VOL I & VOL II

After the dissolution of Out of Focus around 1979, their guitarist Remigius Drechsler joined Embryo for about a year.He toured with the band in Europe and North Africa and then decided to work on some solo compositions at his own home studio.He regularly invited musicians to jam with, like ex-Out of Focus bandmates Moran Neumuller on flute and Ingo Schmid-Neuhaus on sax/piano and less-known artists like Richard Netusil on guitar/percussion, Marika Schmid-Falk on percussion/vocals, Christian Baeck on sax and Paul Smyth on voices.Two years of recordings ended up to a 1986 vinyl issue under the name of Kontrast, released on what supposed to be Dreshler's own Remi Records.

The whole opening side is dedicated to a long instrumental improvisation called ''Suite for the young girl'', coming in an totally abstract, experimental mood with lots of sax, flute and percussion.His stint with EMBRYO apparently had an impact on Dreshler's current influences and the material here comes as a cross between EMBRYO'S Ethnic Fusion with dominant African influences and compatriots OREXIS' acoustic experiments, as this one offers a hell of of acoustic bass lines.Apart from some spoken workds and wordless voices, the music is all instrumental with a typical psychedelic feel and strong acid orientations, featuring endless soft sax and flute solos and the constant presence of acoustic bass, flavored by ethnic-styled percussion and vocal chords.With the 12-min. ''Trip'' Kontrast set things in a light Fusion matrix, which still retains an experimental approach, now mostly based on vibraphone, flute and acoustic guitar.A steady rhythm and the heavy improvised solos are again the driving forces of this long, pretty sterile effort.''Opus dope us'' ranges from straight Jazz to minimalistic soundscapes, this is definitely an extreme paradigm of trippy, atmospheric and deeply psychedelic music with low sax and piano lines and a very hypnotic feeling, where some of the initial ethnic stylings return.''Let's fetz'' clocks at only 2 minutes, but comes as a real surprise with Kontrast eventually putting up some nice effort on passionate Psychedlic Fusion with a cry kicking off a passionate performance on saxes, piano and percussion, this is certainly the most Kraut-edged execution on the album.

Ultima Thule's Cosmic Egg sublabel reissued the album in 2008 in CD format under the title ''Vol. I & II'', featuring extra material from this period.I really didn't care much about the news, as this is far from the blistering Kraut Fusion lines of the 70's and more into Experimental Jazz/Folk.I guess this style has some fans out there, for whom this could be an interesting listening, but I doubt that Prog and traditional Kraut Rock lovers will trully appreciate ''Kontrast''.

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