EMMA MYLDENBERGER

EMMA MYLDENBERGER were a six piece acoustic folk band who released two studio albums both in 1978. They broke up after that but three of the members plus another musician formed RADIO NOISZ ENSEMBLE releasing this their only album "Yniverze" in 1982. Same sort of style really but less adventerous than that last album EMMA MYLDENBERGER put out called "Tour De Trance". That record had that krautrock spirit much like WITTHUSER AND WESTRUPP's "Trips Und Traume".

We get six tracks worth around 42 minutes and for the most part it's either the flute or the oboe soloing but we also get some acoustic guitar in that role. We do get piano and violin but not a lot of either plus drums, bass and percussion filling out the sound. There's an ethnic vibe for sure here and I don't want to say this is predictable music but so often it's either the flute soloing then giving way to the oboe or the other way around. This is all instrumental and for the record "Tour De Trance" had vocals.

Just not my kind of music, I find this very difficult to enjoy, listening is a chore. Such a cool story though as they went from playing on the streets to playing in packed buildings.

EMMA MYLDENBERGER were a Psych-Folk band from Germany who went from playing on the streets to full houses in a short period of time. Lots of good information in the liner notes including some pictures of the band and even a concert poster advertising a gig they did with GURU GURU on April 27th 1979. In the book "The Crack Of The Cosmic Egg" they say this about this band..."The second album,"Tour De Trance", with considerably longer tracks and much more instrumental interplay, broke even more ground with a uniquely styled music that even went beyond the pioneering music of BETWEEN or the THIRD EAR BAND, mysteriously ethnic and medieval, not really rock but with a lively rock energy, and an abundance of solos, surprising for what was still a totally acoustic ensemble."

I'm not big on traditional Folk music but this does have that Krautrock spirit kind of like fellow Germans WITTHUSER AND WESTRUPP. Heck it was re-issued by the "Garden Of Delights" label so you know it has a Krautrock flavour. They were a six piece band with two ladies as part of the group plus there are three guests helping out. Lots of different instruments including harp, zither, glockenspeil, flute, aboe, violin, mandolin, sitar, crumhorn, tablas, tambure and more. All six members sing and it is in the German language. One of the bonus tracks(which are all live and from the same concert in Berlin) is a cover of a GRATEFUL DEAD song. I love the album title and the album cover is what I'd call mystical.

"Ein Bisschen" opens with percussion as other sounds are added. Flute and violin are prominent here then we get multi-vocals before 1 1/2 minutes. Vocals only for a brief period but this will come and go. Very folky. "Regenreigen" is the over 19 minute epic and a top three track for me. Percussion, picked guitar, flute and more in this retrained start. I like it! Faint vocal melodies build before 3 minutes in this Krautrock flavoured section. It kicks into gear and picks up speed after 8 minutes including banjo. A calm after 10 1/2 minutes as male and female vocals take over in this melancholic and laid back passage. Vocals stop before 12 minutes as picked stringed instruments, violin then aboe and more take over. It's catchy but restrained after 14 1/2 minutes. The multi-vocals are back after 18 1/2 minutes and the singing is staggered.

"Lenyas Fantasie" opens with acoustic guitar and aboe but it builds rather quickly. It settles right down as the violin replaces the aboe. It kicks back in as contrasts continue. "RAA" is a top three tune. This is catchy with so much going on. The interplay is incredible. A calm after 2 minutes as percussion, strummed guitar and more take over. The aboe is back then we get another calm 4 minutes in before it slowly builds. Man I dig this one, they really shine when they can stretch out a song. "Wassensteyns Hochzeitsnacht" is the final song and the last top three for me. It sounds like vibes to start then before 1 1/2 minutes we get lots of strummed guitar and aboe. Vocal melodies take over before 3 minutes, sitar too. The adventerous vocal expressions continue and flute joins in as well.

I may not be the biggest fan of this style of music but it's easy to appreciate the compositions and band interplay. A solid 4 stars and Folk fans need to hear this.

Why such a low average rate (2,86) for this charming folk rock album? Well, acually the low rating comes from the fact that the other of the two collaborators (preceding myself) have given only two stars, while most of the ratings without reviews are four stars. Anyway, this German band -- not a person named Emma Myldenberger! -- existed in the late 70's and made two albums under that name, and later one album as Radio Noisz Ensemble. This is their debut, which is, in my opinion, better than second album, Tour de France.

The acoustic music is quite instrumentally oriented, the scarce vocals sung in German are shared by a female and a male member. Sean Trane has mentioned references such as AMAZING BLONDEL, RIPAILLE, MALICORNE, and the German acts OUGENWEIDE and PARZIVAL. Likewise, E. M. favours Medieval influences and uses e.g. recorder, flute, mandolin, sitar and glockenspiel. There aren't much of rock elements here, but interestingly I sense some slight jazziness, comparable to the English folk rock masters PENTANGLE. This comparison is also helped by the female vocals and the fine double bass sound.

There may not be any absoulute highlights but I do enjoy the atmosphere and the medieval-inspired sound of this album. Worth checking out if you enjoy the bands mentioned above.

3' stars. And since Sean Trane rounded the same downwards, I'll keep the balance by rounding it up.

RADIO NOISZ ENSEMBLE (regeneration of EMMA MYLDENBERGER) could construct their original universe of Acid Folk called Yniverze with a graceful horn section featuring Biber's oboe, Krummhorn, and flute. And sadly this wonderful creation had got to be, in fact, the final work by them. Something of a tragedy can be showed in front of this album, at least in my eyes (ears?). Their rhythm section could shoot very simple sounds indeed, but the formation of these sounds is very eccentric and complex, therefore could build another Acid Folksy soundscape. The horn section, as the core of their style, played a mysterious role with weird, quirky, whacked-out breathing ... but magically this breath can be very harmonized and comfortable. Actually I can hear this breath also in Furekaaben's two albums but their sounds are more refined than Furekaaben's methinks. In this sense RADIO NOISZ ENSEMBLE should be defined as Acid Folk rather than typical Krautrock but we can consider they could leave an eccentric but important and wonderful footprint on the Krautrock history, can't we?

An excellent album but not recommended as a typical Krautrock creation. However, highly recommended for Acid Folk freaks.

It would seem to me this band’s music would be more appropriately characterized as pagan folk rather than Krautrock. I’ve never really understood exactly what ‘Krautrock’ is supposed to mean anyway – most of the bands I’ve heard classified as such sound more like heavy progressive rock or sometimes avant-garde. These guys are a little of both but the medieval (and earlier) influences abound in their instrumentation and arrangements, if not their lyrics.

This is a live album from nearly thirty years ago, but despite that the sound quality is quite good and for the most part these tracks could have been passed off as conventional studio works. The CD reissue is clearly derived from an earlier cassette release (or at least some of the artwork and liner notes are), but other than that I know very little about these guys. If you’ve ever listened to groups like Samla Mammas Manna or Nya Ljudbolaget and then imagined them with more acoustic instrumentation and an even more primitive sound you’ll have a grasp of what these guys sound like. There seem to be some jazz leanings at times (check out “Lenyas Fantasie” or “Raa”), but just as often the mood is closer to pagan folk (“Ferngespräch - Vorwahl 030/RAA”, “Opus 4”). Speaking of the former (and elsewhere on the album), Anne Goßlau’s violin work is raw and quite mesmerizing. Biber Gullatz delivers a very energetic flute passage on the same track and injects solemn oboe snippets from time to time throughout the album as well.

This is a pretty long album, clocking in at just over eighty minutes so there’s an awful lot of music to take in. Don’t try it in one setting or you’ll miss quite a bit. I’ve played this thing about a dozen times over the past year and am still discovering nuances every time. Such is the nature of complex and well-crafted music.

The highlight is the lengthy and almost neurotic “Regenreigen Suite” which bounces all over the place musically before slowly drawing to a close amidst flute, oboe and murmured vocals that are otherwise fairly sparse on the album. The very next piece “Ala Dalona” is highly rhythmic and intoxicating, offering an intriguing contrast to the more sedate suite. “Narrentantz” again shows another side to the band, with a lively and toe-tapping extended flute passage and dueling mandolins that in itself should surely be enough to convince most people this is more of a folk band than a Kraut one, despite the nationality of its members.

“Alina” again offers magical and seductive violin work for a brief but altogether charming closing to an ambitious album that manages to deliver to all expectations.

Four stars for a truly excellent addition to any music fan’s collection, and highly recommended to almost any sub-genre fan of prog music.

peace

EMMA MYLDENBERGER belong to the mass of the decent folk-related bands emerging from German ground during the 70's.This sextet was formed in 1977,hailing from Hirschberg in the region of Baden.From where the band was inspired to choose such a name remains yet a mystery to me.In 1978,just one year after their formation,they released a self-titled album (later re-issued by Garden of Delights on CD).

Closer to Medieval Folk than progressive rock,''Emma Myldenberger'' is an album for those out there searching for high-class folk material.The musicianship is dominated by the use of traditional folk instruments like mandolin,violin,banjo,sitar and flutes.The rock elements however are narrow limited to the presence of acoustic guitars and some percussion.The whole atmosphere will travel you in ancient times,led by the nice acoustic instrumentation,the Medieval flute work and the ethereal female vocals.It must be noticed that the acoustic guitars and the mandolin are very often in somekind of battle with the violins and the flutes,bringing a somewhat prog feeling to the album.Be warned however that this album is totally acoustic and it is reasonable that it will appeal mostly to fans of Folk and Ethnic music.As I have already mentioned in other reviews,rock music is my basis and this album contains from a few to almost none rock parts.Though I enjoyed it a bit,I certainly recommend it more to collectors of Folk music than an average proghead...Thus,2 stars for me...

From a country more known for kraut rock, electronica, and a profusion of symphonic prog, a fair number of folk influenced groups do emanate. HOELDERLIN and OUGENWEIDE may be the best known of the lot, and were also among the first, although Hoelderlin left behind their roots early on. Cross these in their more reflective moments with a sprig of BROSELMASCHINE and, with the exception of one monster cut, you have the essence of EMMA MYLDENBERGER's "Tour de Trance".

The nearly 20 minutes of "Regenreigen" constitute something of a revolution in European folk prog, touching as it does on the whole continental diaspora from bygone and modern days, as well as Middle Eastern delectables, with superb oboe by Biber Gullatz. Part improvisation and part carefully architected composition, it is alluring but not very bracing, as it rarely shifts more than a third degree.in pace, an impeccably cooked repast served lukewarm. "Lenya's fantasie" and "Raa" are essentially a procedural protraction.

"Ein Bisschen" is actually a song more or less, and could have come from "Hoelderlin's Traum", while "Wassensteyn's hochzeitnacht" invokes POPOL VUH at times, which can't be a bad thing. Ultimately it and its live bonus version, along with the additional live bonus of "I Know You Rider", which clearly enunciates Myldenberger's lineage back to the original jam band, are my personal favourites, which unfortunately tells you more about me than about the album. The closing add-on is the purely foot stomping hoedown "Stromberger Siebensprung"

Because the extended compositions will have appeal to certain select listeners - you know who you are - in my tour-trumped trance I see three stars.

This album can be considered Emma Myldenberger's epilogue or even their fourth album. Indeed after the third album Live (only released under the cassette format at the time (and recently reissued in Cd by the GOD label, the group sort of managed to survive a few months later but members were abandoning the ship. I have no idea exactly how the jump was made tfrom EM to RNE, but no doubt the GOD label will detail us that when they'll release this album in the coming years, but three EM members formed RNE (or is it they changed the name) and released this excellent album where Guru Guru 's Mani Meumeier appears as a guest.

If RNE is the logical continuity of EM personel-wise, the same can be said grosso modo about their musical content. Maybe the music shifted a tad more ethnic rather than medieval, thus sounding a tad more Third ear Band and a tad less Ougenweide. After the TEB-reminiscent opening Double Spring Code, the album plunges you into its own Yniverse and into a splendid serenade Central where Gullatz's oboe flies from one mood to another while the semi-Indian classical rhythms transport you into a trance., but the ride is not that smooth as there are some intriguing dissonances as well. The same dissonance return but take a more cosmic dimension in Space Fasching which is strangely the more medieval track on this album, despite its futuristic name.

On the flipside, the group starts with a Rotterdam tune that was regularly played on the EM sets, and it's clearly Tkacz's stand-up bass' baby: it's all over it under everty conceivable form, even bowed, but Gassaert's drumming and Gullatz"s multiple wind instruments are also key ingredients. The album's centrepiece is the three-movements almost 15-mins Chrybische Printz and it leaves a lot of space for instrumental interplay and even some improvisations. The short closing title track is exactly that, an improv.

Definitely as excellent, if not more, than the EM albums, Yniverse easily compares to Tour De Trance and in some ways is better. No doubt that the excellent people at Garden Of Delight will one day (re-) issue this on cCd (I don't think it's been legitametely) and then this album will get a much-deserved sunray and it will be partially drawn from obscurity.

Previously only available trough cassettes (79 copies produced to be exact), this third EM album (and last if you do not count the Radio Noisz Ensemble, which is the logic continuation of this venture), the superb Garden Of Delight label reissued this album very recently for our pure enjoyment. And enjoyment it is, because this lengthy (68 mins + 3 bonus tracks for 81 mins) live recording is of excellent sound quality and there are much "new" material that weren't present on the two studio albums, but rehearsed live for a possible third studio album, which would never come. Sporting a colourized version of the cassette photo as artwork, corrected running times, some group pictures, the GOD release is the usual excellent product that gives progheads so many joys over the years.

Some of the previously heard songs are in fairly different versions here, often with less vocals or presented in a different light. The superb RAA and Regenreigen Suite are both presented with excellent live alternatives. The last three songs on the original cassette were foreseen for the third album (as would the last two bonus tracks), thus giving you an idea that this third album would've at least as good as their debut and approach the second's outstanding relevance.

Of the three bonus tracks, the jig of Narrentanz is the least interesting (and already present in the first studio album), but Schäfer Von Rotterdam and Alina are superb medieval-sounding tracks that we're all used to hearing. More added value for a Live album which turns out to be just as essential as the studio ones.

4.5 stars really!!!!

This second album is the real reason of this group's presence into the rock almanacs or encyclopaedias and into our beloved Archives. After the release of their debut album, the group toured extensively Germany and made trips to Switzerland, Luxembourg and Ireland (several gigs a day over there), and were joined temporarily (actually he just stepped on stage uninvited and stayed) by Israeli percussionist (tabla, mostly) Rammy Mizrachi and he gave the group's original tracks a fairly different sound and direct the band to another direction than trad folk. Around the mid year of 79, the group started recording in their hometown this second album, which would be their definitive statement.

Starting out on the rather Ougenweide-style folky number, Ein Bisschen, that rides on a great banjo line and a myriad of small flutes. Closing the first side of the album is the almost 29-mins Regenreigen (rain round dance), easily the album's tour de Force and tour de France as well as tour de Trance. The lengthy tracks takes through a myriad of climates and rzegions exploring middle ages and more recent jigs, sometimes oscillating between Third Ear Band and East Of Eden Jig-A-Jig. Ranging from mid- Eastern (Arabian) to Indian classic music (though a raga) to semi-Spanish-sounding ambiances and much more, Gullatz's oboe getting a big share of the spotlight.

The flipside is made of three mid-length pieces, the first of which Lenyas Fantasie (Lenyas is Anne Gosslau's daughter pictured in the interfold of the vinyl the community photo) has a definite Spanish-Flamenco slant, coupled with pure chamber music. The Following RAA is obviously the album second highlight, constructed around some strong guitar strumming and tabla/bongo (obviously Rammi's influence) and Topsi's contrabass playing again a Spanish dramatic theme over a raga beat >> lovely chamber music ending too. The 5-mins Hochzeitsnatch (wedding night) starts on dissonant African metallic percussions, before two wind instrument (oboe and clarinet) take over and a steady beat, take on a classical twist before sinking in Aum psalms and full sitar psychedelia and obviously a one shot thing.

The only weird thing (and somewhat quite deceiving, even if the album is an incredibly success artistically and aesthetically) is that Rammi Mizrachi is not part of this album, although he appeared to be so instrumental in developing the album. The bonus tracks are from a Berlin concert prior to TdT's release and give us two "works-in-progress" tracks of the upcoming album and a Grateful Dead reprise and not adding incredible value, but not disserving it either. I would've preferred this track on the debut album instead on this one.

Tour De Trance is indeed one of the most stunning pieces of psychey prog folk with strong medieval tendencies and is considered a classic by connoisseur with every reason to be so. This album would then fill out the group's concerts set lists, with the Regenreigen track being the centrepiece, until the group's end in 81 with Rammy often starring on tables. In the very near future, the great label Garden Of Delights will release a live album of concert of the later period, which if you enjoy this album will most likely a must have for the fans. I know I will jump on at at sight.