WALLENSTEIN

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*)

Formed in 1971 as BLITZKRIEG, the quartet of Dolase (keys, mellotron, lead vocals, sole composer), Dutch bassist Jerry Berkers, American guitarist Bill Barone and fellow German drummer Harald Großkopf discovered that the moniker had already been taken by an English band and opted for something of a similar nature by naming itself after the Thirty Years' War commander Albrecht von Wallenstein. This band was also one of the longest survivors of the early Kraut scene lasting from 1971-82. It is also notable for Kraut fans that it was produced by Dieter Dierks and released on the Pilz label.

Since the band name was taken, WALLENSTEIN used BLITZKRIEG as the first album title but also is appropriate in that it perfectly embodies the frenzied assault of the senses that must've taken everyone by storm in the year 1971. This sort of fast tempo musical barrage was unheard of that far back. The opening misspelled "Lunetic" is completely unhinged with the most frenzied rockin' the classics keyboard, guitar, bass and drum attacks that i've ever heard from this era! Perhaps one of the best integrations of classical music, psychedelic rock and early heavy metal i've ever experienced. The album features four tracks with the opening "Lunetic" and "Manhattan Project" featuring all instrumental virtuosic performances and "The Theme" and "Audiences" adding some vocals. While the instrumental parts are 5 stars across the board, the vocal performances while scarce drop the overall wow factor down a bit.

What's beautiful about this album is that Dollase was about as skilled of a classically trained pianist as it gets yet nothing on this album sounds like it was hijacked from classical masters of the past. All of the music sounds totally original and presented in full enthusiasm. The opening "Lunetic" is probably one of the most adventurous and satisfying tracks in all of 1971 with an energetic overdrive that far exceeds anything that was considered heavy metal or hard rock during the same era. The intricate changes in style throughout the album are enthralling with attention paid to every instrumental detail. It's just too bad that Dollase didn't try to find a highly competent vocalist to fill in the last remaining slot. While Dollase may have been a modern day Bach or Mozart, his vocal abilities while competent did not match the intensity of the music. If only Inga Rumpf would've joined forces, this could've been the German version of Yes!

Oh the would've's could've's! Any way you slice it, this is by far WALLENSTEIN's best album because the next album would focus more on vocal tracks and as heard on this debut BLITZKRIEG, it's clearly the instrumental aspects of this band that made them stand out amongst the legions of Kraut acts out there. While some bands like Amon Duul II and Can were going for the lysergic jugular, WALLENSTEIN had the perfect answer to The Nice by cranking things up several notches. This is a highly recommended album for anyone into all things rockin' the classics from the late 60s / early 70s timeline and it doesn't get any better than the insanely quickened and competent key gymnastics displayed on BLITZKRIEG form Dollase and his team of competent musical friends. While Dollase is the star of the show, the bass, guitars and drumming are WAAAAY above average for the era as well.

I fail to detect the cosmic feeling of the album, instead I can see a band slowly moving away from the combination of Kraut and Symphonic Rock stylings for a more conventional Symphonic Rock sound akin to PELL MELL, as detected in the 21-min., 3-part epic opener ''The symphonic rock orchestra''.Wallenstein's sound had become soft, refined and polished with lots of piano interludes/preludes and the dominant presence of Reiser on Classical-based violin runs.They still retained some of the classic KING CRIMSON elements in the smoother lines, featuring melancholic singing and orchestral keyboards, the rest of the track following the typical Teutonic side of Symphonic Rock with some interesting guitar moves, tons of acoustic piano and a few impressive rhythms.There are plenty of good interplays with Reiser's violins and the only thing resembling a bit to a cosmic atmosphere is a good bunch of experimental synth flashes.Maybe the flipside contained some surprises for the audience of deep, Kraut/Electronic Music, but soon things will dissapoint anyone expecting such leanings.In fact the music is still grounded in lush Symphonic Rock arrangements with a combination of laid-back and bombastic, Teutonic-styled textures with full-blown keyboards, piano and guitars and less emphasis on Reiser's violin work.''The cosmic couriers meet South Philly Willy'', a title which points to something extremely Kraut-ish, even contains some rockin' guitar leads out of the progressive prespective and has a nice, early-70's psychedelic vibe along with a touch of Jazz-Fusion in the jamming intrerplays.

So no Kosmische Rock in here, this is cool Symphonic Rock in the vein of PELL MELL, missing something from Wallenstein's early character, but offering some nice and well-crafted prog arrangements.Recommended.

Jurgen Dollase plays keyboards and sings, Nicky Gebhard drums, plays percussion and sings, Gerb Klocker plays guitar and sings and Jurgen Pluta plays bass and sings. This is obviously a four man gruop where everybody sing, that is amazing of course. What's so fantastic here is that Wallenstein's music continues to sound amazing in my ears; they play perfect symphonic rock with great typical seventies sounds.

"Seventy-seven" is a great starter where a powerful symphonic melody plasy with the different vocals in the band(8/10) and the longer "Backstreet Dreamer" is a longer wonderful track(7/10). "I can't loose" is an honest track with a lot of love(8/10) and the title track "No more love" is very emotional with a great intro and a song that will grow until the end. A fine example of awesome seventies symphonic rock(9/10). The two ending songs follows in the same way and both "Jo Jo" and "On a Eagles Wings" are worth their (7/10) listenings.

This music is very pleasant to my ears. Well, it's not very new thinking and experimental, but its continues the sweat obvious symphonic rock it had started with six years earlier. I would recommend this record warmly, beacuse it's a great prog record! Four stars!

All songs are fantastic to hear and I think of some passages of the oldest Genesis heard on Trespass and also Van der Graaf Generator blended with typical Wallenstein ingredients such as the classical rock influences and the violin. The vocals are poetic and lovely in their own way. Every track here is very worth hearing and in some ways this could be considered Wallenstein's best album so far. The musicians are clever and bright and creative. They do their own music and the result is lovely. It's a very classical seventies prog rock album with fantasy and a lot of music.

"The Priestess" starts quite calm but fascinating(9/10) and then comes a story telling track in "Stories, songs and symphonies"(8/10) and a jumping and beautiful one in "The Banner" which also seems to be inspired by classical music(9/10). "Your lunar friends" is the album's longest track and also a very intriguing one with classical guitar and sweeping harmonies going through the air(8/10) and the closer "Sympathy for Bela Bartok" is as its name suggests very classical inspired and flowing. I like what I hear, it's very sympathic(9/10).

The record over all gets the rating 4,3 and will get a string four star review by me. For you who want to hear very symphonic rock by Wallenstein this is a good record to go to. It is perhaps not their best album but I like it very much.

Cosmic Century was recorded 1973 and the cover picture is blue and shows an unsharp band picture. The cover is actuelly among the worst components on the album. Bill Barone plays guitar, Jürgen Dollase keyboards, mellotron, vibraphon och vocals, Harald Grosskopf drums and percussion, Dieter Meier bass and Joachim Reiser plays violin.

The record is even and every song has a high quality and is worth to hear; therefore I recommend them all to all of you. "The Symphonic Rock Orchestra ? Rory Blanchford" is a creative starter with something for many tastes(8/10). "Grand Piano" then is a fantastic piece with mostly piano playing, I would say massive symphonic piano playing(8/10). "Silver arms" is a nice rock song with strings and cool synthesizer sounds(8/10). "The Marvellous Child" though isn't as fantastic as the other songs here(6/10). It is more common but "Song of Wire" is lovely with a typical seventies feeling and nice isntrumentation(8/10) and in the end "The Cosmic Couriers Meet South Philly Will" which is a fantastic song(8/10).

Over all, every second here is pleasant listening and Wallenstein is a surprising band for me which I will continue to explore. This record will get a strong four by me, but perhaps you think it's even better!

Bill Barone plays guitar and sings, Jerry Berkers sings and plays bass, Jürgen Dollase sings and plays keyboards and mellotron and Harald Grosskopf plays drums and percussion. I most state three differencies with this record from their first. This record has much more vocals, it's much more progressive and much better than "Blitzkrieg". "Mother universe" is a lovely opener with both a wild progressive melody and a heavy and fine vocal(8/10), "Braintrain" is a powerful rock song with a splendid ending(10/10) and "Skakespearesque" has something from the baroque or the medieval time in the instrumentation(8/10). "Dedicated to the mystery land" is a varied and lovely piece with song in the end that closes it perfectly(9/10) and the poetic and richly sung "Relics of the past"(8/10) isn't bad at all. The closer is perfect also the best: "Golden antenna" is very melodic and perhaps a bit crazy, like Gentle Giant. It jumps around and entertains us(10/10).

This record isn't far away from being a masterpiece. The record is great and very full of progressive structures, fine and sympathetic as well as sometimes very heavy and cool. Wallenstein had developed a lot since their debut and this is an album I warmly recommend! 4,42= 4 stars

I think they do a praiseworthy job on the whole album. They hammer on their music in a heavy and forward looking mode with musical esctasy. On the first track "Lunatic" it directly became obvious for me that this music seemed vital and living. They do rocked with keys, guitarr, bass and drums. "The theme" then includes vocals just as "Audiences" even if that is just a parathesis, the vocals on the last track though sounds almost like the voice of Peter Gabriel. "Manhatten Project" is perhaps the best track on the album. Here all the bands fantasies are being shown and they whirl through a wonderous trance.

Over all I find this music healthy and very vivid. It wasn't at all the most creative prog album I have heard but at least a true honest one. I mean this album should have four stars!

Of course Wallenstein's crew was way too talented to offer a miserable album despite the huge problems around the band and now the frenetic styles of their debut was combined with some softer British-influenced early Prog Rock, similar to KING CRIMSON and CRESSIDA.So, the tracks are somewhat split between powerful Kraut-Rock pieces with heavy organ and punchy guitar parts and more elaborated Symphonic Rock with monster Mellotron themes and smooth piano lines.Lush orchestrations and atmospheric vocals are the basic components of the later tracks, which also feature some smooth interplays with piano, keyboards and guitars.The more energetic tracks are definitely more original with a nice dose of Classical influences mixed with melodic guitars and bombastic Kraut Rock grooves, led by piano, bass and drums.Some of the furious and messy breaks of the debut are completely gone, instead there is place for tracks like ''Relics of the past'', which was rather a step backwards for the group, offering hippy-styled Psychedelic/Folk Rock among more demanding and rich arrangements.Anyway, the album remains quite charming all the way with a high level of musicianship and mostly interesting material.

Needless to say this was the last album of Wallenstein with this line-up, a good work of Symphonic/Heavy/Kraut Rock with a flexible sound, that mostly works well but not always succesful.The top tracks though are pretty great and ''Mother universe'' deserves a warm recommendation.