AMMERLAND

Führs & Fröhling is but the simplistic name adopted by the duo of Gerhard Führs and Heinz Fröhling given the creation of a remnant act from Schicke, Führs & Fröhling (still active at the time, by the way). "Ammerland" is a beautiful album of melodic prog music, with a particular predominance of acoustic pieces (90% written by guitarists Fröhling) on a pastoral or classicist note. The presence of classical and acoustic guitars is heavily featured, being consistently in charge of elaborating the tracks' basic harmonies and main melodies; Führs, in turn, is mostly in charge of completing the melodic lines, state precise ornaments and layers convenient to either fulfill or enhance each current mood. This is mainly what happens in this album: using a symbolic image, picture Anthony Phillips travelling to Germany to record a sort of continuation of his "The Geese and the Ghost" album with back-up keyboardists from Eloy, Neuschwanstein or Novalis. There you have it then, or at least, something close. The namesake opener displays a magic majesty with those lovely classical guitar harmonies softly joined by eerie orchestrations on synths: it's a minstrel thing with an extra touch of soft, spacey undertones. 'Gentle breeze' portrays a similar melodic candor, but the lyrical momentum finds a somewhat tighter fruition due to the synth interventions; the track includes a mysterious interlude built around Renaissance times' spirit (Führs sounds a bit like Kit Watkins at times). 'Dance of the Leaves' is more frontally academic-oriented, much akin to Phillips' habitual pastoral side mixed with the bucolic side of Oldfield. The same goes for the Baroque 'Sarabande' and the romantic 'Circles of Live'. All three pieces fulfill a mixture of intimate classicism and clever keyboard textures (very German symphonic, indeed). Among them stands 'Street Dance', a fine exercise on playful Celtic moods, with certain nuances of urban folk. 'Every Land Tells a Story' is the longest track in the album, lasting almost 14 minutes - being a piece tried in SFF concerts, it is no surprise that the spirit of the trio is present in this epic, but the overall arrangements are evidently suited to the duo format. The opening motif is based on solid 12-string acoustic guitar arpeggios, with symphonic-spacey synth layers filling the mood; a second motif is more playful, quite close to some "Sunburst" tracks. At this point, there is also a connection with late 70s tangerine Dream. Before getting to minute 7, a piano motif emerges on a melancholic note, using empty spaces between chords quite effectively. With the addition of synths and picked guitar phrases, things get pompous in a controlled way. This very section is doubled after some cosmic effects (including an echoing thunder), enhancing the spacey facet until the final section nbrings an introspective ambience. Brilliant, really brilliant. The album's final 5 minutes are occupied by 'Ammernoon' (yet another track from the SFF days), which exhibits a mixture of TD and Cluster: the mysterious background includes whispers, moans and other vocal sources, while the mellotron and Moog provide a certain disturbance. "Ammerland" is a lovely album, certainly a demonstration of the sort of creativity that Führs and Fröhling had in store beside the SFF project.