Saturday 19 October 2013

Wisse Scheper - Topaz (Net, 1972)


This is a very beautiful album of composed songs with the additon of chamber instruments.  I'm surprised it hasn't been released to CD considering its great beauty.  It recalls a bit the 1975 "Oh My Love" album of Thijs Van Leer.  You can see it's relatively easy and cheap to obtain here.

Here is a straightforward review from rateyourmusic credited to horus in monoxyde:
Cool and obscure dutch early 70's pop/singer-songwriter album produced by jazz flautist Chris Hinze. Wisse Scheper is the main composer, lead singer and he plays a plethora of instruments too, and Topaz is actually the backing band's name. It *could* have been dreadful really, the kind of bland and melodramatic SSW stuff that was so common in the early 70's, but Hinze's background in jazz fusion ensures that unusual sounds, nice instrumental breaks and all sorts of cool little touches abound. Unfortunately, there are also some irritating vocal mannerisms too (ie : Our love will be strong..). Songwise, this falls between a poppier Peter Hammill and Bowie circa Hunky Dory maybe. Not bad at all on the whole - better than you would expect anyway. Wonderful cover art too, simple yet brilliant. You'd be forgiven for thinking that this is actually some lost psychedelic masterpiece, or weird German jazz fusion upon seeing that cover for the first time. This is anything but - yet it's quite nice for what it is. (PS : I forgot to mention this, but Scheper does sing in english by the way)

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