Sergius Golowin - Lord Krishna von Goloka (Reissue) (1973/1996)

Sergius Golowin was (is) a Swiss painter (responsible for the original cover painting of Ash Ra Tempel's 'Seven Up' as well as his own sleeve) and a friend of Walter Wegmuller. The sessions for this concept album in late 1972 were arguably the start of all the Cosmic Jokers-related sessions between 1973 and 1974. It brought Wallenstein together with Klaus Schulze and Witthuser & Westrupp. The Lord Krishna von Goloka album really sounds like a cross between the styles of the participating musicians (the cue word here is "space"!!!): Floyd-like space rock (Wallenstein), electronic spacious effects (Klaus Schulze) and traces of cosmic folk (Witthuser & Westrupp). Add that to the talents of a certain Jorg Mierke and the mostly spoken, mysterious lyrics of Golowin, you've got the album in a nutshell. Not as trippy as Seven Up, but certainly out on a limb, featuring three continuously running tracks likely to shuttle you into far distant realms of space...! Of course this record is a necessity for Ash Ra Tempel, Cosmic Jokers, Schulze and Wallenstein fans (and I figure there ain't a few!). Fans are also in need of this album's logical successor: Walter Wegmuller's large scale opus Tarot, featuring most of the musicians above and more. The next logical step was to be the Cosmic Joker sessions.

An original psych/ folk project directed by the esoteric Swiss writer Sergius Golowin. It is in the mood of Rolf Ulrich Kaiser’s « Cosmic couriers » series, including many musicians of the krautrock scene for psychedelic improvisations recorded in three epic pieces. Conceptually this album deals with India mysticism, ecstasy and undirectly with drugs experiences, put in music to create a unearthly, beautiful journey through the cosmos and the hidden side of the Humanity. It contains ravishing, odd, spiritual recitations in German taken from Sergius’ personal writings. The musical background is essentially under the direction of the folk duo Witthuser & Westrupp who play here all the acoustic parts (flute, bongos, guitars…) in order to provide a timeless and an exotic touch to the album. With lots of psychedelic, electronic, meditative effects combined to spoken words, the atmosphere of this album delivers a very mysterious, refined ‘trip’ that can easily haunts the listener, brings him into an other galaxy, far from the materialist preoccupations of our common world. This album is uncomparable, the music is unbelievable and can be considered as the most achieved musical document recorded by Rolf Ulrich Kaiser for his delirious “Cosmic Couriers” adventure. A must of “Cosmic music” and a very nice prog folk effort.