taken part in the large scale projects Lord Krishna von Goloka, Tarot and the Cosmic Jokers sessions, they recorded their third studio album "Cosmic Century" in 1973. This album brought another change of style, clearly influenced by Dollase's recent "cosmic" experiences. It was marketed as the first album by the "The Symphonic Rock Orchestra Wallenstein". It consisted of five refined symphonic rock tracks and a short piano piece. Dollase's strained vocal parts lowered the overall standard of this album, but apart from this the music was good. Sadly, this was their last greatest album, despite the existence of six more. But, this is another story.

"Mother Universe" has six tracks. The first track is the title track "Mother Universe". It keeps today all the charms it had originally, plus the vintage glaze that time gives to old and good music. Both pastoral and acid, this piano-driven ballad features a hearty vocal performance and a rather Gilmour-esque electric guitar. The power of the golden era of prog is everywhere. I really like the intense, even dramatic mood of this song and I highly recommend it to you all. The second track "Braintrain" is a powerful rock ballad that is quite nice with a splendid ending. It features a wild instrumental intro and it's almost hard to heavy rock and to my standards. The wild section gets back at the end of this crazy song. Another good moment, though. The third track "Shakespearesque" has something from the Baroque or the medieval time in the instrumentation. This pastoral and folkish track starts much like the title track, but stays for most of its duration in the quiet acoustic mode with Berkers singing. It has some nice melodies and the Dollase's distinctive and atmospheric piano. The fourth track "Dedicated To The Mystery Land" is an organ driven hard rocking track with an interesting riff. Again the intro is gorgeous and highly hard psyche oriented. It's a varied and lovely piece with song in the end that closes it perfectly well. The fifth track "Relics Of The Past" is a folky tune that is mostly an acoustic piece with some slight singer songwriter hints, poetic and richly sung. It's a nice piece to heard, especially through Dollase's piano playing. It offers some hippy styled psychedelic/folk rock among more demanding and rich arrangements. The sixth track "Golden Antenna" follows a rather simple guitar rock song. It's a catchy and very joyful track dominated by the guitar that is the main merit to entice some enthusiasm to this song. This is a very melodic track and perhaps a bit crazy, like Gentle Giant. It jumps around and entertains us. It represents a nice way to close this very interesting album.

Conclusion: I was very curious about this album and this band. I had heard about this band but I had never checked it before. And I confess that I was really pleasantly surprised. This is an excellent symphonic prog rock album. I think an underrated piece, even in their discography. This is an album without weak points, maybe "Relics Of Past" is a bit different but I still like it, and the keyboard work is excellent. The man is truly a very gifted keyboardist. And contrary to some opinions I read on several sites I can't see any problem with the vocals. We mustn't forget that there are two lead singers and this is the reason why we can hear different vocals, one of them remind me strongly of Bowie. So, all in all and despite "Mother Universe" be not properly a masterpiece, it's a pretty consistent release because it includes some damn great material. So, "Mother Universe" remains to me a very good and enjoyable album and I like it quite much. It's highly recommended if you like the early symphonic prog rock music. So, this is an album that deserves to be checked.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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