WALLENSTEIN – Mother Universe (1972-1993) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Wallenstein was a German progressive symphonic rock band formed in 1971 in Viersen in Lower Rhineland, later based in Monchengladbach. Wallenstein was very active during its life releasing nine studio albums. It was disbanded in 1982.

Wallenstein was one of Germany's best known "space rock" progressive bands, clearly indebted to Pink Floyd but also developing a very personal style of their own. Jurgen Dollase founded the group Blitzkrieg as an international group with Bill Barone from the USA, Jerry Berkers from the Netherlands and Harald Grosskopf from Germany. Dollase had previously studied art and classical music. In the Autumn of 1971 Blitzkrieg had the repertoire ready for an album, but as a British group already was using the name Blitzkrieg, the German band changed their name to Wallenstein and kept "Blitzkrieg" as the title of their debut studio album. This featured four very long tracks in a symphonic progressive rock style, all written by Dollase. It's almost a completely instrumental album. This is a dense, complex and powerful stuff.

"Mother Universe" is the second studio album of Wallenstein and was released in 1972. The art cover of the album pictured Dollase's grandma acting as the grandmother of our universe. Musically this was a more dynamic album than the previous one, introducing some quieter folky passages with acoustic guitar between the more usual powerful and pompous electric guitar work and the organ outbursts. Jerry Berkers wanted to do more of these folky things, and quit Wallenstein to record his own solo album "Unterwegs", which I musically find to be in a rather dull singer and songwriter tradition. After Dollase and Grosskopf had taken part in the large scale projects Lord Krishna von Goloka, Tarot and the Cosmic Jokers sessions, they recorded their third studio album "Cosmic Century" in 1973. This album brought another change of style, clearly influenced by Dollase's recent "cosmic" experiences. It was marketed as the first album by the "The Symphonic Rock Orchestra Wallenstein". It consisted of five refined symphonic rock tracks and a short piano piece. Dollase's strained vocal parts lowered the overall standard of this album, but apart from this the music was good. progarchives
Tracklist :
1    Mother Universe    8:30
2    Braintrain    8:33
3    Shakespearesque    4:20
4    Dedicated To Mystery Land    7:48
5    Relics Of Past    6:18
6    Golden Antenna    4:15
Credits :    
Bass, Lead Vocals [Leadvocals] – Jerry Berkers
Drums, Percussion – Harald Großkopf
Guitar [Guitars], Vocals – Bill Barone
Keyboards, Lead Vocals [Leadvocals] – Jürgen Dollase
Music By, Lyrics By [Text Von] – Jürgen Dollase