released September 25, 2020

Audion 59 details...

Preview video: youtu.be/FCHYHxiP3e0

Published: 25 September 2020
originally: this format only

Contents
THIS PAGE (contents, info, editorial, etc.) 2
DIVERSIONS (news, related, chit-chat, etc.) 3
HONDURAS LIBREGRUPO 4
KOSMOSE - a lost Belgian cosmic legend 5
KRAUTZONE 6
OCTOBER EQUUS - The evolution of a prog band 7
SONAR - The Swiss art of precision 9
SUSPIRIUM - Between the Industrial, the Cosmic and the Unfathomable 10
VOLCANO THE BEAR - fragments of disarray 11
ZREEN TOYZ - The mysterious electronics of Jean Luc Hervé Berthelot 12
GARDEN OF DELIGHTS (label feature) 13
LONG HAIR MUSIC (label feature) 15
MUSEA (label feature) 17
SOLEIL ZEUHL (label feature) 18
WAH WAH? (reviews) 19
NOVALIS - Emotional progressive 20
MORE OBSCURE AMERICAN CLASSICS 23
NEW PROG & FUSION FROM SCANDINAVIA 25
TRIP ROCK 2 - Instrumental Space-Rock - A to M 28
AURICLE ADVERTISEMENT 31
RESCUED RELICS (reissues & live archives) 32
REVIEWS BY ALAN FREEMAN 34
THE ANDY G. REVIEW PAGES 38
COSMIC EGG ADVERTISEMENT 40

+ over 3 hours of audio samples, including rare tracks by Ring Van Möbius and Gebärväterli

Editorial...
So, seven years on from the last printed Audion magazine, it's time for a revival. After experimenting with publishing some old Audion issues as multimedia downloads, it was encouraging to see that many liked the idea. So, here we have a new Audion. In its pages you'll find some items left-over from Audion #58, plus lots of condensed articles and themed round-ups all attempting to catch-up. There's so much actually, that it's going to take at least two more issues to cover everything, without even thinking of new articles that is. So, no shortage of material or any chance of running out of ideas or things to write about.
In the years sans Audion we've largely been focusing on other things. We completed the revised The Crack In The Cosmic Egg rom as a vastly expanded DVD-Rom, have collated all the material for our planned Italian music book "A Fistful Of Spaghetti", released a whopping 99 titles on our Auricle CDR label, issued 12 titles on our Cosmic Egg label, and have nearly completed restoring and making available all our historic old cassette releases as downloads. Alongside all that we've kept active as musicians, playing as regular participants in the monthly Quadelectronic, and gigging when the opportunities arise. No gigs since the Coronavirus pandemic hit though.
Then, a few months ago, a few people requested that I publish out of print Audion issues as some form of download. The most logical format was pdf, as it is totally transportable, will work on any media device with the pdf viewer installed, and is printable. I just needed to work out the best way of doing it. So, after doing a few reprints, each with between 1-4 hours of audio samples, here's a brand new one! Be interesting to see how much audio I can get to accompany it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading Audion 59 as much as I did creating it!
Alan Freeman
Sunday, 13 September 2020.

AUDION
explorations in sound and music

published by Ultima Thule
21 Heather Road,
Leicester, LE2 6DF, UK

0116 270 2354
e-mail: utle2uk@btconnect.com
www.ultimathulerecords.com

editor: Steve Freeman
writer, layout: Alan Freeman

additional reviews:
Andy Garibaldi

cover: Novalis
composite of 2nd album cover
and Novalis live picture

==================================

Note, there were some errors in the Baby Grandmothers review which have now been corrected. If you previously purchased and don't want to download it all again, here is the corrected review...

BABY GRANDMOTHERS
Baby Grandmothers were the original Swedish underground band dating from 1967. At the time they only released one single, yet excellent archive CDs have been released in recent years. They comprised: Kenny Håkansson (guitar), Pelle Ekman (drums), and Bengt "Bella" Linnarsson (bass). You may also know Baby Grandmothers as the group with Mecki Bodemark on the second and third Mecki Mark Men albums and also as part of the roots of Kebnekajse.
40 years after the original band, a couple of excellent archive releases appeared along with Baby Grandmothers reforming and playing live. Some great videos can be found on YouTube. Meanwhile, when the reformed Kebnekajse became Kenny Håkansson's main priority and it was another ten years before Baby Grandmothers would record the new album they'd been promising. It's quite a good one, although not in the style of past works. And, why should it be? The three musicians have gone through a lot of new territory since the 1960s, and we even get a Kebnekajse theme cameo in one track!

==================================

KRAUTZONE
paragraphs 1 & 2 have been revised/corrected.

A surprising band, Krautzone came together after an unplanned session that went so well they decided to call it a band. A supergroup of sorts, they were basically a hybrid line-up of musicians from Electric Moon and Zone Six with some of the musicians not playing their "usual" instrument. The band comprised: Sula Bassana (Dave Schmidt): synths, Komet Lulu (Lulu Neudeck): drums, Modulfix (Martin Schorn): synths, Onkel Kaktus (real name unknown): bass, and Rainer Neeff (formerly of The Pancakes): guitar.

KOSMISCHE RITUALE
LP (Sulatron-Records st1304) 39m
During the initial session it was deemed to be going so well that the decided to record what they were doing. After agreeing on the name Krautzone, some of this material was handed over to Eroc to master for an album. As a distillation of old Krautrock brought into the 21st Century, it has a lot of obvious influences. Can are often referenced in the rhythms, fleshed-out by lots of trippy electronics and echoey guitars. It would seem that their main diet of reference would have been: Ash Ra Tempel, The Cosmic Jokers and Grobschnitt's Solar Music, plus a good few references to their own bands. Although, listening to it blind, you'd probably think it was an Electric Orange album!