15.05.2008.
Ahora Mazda - Ahora Mazda (1970) (@256)
(Review from progarchives.com)
This delightful Dutch band had its roots in 1965, a band called Free Art Group. This band played music, mostly inspired by classic and avant-garde jazz musicians. In 1968, Tony Schreuder joined the other three from the Free Art Group in bass and Peter Abbink switched to guitar. At first they named themselves Group 67/68, eventually settling for Ahora Mazda -- a corrupt version of the chief deity of Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda. (Zarathustra religion is also called "Mazdaizm").
Their music is a reflection of the "spacy" music in Netherlands, yet, they owe more to the cosmic music scene of Germany than the symphonic approach of their fellow countrymen such as Focus, Kayak and Finch. The band was known for their long jam sessions, but they recorded shorter and more arranged songs for their self-titled debut (and only) album. The sessions only took three days.
This album is a really fabulous psychedelic nugget from the land of the flowers and the windmills. It combines both more close-to-earth flute fronted bluesy jazz rock in style of German Rufus Zuphall and free freak-out improvisational soundscapes with some really cool jazz styled saxophones.
These elements are presented in the funny opening track "Spacy Tracy", telling us a tale of a girl intetrested in the psychedelic way of life, starting as a mellow groovy rocker later morphing as completelly free improvisation. "Timeless Dream" is then a minor key melodic tune, having sadly a quite disturbing fade-out ending taking place in the middle of the song! The two following about eight minutes long songs combine again the freefrom improvs and nice themes, featuring some very good jazz saxophone tunes and also some really good raw electric guitar solos in style of Jimi Hendrix and Manuel Gottsching. "Power" is one of the few mostly constructed songs, containing really weird and scary effects used in the singing verse, creating a very mysterious overall feeling.
The last five bonus tracks are a bunch of excerpts from the band's collective jazz improvisations, which sound sometimes resemble the primitive passages of Syd Barret's "Lanky", sometimse the cosmic electronic soundwalls of Hawkwind, and sometimes as the ethnic perscussion gear swithces on with the saxophone, Miles Davis' "Bitched Brew" could be another association. Sadly the excerpts are only cuts, varying in length from under two minutes to over four.
During the next year, Tony Schreuder and Winky Abbink had problems playing and rehearsing -- at concerts they needed the help of substitute musicians. The lack of atmosphere that came with the substitutes led the band to dissolve.
Line-up :
- Peter Abbink / guitar, vocals, piano, trumpet, organ
- Rob van Wageningen / flute, saxophone, vocals, percussion, kalimba
- Tony Schreuder / bass, percussion
- Winky Abbink / drums
with
- Rik Lina / tabla (6)
Track List :
01. Spacy Tracy - 8:31
02. Timeless Dream - 3:35
03. Oranje Vrijstraat - 7:32
04. Fallen Tree - 9:16
05. Power - 6:50
06. Fantasio - 5:25
07. Vybral Stroll (Bonus) - 2:00
08. Nosy Noise (Bonus) - 3:08
09. Huppo Jaw (Bonus) - 1:57
10. Pushy (Bonus) - 4:44
11. Try To Forget (Bonus) - 2:59
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