Deuter - 1971 - D

Before Geog Deuter's reputation as a New Age ambient guru, he made an album quite unlike anything else. 'D' is an adventurous project, consisting of a variety of different experiments from ambient soundscapes to psychedelic guitar drones. Thankfully the recent re-pressings make this gem not so difficult to find, initially released on Kuckuck and later remastered in 2009 by Missing Vinyl and again in 2010 by Esoteric Reactive.

1. Babylon
     i. Andantino
     ii. Allegro 138 A
     iii. Andante
     iv. Allegro 138 B
2. Der Turm / Fluchtpunkt
3. Krishna Eating Fish and Chips
4. Atlantis
5. Grammastrahlen-Lamm

The album starts with an epic 15 minute piece in four sections that is very guitar intensive, going through a wide array of dazzling riffs and drones, with an exotic upbeat Middle Eastern in part four. Already Deuter demonstrates his wide ranging multi-instrumental abilities and a proficiency for modern cutting edge technology of the time period. He uses an impressive amount of layering that is very well mixed. Der Turm / Fluchtpunkt consists of some noisier guitar jam experiments accompanied by hand drums.

Krishna Eating Fish and Chips is a captivating and hypnotic sitar piece and manages to adequately hold my attention while clocking in at just over 10 minutes. Not only is Deuter impressive in his multi-instrumental variety, but also in his use of both dense and stripped down compositions layering wise. Atlantis is a more computer focused soundscape, with all kinds of trippy reversed audio effects, and a haunting synth amidst a watery, bubbly seascape. It is a delightful and effortless combination of both organic and electronic elements that makes this track so immersive and possibly the highlight (for me) of the whole LP. Truly a composition like none other. The album ends with a satisfying ambient synthscape that is so pleasant sounding yet tinged with haunted whisperings.

It's not often one finds an LP so adventurous and fearless, with a proficiency in multi-instrumentation and cutting edge electronic technology, resulting in such a well balanced magnum opus to the human imagination. 9/10