Tetragon - Nature (1971)

Una verdadera joyita progresiva que estoy segura de que sorprenderá a más de un cabezón o cabezona. Recomendadísimo!!

Artista: Tetragon

Álbum: Nature

Año: 1971

Género: rock progresivo/jazz rock/krautrock

Duración: 58:03

Nacionalidad: Alemania

Lista de Temas:
1. Fugue (15:59)
2. Jokus (0:19)

3. Irgendwas (6:01)
4. A Short Story (13:41)
5. Nature (7:44)
Bonus track:
6. Doors In Between (14:16)

Alineación:
- Hendrik Schaper/ organ, clavinet, piano, cembalet electric piano, vocals
- Jürgen Jaehner/ electric and acoustic guitars
- Rolf Rettberg/ bass
- Joachim Luhrmann/ drums

 
La historia de la banda comenzó con Trikolon. Este grupo fue un trío conformado por Hendrik Schaper en teclados y trompeta, Rolf Rettberg como Mr. Bassman y Ralph Schmieding en batería. El grupo en cuestión surgió en Osnabrück, al norte de Alemania. Comenzaron haciendo covers de The Nice (eternas gracias al dios Keith), pero lentamente se fueron acercando también al blues y al jazz. Para 1971, Ralph dejó la banda, por lo que los buenos amigos tuvieron que salir en búsqueda de un nuevo baterista, y terminaron incorporando, además, a un guitarrista. A partir de ese momento, la banda se llamaría Tetragon. Mucho más no pude averiguar, supongo que después hubo un pequeño cambio en la formación porque quien toca el bajo en el único registro en vivo oficial, Agape, es Norbert Wolf, en lugar de Rolf.

Creo que debemos sentirnos muy afortunados de poder escuchar este fantástico disco ya que solo se hicieron 400 copias en 1971! Es una pena que en su momento no hayan tenido ni la difusión ni las condiciones de grabación merecidas, porque hay música de excelentísima calidad en sus discos. Si no me equivoco, este es el único LP que se publicó de ellos en la mejor etapa del Krautrock, a pesar de que en diciembre de ese mismo año habían grabado su segundo álbum, Stretch, publicado recién en el 2009. También hace poquito, en el 2012, se publicó el ya mencionado Agape, grabado en el 73'. Realmente no sé cómo la banda pudo haber pasado tan desapercibida. Quizás se deba a que, dentro del Krautrock, no experimentó de la misma forma en que lo hicieron otras grandísimas bandas como Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Agitation Free, Guru Guru, Neu, Can o Amon Düül ii, las cuales eran de las que más llamaban la atención, por así decirlo. La verdad es que hay una infinidad de bandas alemanas buenísimas (por mencionar sólo este país!). Pero creo que ya me estoy yendo un poco por las ramas, el punto es que Tetragon fue una banda brillante!

"Nature", salvo por la canción que le da el nombre al álbum, es totalmente instrumental. Comienza con "Fugue", sumamente inspirada en la tocata y fuga en re menor del señor Bach, en la que ya de entrada podemos apreciar los magníficos teclados, paseándonos por lugares a veces un poco más oscuros y misteriosos, y donde se van haciendo un espacio para que cada integrante haga un solo. Me parece muy destacable la originalidad con la que se apropiaron, en el mejor de los sentidos, de esa pieza de Bach, haciendo de ella lo que quisieron. En este tema y en realidad a lo largo de todo el disco, no sólo nos hacen un recorrido por la música clásica, sino también por los terrenos del jazz y del blues (esto ya lo habíamos mencionado un poquito más arriba, pero uno no puede dejar de hacer hincapié en la maestría con la que fusionaron estos géneros!!). De esta forma, estos talentosos músicos nos presentan composiciones muy creativas y dinámicas, con muuuuchas deliciosas improvisaciones.  

Gracias al sello Musea que hizo justicia por Tetragon, rescatando y mejorando el sonido de "Nature", y a Moe que nos consiguió el disco, podemos disfrutar de esta edición publicada en 1995, que además nos trae como bonus track el tema en vivo "Doors In Between". Espero que lo disfruten mucho!

Siguiendo con la costumbre del blog, dejo por aquí algunos comentarios:

" Tetragon had been a rather short-living band hailing from the north of Germany that released only one single album whose title "Nature" reflected their "green" concerns in some way. The band derived from a previous one called Trikolon formed by schoolfriends Hendrik Schapper (organ,trumpet), Rolf Rettberg (bass) and Ralph Schmieding (drums). They mainly played The Nice cover versions, but at times more in a manner closer to Dutch band Ekseption and as well some blues classics like "Spoonful" or "I'm a Man" in a Cream-like interpretation. These were mixed up with long improvisations and jazz influences of a Miles Davis type Schmieding used to be a huge fan of. They became a quite well-known (in their local area) live band and even made a record with one of their stage performances pressed in 150 copies. In 1971 Schmieding decided to leave the band and concentrate on his daily job thus the remaining two musicians were looking for substitutes. At their school they found the talented guitarist Jürgen Jaehner and the drummer Achim Luhrmann and called their quartet Tetragon logically enough. The band didn't really have a predetermined musical style; they played different styles as they pleased, favouring blues (for its emotional impact), jazz and the classics (adapting a Bach fugue along the way). This record here in review had been originally produced in a quite non-professional manner using a Revox A77 2-track tape recorder and seven microphones placed judiciously to best capture the sound of each instrument. The recording duty took place in an old farm which had been converted into a house by some friends of Luhrmann's parents. Re-recording wasn't possible and any imperfections had to be avoided in the 'live' taping conditions which inspired the band to great heights though. Schapper played organ and clavinet simultaneously, with one hand on each keyboard. Jürgen Jaehner meanwhile would switch to acoustic guitar immediately after an electric guitar solo. The line-up listed here is wrong by the way I just realized, there isn't any saxophone included. The correct one is Hendrik Schaper - Organ,clavinet,Cembalet,piano,vocals; Jürgen Jaehner - Electric and acoustic guitar; Rolf Rettberg - Bass and Joachim Luhrmann - Drums. Most of the tracks are all-instrumental, only the title song has some vocals. It's in fact very well-done early progressive rock rooted in blues with jazzy and classical leanings and there isn't any weak track at all on here. Fortunately Musea has done a CD re-issue of this forgotten gem in 1995 with the great jam-rockin' live bonus track "Doors in Between" added on. Certainly a worthy purchase for all fans of early 70's Prog!" 

 hdfisch 

"Formed by members of the powerful German band Trikolon, this project is a musical odissey throw stoned-majestic-epic-neo classical rockin improvs. Strictly instrumental the album is an illuminated musical trip, reminiscence to Trikolon's exhuberent and catchy original sound but with the addition of technical jazzy counterparts. The ensemble is dominated by epic spaced out guitar leads mostly improvised and accompanied by groovy Hammond chords and neo-classical piano sequences. A few pieces as (A short story...) include pure jazzy rock performances with lot of variations, changes and moods. The technical aptitudes and skills of the musicians are clearly demonstrated in these lenghty jam sessions. Tetragon is a complex and technical hybrid jazzy rockin' experience that admits much more connections with refined and classy english combos (categorised as "Canterbury") than with tripped out-primal jazzy-kraut dementia. A propulsive, amazingly spontaneous without being amateurish. A high standard of fusion jazz music."

philippe

"An interesting band from Germany who released this lone album back in 1971.To me they come off as a "jam" band with a strong Jazz flavour. I must admit this didn't grab me right away, and really it's still growing on me. What appeals to me is the way they mostly just jam as this is almost all instrumental except for the title track sung in English."Fugue" is the 16 minute opener. Some nice guitar and organ come and go until the organ and drums start to lead the way. Some nice bass 4 minutes in. A bass solo 7 minutes in as the organ and drums stop. A drum solo 8 1/2 minutes in.The guitar comes in as it settles around 10 minutes. It picks back up a minute later as the guitar leads the way. Organ is back after 14 minutes. "Jokus" is 19 seconds of sounds that echo. "Irgendwas" opens with piano as guitar and affects follow. Organ and guitar lead after 1 1/2 minutes as the tempo picks up. Piano 3 1/2 minutes in as it settles then picks up again."A Short Story" opens with organ as drums and guitar join in. This is raw. It's jazzy after 2 1/2 minutes. It calms right down 4 minutes in then builds. The organ is back before 7 minutes as they jam. Great sound the rest of the way. "Nature" is laid back with vocals. I like it. Vocals stop as it kicks in with bass, organ and drums around 2 minutes.The guitar sounds great after 3 minutes as it joins in. Sounds like fuzzed out Farfisa before 4 1/2 minutes. I should mention that in the liner notes it says that "Hendrik acquired a Farfisa organ which he cusomized in order to produce distorted effects like those used by Mike Ratledge of SOFT MACHINE". The vocals and earlier melody are back 7 minutes in to end it. The bonus track "Doors In Between" was recorded live in 1972 and is much like these other tracks. It's over 14 minutes with lots of jamming.4 stars for me."

Mellotron Storm 

Y supongo que ya saben que los links no están más en las entradas... Si no estás al tanto de cómo conseguir los discos, andá acá:  http://cabezademoog.blogspot.com.ar/p/por-si-algun-dia-no-estamos-aca.html :).