DER WEITE WEG

Not the best album of the Stern-Combo Meissen, but not bad either. I think the most important issue here is whether you can stand (a) some soft pop elements and (b) an obviously outdated and somewhat cheesy synthesizer sound. At the time in the German Democratic Republic this sound was probably super exciting, but in the West much more interesting things were possible sound-wise already much earlier in the seventies.

That said, this is nice and very melodic music with some sophisticated (if not all too complex) composition elements and arrangements, and well played, particularly in the keyboard department. The Stern-Combo have never been sound innovators (although their use of synthesizers was exceptional for the GDR scene); the keyboarders Thomas Kurzhals and Lothar Kramer were more committed to their classical education. The 12 minutes of Vivaldi's Der Frühling could have benefitted from more contributions of the rest of the band, but Kurzhals apparently wanted to stick to the original score. They were obviously excited about their new (?) synth and this excitement went a bit overboard here, but the way this is played still makes it fun. Otherwise the melodies work well for me, and I like that they are given space to breathe, with well dosed instrumental parts, of course driven by Kurzhals. I also like the somewhat understated vocals, with polyphonic arrangements in several places, as known from their earlier albums. The album feels relaxed and laid back. It also has some variety with the lyrical and harmonically complex Was Bleibt and the somewhat more rocky and straight Der Motor between the mini epics Die Sage and Der Weite Weg, whereas Der Frühling is obviously its very own beast. Gib mir, was du geben kannst tries out a funky rhythm with mixed success.

Der Weite Weg has a hard time to be appreciated by prog fans between the much proggier albums Weißes Gold and Reise zum Mittelpunkt des Menschen. This album is more easy listening and poppy, still it has some depth and quality. 3 stars, well deserved.