Langsyne - Langsyne (Very Good German Prog-Rock 1976)

This album is a validation of the notion that less can, indeed, be more. Recorded in 1976, just as the progressive rock era had passed its peak, it never got the attention it should have earned from fans of Amazing Blondel, the Strawbs, Jethro Tull, or Fairport Convention. The quietly, elegantly harmonized vocals and interlocked acoustic guitars that run throughout this record, ornamented with some flute, banjo, koto, and sitar, among other instruments, are not only hauntingly beautiful but memorable in a way that many louder bands never quite achieved. The lyricism just pours out of the performances and the music, and this trio laces its folk preferences with elements of Orientalism and other exotic attributes. Listening to this record (which was re-released on CD in the 1990s) today, while luxuriating in the music, one must get past the sad thought that this group never cut another album. If there was ever one failed prog rock group that deserved better, this was it.
1. Medina (Frose)
2. Morning (Frose)
3. Changing (Nahle)
4. Cynghanedd (Nahle/Frose)
5. A Very Sarcastic Song (Frose)
6. Carnivore (Frose)
7. Mignon (Nahle)
bonus track
8. Lady Mary

Egbert Frose : gitarre, orgel, psalter, koto, maultrommel,
sitar, quintengitarre, sologitarre, gesang
Matthias Mertler : gitarre, glockenspiel, percussion, psalter,
banjo, sologitarre, basspedal, gesang
Ulrich Nahle : sologitarre, flote, slidegitarre, glockenspiel,
percussion, glocke, gesang

AMG Review by Bruce Eder