Sunday 1 February 2009

IMBOLC (02 February 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

YATHA SIDHRA

A MEDITATION MASS


Original Issue: 1974 Brain/Metronome (BRAIN 1045)

Reissue: 2004 Motor Music (06024 981308-4)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Part 1 (17:45)
2 Part 2 (3:13)
3 Part 3 (12:00)
4 Part 4 (7:16)

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from Amazon:

Yatha Sidhra was a little known Krautrock group that didn't get much attention, despite recording for Brain. A Meditation Mass became one of the rarest albums to surface on that label.

The original LP came with a die-cut cover, in which The Laser's Edge nicely replicated when they reissued it on CD back in '92. In '95 Spalax in France reissued it again on CD, but this time, without the die-cut replication.

Comparisons to Ash Ra Tempel and Popol Vuh are often leveled at these guys, and of course they were contemporaries of such groups. The band consisted of Rolf Fichter on guitar, keyboards, Indian flute, and vocals, Klaus Fichter on drums/percussion, Matthias Nicolai on 12-string guitar and bass, and Peter Elbracht on flute.

The album is loaded with flute, while Rolf Fichter plays the guitar in the style of a sitar, trying to create a droning effect. Moog and electric piano surface from time ti time. As the album title suggusts, A Meditation Mass tends to be mellow, so the music isn't hurried. That means you won't get raw, intense, in-your-face passages like you might get with Ash Ra Tempel at times.

The music tends to keep one pace, except when the band decides to venture off in to jazzy territory, which you do have your fair share. The music is basically one long piece divided in to four parts. Each part revolving around a theme or a jam, while the final part is basically previous themes on the album revisited. Great stuff, but requires a few listens to get it. I very much highly recommend this album.

Benjamin Miler

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from Geocities:

Yatha Sidhra is the only group I am aware of that released only one song in their entire recording career. This song, the forty-minute 'A Meditation Mass' is one of the more soothing tracks in the genre.

For their CD release, Spalax divided the track into 4 sections; I am not sure why? 'A Meditation Mass' builds slowly and includes a hypnotically repetitive guitar and percussion background overtop of which flute solos and moog drones can be heard.

Unintelligible droning vocals are introduced around the ten-minute mark further enhancing the meditative qualities. The track picks up musically near the eighteen-minute mark when the beat shifts towards a rock bass riff led by some jazzy electric piano work. This middle section extends throughout track 3 and gets heavier and more psychedelic until ultimately ending in an explosive fury twentyeight-minutes into the track. Slowly, the meditative qualities build, returning the track to its original hypnotic state for the final seven-minutes.

The members of Yatha Sidhra were friends with Achim Reichel, whom many believe had a helping hand in procuring the bands recording contract. Sadly, they made just this one album; however, Rolf Fichter did record an album with the band Dreamworld in 1980.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...
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RONIN said...

great blog.
I like this music and it's very difficult to find.

RONIN said...

Great Blog
Thanks for

RONIN said...

great blog

Anonymous said...

Hey Margot!

I am having difficulty downloading this file from mediafire.

Please advise further details.

J