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Annexus Quam / Osmose
(Vinyl LP – Ohr)
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. HaGü Schmitz and Dieter Wegner remastered Osmose at the Dierks Studio in 2022.