ASH RA TEMPEL

The debut Ash Ra Tempel is essentially an exploration and development of the space rock approach taken by Tangerine Dream on their debut album, Electronic Meditation - perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the presence of Klaus Schulze on both releases. This is most evident on the first track, Amboss, which begins with lush keyboard with percussion accents and then descends into a furious jam on the other instruments, with Schulze's drums and Göttsching's out of control guitar particular highlights. The second side is more calm and proto-ambient, much like the territory that Tangerine Dream themselves would explore on Zeit. On the whole the album, whilst good, merely visits various territories that would be exploited to greater effect both on subsequent Ash Ra Tempel albums and in Klaus Schulze's expansive solo career.