Et Cetera - Et Cetera (Reissue) (1971/2008)

German outfit Et Cetera was the brainchild of Wolfgang Dauner. Starting out playing piano as a child, he actually graduated from the Stuttgart conservatory with a major in trumpet.

In 1963 he founded his own jazz band, focusing on the comtemporary scene, bringing in famous German bassist Eberhard Weber and American drummer Fred Braceful. This threesom played together well into the 70s ? changing and challenging their sound to the limit.

Dauner recieved critical acclaim with his take on experimental and modern jazz, where he and his fellow band mates stretched the boundaries of the scene to such an extent, that many since have claimed that they did to jazz what Faust did to rock. Already at the end of the 60s, these musicians showed signs of what was to come in form of the Krautrock movement rolling across Germany during the frantic and wild 70s.

So as a natural continuation of what was happening in regards to experimentation between the different genres, Dauner and crew recorded the Et Cetera debut in mid December 1970 at the Orange Recording Studios in London. The band now consisted of Roland Wittich (percussion), Eberhard Weber ( different bass instruments, vc), Fred Braceful (drums, voices, bongos), Siggi Schwab (guitar, sitar, sarangi) and Wolfgang Dauner (synths, clavinet, ringmodulator, trumpet, flute, etc etc).

Combining everything from Indian raga music and psychedelics to the avant garde jazz tendencies with a modern rock template, Et Cetera managed to conjure up a rather unique take on the Krautrock sound. Freeflowing and loose with much focus on improvisations, the band was a melting pot of many different styles and approaches.

With the add on of legendary drummer Jon Hiseman and guitar chameleon Larry Coryell for the second studio album Knirsch, the band now seemed like a sonic experimentation to be reckoned with. Sadly this was to be the final studio release from this highly eclectic group, and they called it quits the year after with a double live album.

Et Cetera was a shortlived installment in the early days of Krautrock, but seen from a modern perspective and in the larger scope of what the scene was all about, it seems only proper to call this outfit one of the true pioneers of the scene.

The music can be everything from psychedelic tinged rock to freak out avant garde jazz with a healthy dose of Indian spicing, but above all and most importantly, this group was indeed a highly experimental force that influenced and pushed the dynamics of the German Krautrock scene during its infancy.