SOLAR MUSIC - LIVE

Am i crazy saying something like that? reading what other reviewers wrote, i may not as SOLAR MUSIC-LIVE is considered by all people who have listened to it as one of the greatest prog achievements ever recorded. There is fantastic music to be heard here, believe me! All the elements that make a succeessful prog are present : creativity, weirdness, experimentations, space jamming, beauty, ultimate musicianship, melody, long epics, and very important power. This album is sheer power!

This is GROBSCHNITT being GROBSCHNITT again!! a weird kraut spacey-guitar driven powerful band at the height of its creative peak. SOLAR MUSIC -LIVE of course is a rendition of the studio version of BALLERMAN, but it is also much more. The original version lasted 34 mns. This live edition from 1978 contains almost 70mns of solar follies. Better than that, a new remastered CD of this concert was released a few years ago with an extra 13mns bringing the album to over 80mns of joy.

SOLAR MUSIC has nothing to do with their last 2 Genesis-clones albums JUMBO and ROCKPOMMELS ISLAND. The dogs have been freed from their leashes and can now run free and let their frustrations of the past behind and just play now their instincts freely. There are 7 tracks on the live edition, but there is no need at looking at them one by one. SOLAR MUSIC has to be heard as one gigantic epic as there is no musical breaks between the tracks. This is one continuous space journey, better this is the space odyssey of prog music.

By space music, i don't mean ''cosmic music'' a la TANGERINE DREAM or KLAUS SCHULZE, yes there are dreamy parts where you feel like you are on a inter-galaxy trip with beautiful mellotron, organ and other synths played divinely by MIST like on the sixth track ....GOLDEN MIST, but GROBSCHNITT is first a rock band with a powerful rythm section. EROC the drummer is sublime on this record with a very subtle performance adding nice sound textures in the background. HIM and POPO the bassist make sure the performance don't get too sleepy as they boost the other players especially LUPO the lead guitarist and singer WILDSCHWEIN who also plays guitar.

For the ones who have some issues with the vocals of WILDSHWEIN, SOLAR MUSIC is good news as well as it is mostly an instrumental album with only a few --weird--outbursts from their singer here and there but it flows well with the context of the music. But the real hero here is guitarist LUPO who uses SOLAR FIRE as a platform to show off his various skills. His guitar playing can go on some different moods within the same song from melancholic to spacey to rocking, all done masterfully. This guitarist has nothing to learn from anybody else: he can play everything and he is the engine that pulls SOLAR FIRE to reach the musical heaven of prog.

You like maybe space jamming from GONG or HAWKWIND, SOLAR FIRE is well beyond that as the themes are well better composed leaving a lot of room for nice harmonies and very melodic lines. This is a space oddyssey of beauty going from melancholic athmospheres to furious jamming, but everything always remains under control even if the musicians can freely explore and enrich each theme of SOLAR FIRE with tasteful playing.

GROBSCHNITT was well know for its 4 hour- long concert antics with lavish pyrotechnics, theatrical plays involving the roadies, all the musicians wearing masks . SOLAR MUSIC was the perfect music for this environment and all the lucky people who had attended those concerts will tell you it was kind of a unique experience.

EROC the drummer has released lately 5 double-cds -no less-of the story of SOLAR MUSIC with different concerts featuring this masterpiece. I guess fans who like SOLAR MUSIC can't get enough of it!

SOLAR MUSIC is a unique piece of prog history, this is definitely very difficult to compare with something else. This is just one of those magical albums which make the listener appreciate the greatness of prog music. Not too many have this strength. This is not necessarily easy listening as it will take a few listenings before being able to appreciate all the riches of SOLAR MUSIC.

Remember!There is no serious prog collection without SOLAR FIRE!80mns of happiness guaranteed!

5 STARS.

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