Cravinkel - Garden Of Loneliness (1971, Ger, hardkrautrock, Walhalla CD, single flac + cue, log, artwork)

   *** Reviewed by great fellow Adamus67 ***

The North German rock group Cravinkel in 1969 founded in Wilhelmshaven and first played blues-tinged folk rock.
In 1970 Cravinkel moved to Hamburg, where they received an extraordinarily well-paid contract with the record label, Philips, and she moved into a remote country house after Volkmarst in order to prepare for their first album, which they recorded in August in London at the IBC studios, led by Rainer Goltermann. Then they play on "Love-and-Peace Festival" on Fehmarn and go with Frumpy and Spooky Tooth on tour. At the end of her album Cravinkel was published, but largely ignored by the German press.

Cravinkel, lead by one Gerd Krawinkel, were odd for a German band in the early-70's, as their sound was often closer to Nordic bands of the era like Culpepper's Orchard, blending in country and folk musics into Anglo-American type rock improvise, skillfully running. Contrary to general trends, their second album "Garden Of Loneliness"LP Philips (6305 124), is reputed to be an excellent progressive psychedelic album. The second album, with the claw "Cravinkel" is published, CD, 2003, Valhalla (90302)get a bit bulky. There are only three songs on it, but these have an almost epic length. While listening to it can be stated, however, that the long title were not sure recorded at a time in the studio. The tracks were composed more like a puzzle to this length,which is why the long tracks do not get bored. The polyphonic vocals are slanted, rough and good. The music is a mix of American-sounding folk and progressive rock. That sounds funny, but it sounds good. Specifically, a portion of the over-long track "Stoned" is because of the polyphonic singing clearly CSN & Y has a model. Often the focus is two-voice guitar solos. Album has been produced by Rainer Goltermann, who then produced many artists at Philips, including Rex Carter. Rex Carter? This is a pseudonym under which Stephan Remmler also released one single on Philips ....obscure single from 1971, "Keep On Running", coupled with "Mr. Cooky" (Phillips 6003 158), neither track having been included on any of the albums. All in all, "Garden Of Loneliness" is a must for every Krautrockfan.

Sometime Cravinkel also played in Cuxhaven in a forest castle.
In the spring of 1972, the house burned completely from Cravinkel in Volkmarst, the group was then still a few gigs, but eventually broke up because of chronic failure.

Gerd Krawinkel appeared in 1980 at the beginning of the New Wave band Trio.

Cravikel bassist Rolf 'Mick' Kaiser, who also belonged to the group Meier Miller Emperor and from the mid-seventies in Bremerhaven, the trendy pub 'Wally' died in early 1997 from lung cancer.

Cravinkel supposedly enjoy in northern Germany is still a kind of cult worship, which probably has to do with the fact that the former group members remained musically active and claw Krawinkel later became very popular with trio

   Thank you so much Adam for that effort     gigic2255

The sleeves of both Cravinkel records only stated their last names and contained no further information about these four guys. Cravinkel (1970) had short tracks with a firm country rock touch, which I think was a bad Idea... In fact, the album was recorded in London at the IBC studios and produced by Rainer Goltermann (Phillips' "house producer"). The album came in a poster fold-out cover which showed the band lazing in a haystack. Garden Of Loneliness (1971) had a single cover (nice psychedelic artwork on the front!), but enclosed a poster. Their music had by now become heavier and more "progressive" (which can be defined as: "longer tracks, more time for instrumental work, and generally better albums"). Side two had a 20 minute jam session called "Stoned", an apt title! It was quite a change from their first one, but indeed a logical development. This album too was a Goltermann production. There is also an obscure single from 1971: "Keep On Running" coupled with "Mr. Cooky" (Phillips 6003 158), neither track being included on any of the albums.

(~Cosmic Dreams At Play)

If their first was a weird folk obscurity, this last is just a vague collection of conventional heavy rocking compositions. We can simply notice an enthusiastic sense of improvisation during the breaks and lead guitar solos, including short soul jamming sessions, funky & jazzy rythmical accompaniments. "Garden Of Loneliness" is a strong, special and dynamic rocking piece with wha wha guitars, agressive vocals, occasionally featuring calming sequences with nice floating guitar lines. "Stoned" is a massive, punchy heavy rock sounding composition, including some acoustic guitar parts (during the break) and a technical drummy improvisation at the end. A proggy rock'n roll essay but absolutely not inspired despite some honest guitar leads and spontaneous instrumental demonstrations. I don't have a lot of to say about this album because it introduced nothing really captivating or original. Easy stuff to forget directly after one listening. Far to 70's German psych-fusion freakouts / mysticism despite that they are historically associated to the krautrock movement.

(~progarchives) by philippe

Cravinkel - Stoned

Tracks:
01. Sitting In The Forest
02. Garden Of Lonelinesss
03. Stoned

Cravinkel:
Gert Franz Alexander Krawinkel - gt, perc
Rolf 'Mick' Kaiser - voc, bs
Klaus George Meier - gt, voc, perc
George B. Haupt - dr

[Rip and Scans by gigic2255]

Link:   273 mb/file

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