Ash Ra Tempel
Seven Up

Seven Up entered my life just as the previous Schwingungen had perhaps done. It is certainly one of the most hallucinatory points of Kraut. This is surely thanks to Timothy Leary, the so-called "guru of LSD". Nothing more to add! Surely Manuel&co, with the introduction of this bizarre character, lose a bit of the difficulty and suffering typical of the much more pessimistic previous work. Here the atmosphere seems more relaxed, yet still dense and complicated. The sonic trip begins, leading us into two distinct dimensions: Space and Time. Incredibly dense, yet at the same time dripping. And Timothy Leary's voice sings an acid but quite classic blues for the first few minutes, where his voice is mixed with those of Liz Elliot and Bettina Hols. And then it's delirium with Timothy taking over everything, making it all much harder and especially expanded: really, you don't have the sense of Space here. Also because halfway through the piece, everything is suppressed and from its ashes arises another rock mixed with blues in a single body. And in the background, the inevitable distortion. The music becomes concrete, yet is totally psychedelic: like an image coming into creation. And then, towards the end, that blues rhythm returns as if to close how it began. This is Space.

Then we move to the other dimension: Time. The material seems to inevitably complicate. Elusive and intangible, Time flows in this long suite that covers the entire second side of the album. Music much more cosmic, with a distant thought to rock. Rather a journey alongside Tangerine Dream towards Mars. But then something happens. Like a sense of déjà vu, even if you've never been to the cosmos, you've seen that place, you've heard those notes, amazed at the sight of the same place already visited, but not for that reason any less fascinating, indeed. It's the end of Time, it's "She" and it's also "Suche & Liebe". Only a year earlier, Manuel discovered the series of notes that served as a staircase to paradise, those of the final part of "Suche & Liebe" in Schwingungen. And here he presents it again more essential, slower, as if unaffected by the passage of time. "She" is the only word that accompanies us as we reach the end of this cosmic journey. "She" is music, "She" is Music. That drug discovered by Manuel Göttsching, which led him to see everything from another perspective. From above, from the height of the concepts of Space and Time, where the famous staircase to paradise that he discovered is found. But shush, don't tell anyone, it wouldn't be worth it.