Michael Hoenig Departure from the Northern Waseland

Tangerine Dream's ‘Phaedra’ had just gone gold in Australia and the band headed there for their first non-European tour in March 1975. A few months earlier Froese and Baumann had come to “a gentlemen's agreement”, allowing Baumann to take temporary leave from the band. This left a vacuum which was filled by Michael Hoenig. (Both he and Chris Franke had played in Agitation Free.) The kudos attached to such an opening was sufficient for Hoenig's solo work to be taken up by Warner Brothers and subsequently well received on its release. The title track opens with a musical sunrise. A phased organ leads to the first sequence reminiscent of the ‘Early Water' album Hoenig recorded with Manuel Göttsching in Autumn 1975. Being a solo project, and not music from a TD trio, much of the lead keyboard work sounds lonely - yet not unpleasant. After seven and a half minutes we hear Lutz Ulbrich's double guitar for the first time (Ulbrich was also a member of Agitation Free - maybe they are worth a listen too!) There is a very echoey feel to much of the middle section including a short musical train ride. With six minutes to go things begin to quieten down and we hear a section very similar to parts of ‘Rubycon' with a double lead line. By eighteen minutes all sequences have disappeared and a quiet ‘Rubycon Part II' style passage ends with liquid sounds. If the first track is strongly reminiscent of Tangerine Dream then tracks two and four sound remarkably like Edgar Froese's ‘Ages' album. ‘Hanging Garden Transfer’ begins with a bass sequence to which further sequences are added. This is intertwined with a melody line sticking closely to the sequencer line. Overlaid keyboards gradually build to add to the polyrhythmic sequences and the whole thing is topped off with a great melody line. This part sounds like TD but paradoxically at the same time it doesn't! The piece then gradually fades out in much the same way as it began. Track three is ‘Voices of Where’, a slow piece with a strong Philip Glass feel to it. It can best be described as a faster version of some of the passages from ‘Zeit'. High pitched warblings herald the start of repeated, layered, backwards voices - very, very strange. This leads into ‘Sun and Moon’, co-written with Micky Duwe. A short introduction, then into a great simple sequencer line very similar to Froese's ‘Children's Deeper Study'. A pretty melody line is repeated through instruments of different voices and colours. There is strong development here. The final section has a hint of Mike Oldfield before an abrupt ending. Quite simply, a classic synth album. No serious EM fan should be without a copy. (Mike Smith)

Second Opinion

Fully agree with Mike’s summary of this great album. Only thing I’d like to emphasise is how much fans of sequencer epics in mode of ‘Rubycon’ will enjoy this. Especially on the opening track, the sequencing is great. (GG)

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