FUSIONEN

4.5 stars. This one came out of nowhere to blow my socks off. A six piece band out of Germany they released their sole album back in 1975. Violin, cellos, folky vocals in German, bass, drums, percussion, sax, electric piano and guitar. Not a lot of guitar as the drummer provides that and it's usually picked or strummed. The singer adds cello and we have a female named Eva adding violin and cello. Sax and electric piano dominate here and they tend to jam quite a bit. The sound of this album is right up my alley. The sax player is incredible and for my money the star of this show. The bass is not that upfront unfortunately and I admit the vocals at first were a negative only because the instrumental stuff is so good. I like them now and they remind me of the SINKADUS singer actually.

Love the opener the shortest track at just over 3 minutes with the sax, electric piano, drums and strings. First spin I'm thinking this is amazing! Then 2 minutes in it all stops and these folky German vocals arrive and I'm thinking noooo! They only last a short time then back to the previous programming. Best track in my opinion is the second track clocking in at over 9 1/2 minutes. All instrumental and just a trip. Plenty of dissonant sax, incredible sounding electric piano. Best part is around 2 minutes in when we actually get a MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA vibe with the atmosphere and electric piano as sax and drums join in. Brilliant track. The third number is more about Folk with those German vocals and strings. Some picked and strummed guitar on this one.

"Schuhe I" is uptempo and catchy with sax leading then electric piano. We gat an experimental calm too then the sax gets a little crazy. So good! "Ohne Uns" has vocals that are actually passionate this time. Not sure why I'm so drawn to his singing here(a lot of character to his vocals) but this is really good. The closer is over 9 minutes and we continue with the sax and electric piano standing out but cello too here early on. Tempo shifts throughout and vocals not until around 6 1/2 minutes for less than a minute.

This album really scratches my Jazz Fusion itch even though it has it's folky elements. Kind of a Jazz/Krautrock blend not too unlike what EMBRYO were doing before this band came along.