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.

Lajos Dudas with the great Toto Blanke in Sunshine State from 1985

I couldn't avoid buying this one when I saw the involvement of the great Toto Blanke, much mentioned here before.  He contributed one composition called Que tal Carlos and otherwise seems quite self-effacing, in fact that would apply as a description of his track.  Keyboardist Ernst Hartmann contributed 2 songs both kinda humdrum, with the remainder penned by the leader, clarinetist Dudas, whose brief discogs bio reads

Hungarian jazz clarinetist, born 18 February 1941 in Budapest, Hungary.

Despite the title the songs reference West Coast places incl. the famous and beautiful Pacific Highway, which I have yet to have the fortune to see:

Toto Blanke Compleat from 1975 to 1984

In a period of under a decade this astonishing guitarist annually made a series of masterpieces in the style of progressive fusion.  Some people out there might not have all of them, in particular, the last 1983 LP is worth hearing though it will inevitably disappoint in terms of its pandering to the latin and simplistic influences that affected all of fusion and jazz come the eighties.

In the beginning of course he was with the group Association P.C. (named for Dutch Pierre Courbois, the percussionist).  All those records are well worth hearing.  Following this he set out on his own with Spiders Dance which was quite reminiscent of the earlier band.  (Note the first track adorably called Lady's Bicycle Seat Sniffer.) The next album created the name Electric Circus and introduced the synthesizer for playing lyrical melodies to excellent effect.  Subsequently here the discography uses the EC term for another genius album, the one called Friends with Stu Goldberg (on keyboards).  The 1980 live album called Family was to me disappointing, with the sidelong jam Bolero being way too uninspired and what is worse, a crime for me in staying in the key of E throughout.  Note that 1978's Tales of Tomorrow was played almost entirely by Toto.  For me this is his masterpiece.  In the 1980s he switched back to acoustic guitar with a couple of guitar duet albums, the first with Rudolf Dasek, the second (Somewhere in Time) with himself.  That album I reviewed here:

When my wife saw it in the mail she actually said, "Is that another Toto Blanke?"
Alas-- when I looked at her, the grin on her face made it clear: a name she had heard me say many times before, had become a very dry kind of joke...  In 1969 legendary belgian percussionist and jazz bandleader Pierre Courbois founded the first European 'Rock-Jazz' group, Association P.C.. This famous ensemble, winner of the Down Beat Poll, existed until 1975 with Toto Blanke, Sigi Busch, different key-boarders, including Jasper van 't Hof, Joachim Kühn and Sigi Kessler.

Finally as mentioned above, the last 1983 album Belladonna inevitably disappointed.  Notwithstanding I prepared a new stereo rip as the previous one was in  mono.

So there you are, eight albums total.