Magnificent
ERICK | Cancun, Quintana Roo Mexico | 08/05/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is the first album of Novalis that I listen, but I can tell you,it is beatiful music composed in 1975 by this german band. This cd needs to be in every really prog fan collection. A lot of synthesiser, for all ELP lovers."
German 'romantic rock' for the ages.
EtherealCereal | Michigan | 10/26/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Novalis was a band out of Hamburg, Germany that existed roughly for a period of ten years. They specialized in taking romantic, atmospheric symphonic rock pieces and interspersing them with harder rocking material, dynamic keyboard flourishes, and harmonic guitar interplay.
These guys were masters at evoking moods and textures, using Moog, Mellotron, strange sound effects, multiple time changes and dynamic shifts, and Heino Schunzel's wonderful vocals. The album starts out with 'Sonnengeflect', an uptempo piece with lots of analog synth runs, harmonic basslines, and wah-wah guitars. 'Wir Schmetterlinge Lachen Hort' is a slower, haunting piece with Hammond organ. 'Dronsz' is another slow piece with eerie vocals, more Hammond organ, and various weird sound effects, kind of reminiscent of another German band, The Eloy. For the next song they chose to do a rendition of an Anton Bruckner piece, titled 'Impressionen'. Hammond organ kind of dominates the song(you'd swear you were in church). 'Es farbte Sich Die Wiese Grun' is another slow song with vocals by Heino Schunzel, and a nice Moog intro, with strings played on Mellotron. The middle section of the song gets quite a bit jazzier, but still great. The album (what's an 'album'?) ends with a live version of 'Impressionen', so it's obvious that the chops these guys had didn't exist simply in the studio, and why they were such a popular live act.
Novalis ceased to exist around the mid-eighties, but left a rich and diverse musical history on the albums they released. They are worth checking out.
"