Ash Ra Tempel
Schwingungen

If Kubrick had been a musician, he probably would have gifted us a masterpiece like "Schwingungen". (Un)fortunately for us, the most famous Anglo-Jewish figure in cinema preferred to wield a camera, and the Ash Ra Tempel took care of the music. Year 1972: with Klaus Schultze leaving the scene and replaced by Wolfgang Muller, the German group, after their self-titled debut released the previous year, reaches perfection with "Schwingungen", which is not only an unpronounceable tongue-twister but also one of the best albums in their discography, an odyssey through space transposed into music. Indeed, the music, whose notes are sketched out in the three long suites of the album by Matt Gottschwind's guitar, ranges between electronic minimalism, kraut approaches, progressive, Pink Floyd-style psychedelia, and infinitely expanding ambient-like flavors.

It starts immediately with "Light And Darkness", divided into two parts: "Light: Look At Your Sun", where Gottschwind's bluesy riffs project the listener directly into outer space, inciting a loss of senses, and the cosmic, delirious hard rock of "Flowers Must Die", where hypnotic calm and lysergic vocalizations reign supreme. But it's in "Suche & Liebe", the third and last track of the record, that John L. and company reach their peak: "Suche" is a long and intangible mix of electronic minimalism and vibraphone, "Liebe" is the group's farewell, and the beginning of a long space epic with a glorious end.

In short, "Schwingungen" is a magical and intriguing work, which, for the thirty-nine minutes of its duration, annihilates any space-time perception and confirms the immense abilities of a group that, having paradoxically freed itself from the overwhelming presence of Klaus Schultze, seems to reach its state of grace. A "hidden" masterpiece of the '70s, to be rediscovered and, above all, re-evaluated.