Sunday 26 January 2020

Edwin Sadowski's Saitentriebe from 1987 with Toto Blanke





Of course as I've mentioned before, the Toto Blanke oeuvre never ceases to be of interest, even in the late year of 1987, 'barely' 32 years ago, 'long before' the internet destroyed the music industry, before the smartphone destroyed our attention spans.  On this GDR release it's the guitarist Edwin Sadowski though who is the mastermind composer, arranger, and all-round brilliant flame (see the credits here).  Although the set only comprises the three musicians (percussionist Schneider rounds them out and straightens them out too I might add), it sounds like a whole lot of other people are in there thanks to the brilliant guitar-synthesizer add-ons of the side-long, ST b side, which, to me, totally pushes it over the edge from excellent to unforgettable.  Here we have what amounts to an entire movie's worth of drama and atmosphere, cinema noir of course, full of original scenes and interplays between electric guitars of constantly varying timbres and effects.  In terms of points of comparison perhaps the most similar albums are from Eastern Europe, like the Pavlicek/Kocab Black Light album, or the better known 1991 Russian Sepsis Liturgy of Madness.

Because it's so long though I have to content you with a shorter track, a Tango to Sylvia which also plays up some really untango-esque harmonies:





Note how although it clearly ends as a two-guitar tango thankfully without percussion, it 'playfully' starts off with an atonal fugue-like introduction.

I have to wonder if maybe there are other brilliant albums by Sadowski hidden from the database still waiting to be discovered out there.


3 comments:



  1. https://www96.zippyshare.com/v/qQWNcM1I/file.html

    https://www.sendspace.com/file/vcjx83

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  2. any chance you have this:
    Osiris Featuring Toto Blanke & Charlie Mariano

    https://www.discogs.com/Osiris-24-Featuring-Toto-Blanke-Charlie-Mariano-Osiris-Featuring-Toto-Blanke-Charlie-Mariano/release/4217027

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  3. Fascinating!
    Especially that last track - wowzers!!!
    A haunting ghost jam, stretching across an enormous vista....
    ...a long distance call, building like storm clouds,
    then dispersing back to the Spirit Road, lights on the horizon,
    as the past recedes in the distance...
    ...among etheric twilight whisperings...
    Thank you bro

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