Radio Noisz Ensemble
Yniverze
(Garden of Delights CD148)
Odiszée Parck
(Garden of Delights CD155)
Another obscure blast from the past, I think I was the first to write about these decades ago back in Audion #16. We sold a couple of dozen originals back in the early 1990's via Ultima Thule, to many an amazed customer that couldn't believe that such a great band was unknown. In essence Radio Noisz Ensemble were a continuation of Emma Myldenberger, and no one had heard of them either! Three years on from their classic second album the band had evolved and changed into a new instrumental quartet.
Their album YNIVERSE is of course now a widely revered and acclaimed classic. Topsi Tkacz (bass, violin), Biber Gullatz (oboe, piano, crumhorn, flutes), Michel Meyer (guitar, mandolin), were all from Emma Myldenberger, joined by Matthias Gassert (drums), with Guru Guru's Mani Neumeier (tablas, congas) as guest. It wasn't just a name change though, all the actual folk per-se had been dropped, instead the mixture of other ethnic cultures had taken over. It's a pretty high-energy album in fact, involving even more mantric styled rhythms (akin to Third Ear Band), along with many a quote of a traditional theme (Balkan, Turkish, Middle-Eastern, etc.) all rolled-up into a spellbinding hypnotic music. Only one German band ever really hinted at this sort of music before, namely Between, especially with their rhythmic structure, and oboe as lead instrument. This CD reissue of YNIVERSE also includes 6 bonus tracks (31 minutes worth) of live recordings from around the same time.
We'd long known of a cassette release on the Transmitter label, but never knew if it was just a reissue of the LP or something else. The Transmitter catalogue never listed a title and it was already deleted at the time we stocked some of the label's Conrad Schnitzler titles. ODISZÉE PARCK turns out to be that cassette, which is recordings from 1983. Right from the opening title track you can hear that the band had developed even further in another year, partly due to a new percussionist (one Sigi Siegler) and with an increased jazziness, electric guitar more to the fore (an edge that reminds me of Rustic Hinge), and much more experimentation - but it's still unmistakably them. Although no titles are in common with the LP, the third track Rara undoubtedly quotes at least two themes from the LP. Classic stuff indeed, if only 31'25" - but again we are given loads of bonus live material, 7 tracks this time, totalling 45 minutes!
- from Audion #58 - buy it here
- Garden Of Delights label, CDs in stock at Discogs
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