ET CETERA

It's not clear if Et Cetera was the name of the band or the album, or both. But either way here's another stunning gem from the German counterculture, in this case buried perhaps a little too deep in the seemingly bottomless Krautrock treasure chest (mine is the only review so far). The guiding light behind the project was Wolfgang Dauner, at age 36 already a veteran Jazz pianist and trumpeter, but Krautrock was never entirely a youth movement: CAN's Irmin Schmidt turned 34 the same year this album was released; CLUSTER's Hans-Joachim Roedelius was 37.

And Dauner certainly borrowed a few cues from the local kids, stretching his musical horizons outward in every direction known to physics (plus a few yet to be discovered). Only in Germany circa 1971 could you expect to find such an unlikely amalgam of ethnic-psychedelic-jazz-funk-acid-folk-rock-trance music, all tossed into a boiling stew of beautiful noise and stirred to a uniform consistency. The closest local equivalent might have been the anarchists of FAUST, reinvented as a Fusion combo but with even less obligation toward convention than usual.

The album opens not too far from a Canterbury-like sound, but in classic Krautrock fashion the music loses its grip on reality very quickly, cued by Dauner's increasingly distorted electric piano (sounding not unlike a broken Toys R Us saxophone), and by two percussionists competing to see who could bash a cymbal harder. "Lady Blue" then adds some groovy beatnik poetry to the mix ("I have seen everything / I have found everything to be everything / and everything came out very together..."), the voice heard through a maelstrom of classical guitar, choirs, echo effects, and whatever else Dauner could pack into the song's three minutes.

The tell-tale misspelling of "Mellodrama Nr.2A" hints at the pastoral beauty of the next title, adrift on an unruffled sea of mellotrons and 12-string guitars. But the rest of the album (Side Two of the original LP) is more abstract, starting with the bluntly-titled "Raga", in which the expected sitars drive an epic Oriental Kraut-Funk groove, with Dauner's warped trumpet accents recalling the comic relief French horn of kindred spirit HOLGER CZUKAY.

The epilog of "Milkstreets" is another CAN-like slice of free-form 'instant composition', but the album isn't over yet: a trio of CD bonus tracks from the original recording session adds enough quality music to fill another full side of vinyl.

Maybe Dauner should have chosen a more unique moniker for his outfit: currently three separate bands with similar names are featured on this site alone. A sophomore Et Cetera album appeared the following year, but the crazy Krautrock experimentation was (somewhat) compromised by a guest appearance by American jazz guitarist LARRY CORYELL. The debut should be the first choice for anyone on the lookout for something more bizarre and eclectic. On a personal level, it knocked my socks off with my feet still in them.

ET CETERA were a German band led by keyboardist Wolfgang Dauner. An excellent lineup here on this their debut with Braceful on drums, Weber on bass and cello, Schwab on guitar and ethnic instruments and another percussionist. They released one more studio album called "Knirsch" which is an incredible album and more in the Jazz/ Fusion realm. "Knirsch" has quite a bit different lineup than the debut but it's no less impressive. The debut here is more Krautrock, experimental and ethnic sounding as in Indian/ Arabian. For my tastes "Knirsch" blows this one away.

"Thursday Morning Sunrise" starts us off in the right direction with plenty of distortion and fuzz as percussion joins in. Experimental sounding cello and synths follow and there's no melody here. A beat with bass creates a rhythm before 4 1/2 minutes then it calms right down by 6 minutes. An ethnic instrument joins in as well then that nasty fuzz returns to end it. "Lady Blue" is another experimental track that opens with piano melodies briefly as spoken words take over with picked guitar. Some female backing vocals come and go along with horns. Not a fan.

"Mellodrama No.2 A" opens with strummed guitar, drums, bass and spacey sounds. There is a melody this time and the focus is on the strummed guitar after 3 minutes. "Raga" is the longest track at over 16 minutes. This one is ethnic all the way as it trips along. The drums are more aggressive around 8 minutes then it settles right down a minute later. Eventually percussion sounds lead the way. It starts to build again after 13 minutes then avant keys take over a minute later. Another calm after 15 minutes to the end. "Milkstreets" is the experimental closer.

I have the Longhair reissue and I like all the pictures and notes they've provided. This one just didn't click with me at all while the followup did nothing but click with me. Krautrock fans need to check this one out.

Wolfgang Dauner in his fifty year plus career has rightfully become known as Germany's greatest jazz-fusion export and one of a handful to reach the heights of international recognition. While a young Dauner began his musical journey on the piano a tender young age, later on he would actually acquire a degree at the Stuttgart Conservatory for the trumpet. With these eclectic musical talents at hand, by 1963 Wolfgang created his very first jazz band, The Wolfgang Dauner Trio after connecting with bassist Eberhard Weber and the American drummer Fred Braceful. The trio would play together through various musical incarnations well into the 70s and together they would shake up the jazz world much as Faust would do to the rock world later.

Falling into the inevitable gravitational pull of all things 60s psychedelia, Dauner married his avant-garde jazz leanings with the style du jour in the form of psychedelic rock and the emerging Krautrock scene in his native Germany on the Wolfgang Dauner Trio's 1969 album "The Oimels." With the emergence of progressive rock and the continuation of ever-increasing experimentation in the rock universe, Dauner found it fit to create a new project that could resurrect the possibilities and avant-leanings from his brief dip. This led to the re-recruitment of Fred Braceful along with Eberhard Weber along with additional percussionist Roland Wittich and the multi-instrumentalist Siegfried Schwab which resulted in a band called ET CETERA being born.

Taking a cue from the various Krautrock escape artists that were changing the music scene of the early 70s, Dauner and company composed several far out tracks that took all the inspirations of the day ranging from 60s psychedelic rock, contemporary Krautrock, Indo-raga drones and jazz-rock fusion and threw them into the melting pot. The result was the 1971 eponymously titled debut album that found yet one more strange way to take music to the utmost extremities and to sonic destinations where the listening public had never visited before. Manufacturing revolution for revolution's sake, ET CETERA set out to create music that was as trippy and unfamiliar as possible with stunning results.

Taking the instrumental prowess of Amon Duul II, the psychedelic jamming of Embryo, Indian and Arabic ethnic touches and wild avant-garde liberties, ET CETERA created a very bizarre album that had no problem fitting in with the farthest out trips of the era and by the design of some of the most talented musicians that Germany had produced in the 60s jazz underground. This album is designed to be an eclectic potpourri of ideas that meander from one extremity to the next. No other track advertises this more than the opening track "Thursday Morning Sunrise" which starts off in a rather "normal" psychedelic rock mode with fuzzed out guitar riffs, accompanying percussive drive and period keyboard charm but quickly morphs into unstructured avant-garde weirdness where freeform sonic swells capsize the melodic and rhythmic flow like a tsunami of freeform chaos hitting the structured shores.

Even weirder is the second track "Lady Blue" which is a mix of Spanish guitar in jazz mode with the spoken poetic prowess that emulated the vocal antics of Can's Malcom Mooney along with a female choir which provides a call and response as the avant-garde jazzy instrumental backdrop provides the ultimate weirdness effect. "Mellodroma 2a" is perhaps the most stable structure on board with a melodic acoustic guitar strumming and fluffy tribal drumming providing an airy retreat from the hardcore freakery that preceded. Although it has some jazzy touches here and there, remains a lightcore treat in the midst of the madness. The lengthiest track "Raga" is exactly as it advertises, namely an Indo-raga that authentically includes the sitar, swarmandal, lute, even, sarangi, tambura, psalter, flute, balafon, kalimba and more but gently morphs into more avant-garde rock territory as the track progresses before breaking out the avant-garde jazzy trumpet and freeform madness.

"Milkstreets" ends the original album with the most authentic psychedelic track which incorporates synthesized note bends simulating an outer space experience with freeform percussion and uncompromising pointillistic precision. I highly recommend the remastered CD version of this album which includes three extra bonus tracks that are as good or even better than the original tracks making this a much longer head trip. "Behind The Saga" continues the "Milkstreets" theme with off-kilter key stabs, jazzy drumming and "talking" counterpoints of who knows what! "Tau Ceti" is graced with an eerie piano arpeggio and acoustic guitar in jazz mode. It becomes spacier and spacier and then adds some ethnic touches. "Kabul," an almost nine minute track incorporates lengthy drones and slow creeping rhythmic build ups before breaking into ethnic percussive drive and augmented by fuzz guitar and Embryo type jamming with extra emphasis on freaky keyboard volume glitches.

This one is really for the hardcore Krautheads out there, those who crave the most demented and unforgiving explorative journeys. Graced by spectacularly talented musicians offering spectral insights into the strangest inner and outer journeys, ET CETERA is an acquired taste to say the least. Stringing together bizarre avant-garde modulated keyboard sequences by Dauner along with jazzy touches, Indian sitars and choruses, hypnotic bass grooves, folky passages, tribal drumming and atmospheric spaciness, this is a true treat for those who like their trips with lots of variation that include excellent musicians performing recognizable snippets of sanity surrounded by detached escapism to Planet X. ET CETERA was a rather short project that lasted only a few short years but this debut album is unique since the band moved on to a more sanctioned jazzy Krautrock approach that wasn't nearly as experimental. Granted there probably wasn't a lot more they could've done in this style but for a single album they sure let their freak flag fly high and dropped this highly eclectic slice of lysergic nirvana in the process.