Annexus Quam - Osmose CD
SKU
05-OMM 560072CD
First ever reissue from the original master tapes!
“Reissue of the 1970 krautrock classic. The timing was right: Five years earlier would have been too early, five years later would have been too late. But Annexus Quam from Kamp-Lintfort near Düsseldorf came along with the right music at the right moment.
The seven-piece band formed in 1967 as Ambition Of Music; they were what was then called a "beat group." In 1970, working with a local trombone choir led to a dramatic change of direction. Trombone, clarinet, saxophone, scat-like vocals, various percussion, even a bicycle pump or a guitar played below the bridge found their way into the band. Annexus Quam, in a unique way, mixed two musical genres: rock and free jazz, but the group played both differently from what could be heard otherwise at that time.
Elements of psychedelic rock with heavy organ sounds were combined with freely dabbed brass notes; at the same time the band was closer to Stockhausen's concept of "Intuitive Music" than to the expressive group improvisations of free jazz musicians. The genre names sound familiar, but Annexus Quam filled them with new meaning. There are hardly any formal structures in Annexus Quam's music, the musicians control the ensemble sound intuitively by concentrated listening to each other. But the free playing is not limitless. Not every musician always has to play at the same time, the breaks are also important here.
Despite all the freedom, the pieces remain comprehensible. This is what makes them appealing still today. The album was originally produced by Julius Schittenhelm in 1970.”
"Amongst the most innovative of underground Krautrock bands who, like Organisation, built the foundation for a new type of music on the cosmic edge of jazz-fusion. Their roots stem back to 1967 as the band Ambition In Music, from Kamp-Lintfort near Düsseldorf, and by 1970 they'd expanded, took on all sorts of influences and ideas, and moved well away from their hippy-rock roots, becoming Annexus Quam. The earliest morsel of Annexus Quam (recorded during the sessions for their debut LP) is the uniquely ethnic "Kollodium", featured on the excellent Ohrenschmaus compilation. It's now a rarity worth seeking out, showing their roots, tripping-out like a cosmic Third Ear Band, with a weirdness nod to early Between or Limbus. Their debut album Osmose is most fascinating, even more cosmic than "Kollodium", featuring much guitar and unusual use of jazz instruments (the trombone work is extraordinary, for instance) in what is really a rock based music. A really spacious fusion of avant-garde, rock, jazz, and unusual use of psychedelic studio effects (lots of twangy slap-back echo and ring modulation), somewhere between Ash Ra Tempel and Kollektiv maybe, it's pure head-space music, and is considered by many as one of the finest Ohr albums. For a pointer, take the jazzy instrumental sections of Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" and turn it Kosmische!"-The Crack In The Cosmic Egg