Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel (1971)

Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel (1971)

Album: Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel
Released: 1971
Genre: Space-Rock, Krautrock
Spalax 14244

Great album! Both songs start off quietly and build to a nice pinnacle. Very long and very smooth progression of sounds. M Gottsching is brilliant but so is everyone else in the band. This album is another krautrock classic and should be owned by any krautfan... - Review by lilhagglet, ProgArchives.com

A perfect starting point for anybody wishing to taste the cosmic thrills of krautrock, Ash Ra Tempel's explosive debut album ranks as one of my favorite Tempel recordings. The band was still very fresh, having only joined forces in August 1970. Their self-titled debut album featured two extended tracks of a cosmic nature. 'Amboss' begins very softly with harmonic guitar chords before it begins to build into the mother of all cosmic space rock jams. Fueled by Gottsching's heavy and effects-laden acid guitar work, the track features nonstop guitar soloing and wreckless percussion pounding courtesy of Klaus Schulze. Clocking in at over twenty-five minutes, 'Traummaschine' (Dream Machine), seems to be at odds with the furious nature of 'Amboss'. 'Traummaschine' is a dreamy track which floats forth from the speakers so cosmically that it seems as if God himself was channeling energy into the band's recording studio. The track picks up steam near the twenty-minute mark before ultimately closing out in subdued cosmic fashion. An incredible debut, 'Ash Ra Tempel' set the standard and formula for the groups next three albums. - Krautrock Album Database - Ash Ra Tempel

Formed by ex-Tangerine Dream member Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching and Hartmut Enke, Ash Ra Tempel was one of the pioneers of the progressive space-rock genre. Their debut-album seems to bee many people's favourite by the band, and I don`t blame them, as you won't get a more perfect space-atmosphere than the one you'll find here. The two tracks on the album is both VERY spacey pieces, but still very different from each other. "Amboss" opens quiet and relaxed, but soon bursts into a frenetic jam, highlighted with G?ttsching`s excellent spacy guitar playing and Schulze's energetic drumming. It`s quite facinating how such an energetic and noisy piece still can be so atmospheric and relaxing. "Traummaschine" lives up to its title, and gives a clue about what Schulze later would do on his own albums. A very quiet and mysterious piece, with floating electronics and shimmering guitar. The whole album gives you a feeling of flying through space in a pyramid and visiting planets with ancient temples. Yes, this really is SPACE music. However, if you're looking for something more controlled and electronic kind of spacey atmospheres, start with one of the first Ashra albums from the late 70's instead. - VintageProg.com

Ash Ra Tempel, as well as Can, Faust, Neu, Amon Düül II, Tangerine Dream, and Kraftwerk, were regarded as the greats in the Krautrock scene. In 1970, Tangerine Dream released their debut album, Electronic Meditation. It was very untypical of their releases as it was a very guitar heavy psychedelic album with an underground feel. One of the members of that band was Klaus Schulze, who was a drummer at that time (he usually handled keyboards, but not in the early days). He left that band not too long after.
A young guitarist named Manuel G?ttsching was starting a new band called Ash Ra Tempel, and the two members he got in were bassist Hartmut Enke and Klaus Schulze. They got to work in 1971 and recorded and released their self-entitled debut on Ohr Records (same label Tangerine Dream was recording for). The album simply consists of two side-length cuts. The first cut, "Amboss" is a rather agressive, mindblowing guitar-oriented piece. It's some wild stuff, and unsurprisingly, it reminds me of TD's Electronic Meditation.
The second and final cut is "Traummaschine", German for "Dream Machine". As you may guess, this cut is totally opposite from "Amboss", as it's a mindblowing, but mellow piece that's mostly ambient. It has that creepy atmosphere that makes me think of Tangerine Dream's Zeit. Some guitar does creep in but largely, it stays ambient. It's strange how an album with two cuts can blow me away for completely opposite reasons (one being wild and intense, the other being mellow).
Unfortunately the band had trouble keeping members with G?ttsching the only constant member. Klaus Schulze left to make a name for himself as one of the biggest names of electronic music (along with Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, Tomita, Vangelis, Kitaro, Wendy Carlos, etc.). Other members that came in and out of Ash Ra Tempel included Rosi M?ller, Steve Schroyder (ex-Tangerine Dream), and even Timothy Leary (who was apparently in exile in neighboring Switzerland around that time), of all people.
The original LP of Ash Ra Tempel's debut came with a gimmick cover, not unlike Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery. The original is not particularly easy to find, but it's been reissued plenty of times (but with a normal cover), including CD so you should be able to get yourself a copy somewhere. I find Ash Ra Tempel's debut an incredible masterpiece of space rock, and if you like this type of stuff, you owe it to yourself to get this album, you won't regret it! - Ash Ra Tempel: Ash Ra Tempel (1971) Music Reviews - Germany - Hippyland

Simply one of the all-time great Krautrock albums, this is the original ASH RA TEMPEL lineup with Manuel Gottsching, Hartmut Enke, and Klaus Schulze (who just left TANGERINE DREAM following the release of "Electronic Meditation"). Still at this point, Schulze was handling the drums, rather than keyboards that he's most famous for. There are only two side-length cuts. "Amboss" is totally mindblowing guitar-oriented jam that's not unlike the most intense moments of "Electronic Meditation", I guess that shouldn't be any surprise as both were recording on Ohr, and Schulze was involved in both. "Traummaschine" (German for "Dream Machine") is a much more relaxed, spooky sounding piece, mostly relying on ambience, with the guitar only rearing its head occasionally. Another mindblowing piece for the total opposite reason as "Amboss".
This is truly one of the first ASH RA TEMPEL albums you should try, especially because there are no vocals (except for some wordless vocals on "Traummachine" which are rather pleasant). The original LP on Ohr comes with a fold-out cover, sorta similar to ELP's "Brain Salad Surgery" (but without the diecut), or that obscure late '60s Portland, Oregon act called Touch (the band that recorded for the Coliseum label, that is, as opposed to too many other bands with that name). Spalax in France also reissued this on LP, but unfortunately lacks the gimmick fold-out and instead includes a little booklet (the same kind of booklet used on the Spalax CD reissue as well). A true must have for all space rock and Krautrock junkies out there! - Review by Proghead, ProgArchives.com

Never has the term "monster" been used to more adequately describe an album than in the case of Ash Ra Tempel's classic debut. Without a doubt one of the absolute pinnacles of the Krautrock movement, this album is a thundering masterpiece of unrestrained experimentalism and absolutely searing atmospheres. Ash Ra Tempel is a completely instrumental work, and makes use of furious percussion, droning keyboards and guitars, and masterful use of repetitive tension as well as dense, mysterious atmospheres before releasing into explosive solo guitar licks courtesy of Gottsching.
The album is made up of two tracks, the furious "Amboss" (perhaps one of the finest guitar freak-outs ever put to record), and the more varied "Traummaschine", meaning "Dream Machine" in German, which incidentally gives a pretty good idea of how it sounds. "Amboss" opens with some droning keyboard riffs before gradually building up behind Schulze's unrelenting percussive attack, and then exploding into a cataclysmic orgy of blazing guitar, crashing cymbals and rumbling bass. The song builds and releases in this fashion constantly throughout its 19 minutes, yet without a second wasted. "Traummacshine" takes its time building up, beginning with cosmic synthesizer drones, after which a repetitive guitar line drifts in. Before you know it, ten minutes have passed, and soft percussive pulses have entered the mix. By then, the build up has become tangible, gradually becoming faster and more intense, above which huge droning echoes rumble through the speakers like howling solar winds. The song builds and releases constantly, with the entire bottom falling out occasionally, leaving only wandering guitar notes or a lone bassline amidst the swirling ambiance. Overall, this album propels the listener into the furthest reaches of desolate space like few others. A clear cut masterpiece. - Greg Northrup, Progweed.net

If you love the old "Space Tripp'in" thing then ASH RA TEMPEL is just the thing the Doctor ordered. ASH RA TEMPEL?s 1st album is a classic in the genre of Space Rock led by guitarist Manuel Gottsching and a very young Klaus Schulze (percussion and electronics). Their 1st album really has a split personality and offers 2 very different landscapes for the listener from the chaos of the first 20 Mins epic "Amboss" (Anvil) to the tranquil "Traummaschine" (Dream Machine) which both seem to be born from the same cosmic voyage. Amboss is a heavy cosmic acid space journey which seems to draw the listener effortlessly into the wake of the TEMPEL. Along the way you are surrounded by Gottsching?s crazy guitar playing and Schulze?s frantic drumming and electronic smogasbourg. Track 2 (25 mins) is much less frantic and seems to by opposition draw the listener back inside the TEMPLE but this time into a very different region. "Traummaschine" relies much heavier here on the electronic meditation and instead builds into a very deep and slow space climax which seems very soothing and will send you off into another dimension. Overall this is a superior reproduction and sound is very well preserved considering the age offering nice speaker separation throughout. This is a great recording to sit back and put on the old headphones. Highly Recommended . - Review by James Unger, ProgArchives.com

Today in internet chat rooms, the neo-Krautrock music fan know-it-all hipster can recite all the details of Can, Faust, Kraftwerk and Neu!. However, the band that really had more to do with the creation of the movement goes on somewhat, but not completely, unnoticed. Ash Ra Tempel were perhaps even more pioneering in the search of experimental music forms from the heyday of the Berlin scene. They seamlessly combined electronics, psychedelia, and rock to the most extreme and radical while somehow interjecting a serene state throughout.
So it is quite possible the most authentic genius is someone who has no idea that he is one. Somebody who shys away from the spotlight and wonders aloud, "What is the big deal? I play guitar, I play keyboards, I play music and I enjoy it." Yet this person is so genuine that his style is instantly recognizable, the most pure a sound can be. This is true of so many great artists that are well-known, but is also true of those fine craftsman that are unknown. Manuel G?ttsching is a textbook example of the latter. Every interview he gives shows a gracious man who tires of talking of his past, who is forward looking and wants to show what he still has to offer. But the whole picture displays the life of this great painter.
Germany. 1971. Underground. Those three terms evoke images of the Berlin Wall, intensity, angst, freedom. There was an exciting music culture happening throughout all of Germany at this time with bands like Tangerine Dream, Amon Duul, Guru Guru, and Embryo. All of them were turning their backs on the more well known commercialized style of their American and British counterparts to create something new - something uniquely German. And no band helped define this milieu in recorded music more than Ash Ra Tempel. So perhaps in reality it was three friends: Manuel, Hartmut Enke, and Klaus Schulze (fresh from a similar angst ridden album, Electronic Meditation, with Tangerine Dream) who joined their hearts and souls to play music that interested them. What has to be realized is the environs of the day, the mindset, the intensity, the politics, the change of the Western world as we know it.
Very rarely is a moment so well captured just through music. Yet this is just what happened on Ash Ra Tempel's self-titled debut. From the start, one had to know this was going to be a special affair: A day glow orange cover of the Egyptian sun god Ra which featured a gimmick cover that folded open from the center. The opening piece "Amboss" (Anvil), is one for the ages. Starting with dark sounds that seem like shadows, created only with primitive electronics and guitar, the piece seems on the verge of falling into a black abyss to never return. Slowly the tension builds to a deafening crescendo, and without warning, Klaus Schulze begins his definitive piledriver drumming pattern. What could be possibly more intense and more chaotic? The listener is pounded into submission. Only to be equally mutilated by G?ttsching's furious jamming, certainly the most intense, psychedelic, heavy guitar ever recorded. After a few minutes of this sort of violent cosmic blues jamming, there is a sequence of free-jazz drumming and electric guitar polka-dots that just burst into another firestorm, and along comes Schulze even more furious than before with G?ttsching and Enke trying to subdue the entire German nation with their blistering guitar work. The Berlin Wall must fall! It doesn't - but certainly the musicians must have. One gets exhausted just listening to it! This 19 minute opus is followed by the exquisite 25 minute "Traummaschine" (Dream Machine). Again, the mood is somber but slowly the sound gets louder. The band manages to achieve an electronic cadence while the guitars and electronics swirl. Hand percussion enters in and G?ttsching turns up the fuzz for another biting solo. There is a period of rest and again the rollercoaster begins for yet one more jam. To this day, there has never been an album of music that sustained this kind of intensity for 40 minutes. How they were able to so without a moment of wasted time is a testament to the brilliance of one of the greatest albums of all time... - Tom Hayes, Gnosis Ratings

Manuel Göttsching - Guitar, Vocals, Electronics
Hartmut Enke - Bass
Klaus Schulze - Drums, Percussion, Electronics

Tracklist:

1. Amboss - 19.40
2. Traummaschine - 25.24