Günter Schickert - Kinder In Der Wildnis (2013 remaster, orig. rel. 1983)

Like Cluster & Farnbauer from just over a week ago, on its original release this album was another great krautrock score for the British tape label York House Records.  Günter Schickert might not have been from the recognised top tier of the genre like Cluster were, but he was still an important figure and remains active.

Schichkert's first two albums offered his own twist on the Göttsching/Pinhas/Reichel echo-guitar sound.  This one is a fair bit looser and more eclectic, which comes from the circumstances of its compiling.  In the early 80s, Alan & Steve Freeman (they of the Audion magazine and Crack In The Cosmic Egg reference guide) sought out Schickert and discovered he had a tape archive ripe for digging, and secured the release of some of the material through YHR.

There's still a decent amount of echo-guitaring threaded through Kinder In Der Wildnis, especially as the album progresses and the vocals thin out.  The main mode of expression, however, is a fuzzed-up, almost punkish rush reminiscent of Klaus Dinger's later music at its most garagey.  The tracks still stretch out to an average of about five minutes, allowing plenty of Schickert's guitar work room to shine - especially on the longest track Rabe In Der Nacht.  In keeping with the Dinger comparisons, there's also dropped-in tapes of ambient sounds, from birdsong to children and firework celebrations.  Some of the latter are a later addition to this Bureau B edition of the album, which had to be remixed from the ground up as the original mastertapes weren't useable.  This has the interesting a-historical effect of having celebratory sounds both from West Berlin in 1980, and from the reunified Germany a decade later.

Original cassette cover, 1983

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