Ejwuusl Wessahqqan

Formed 1971

A German trio who supposedly took their bizarre name from the fanstasy/horror writer Clark Ashton Smith. Some of their music would make the perfect accompaniment to his strange fiction. This was a guitar-less, instrumental trio. Though they do make use of a unique, 7 stringed instrument called a "filouphon" to create an eastern sound. Their rare, privately pressed album featured 4 tracks. The first is classically oriented, with lots of bombastic organ, crashing drums and tolling bass. The great distorted organ sound recalls some of the jams that Deep Purple's Jon Lord coaxed from "the beast" on such live favorites as "Space Truckin'". Track 2 features the filouphon and is a droning, hypnotic piece of dissonant weirdness which might have your neighbors wondering about your sanity. The third piece is the only song under ten minutes and returns to classical structures featuring piano. The final track is the longest space rock drive - with squawking, distorted organ and classical and ethnic motifs that give way to weird pulses and drones. This manages to convey a voyage through space and time, though at 16 min.+ maybe taking too much space and time to convey it. The CD reissue features 2 more tracks by Ejwuusl in a similar style as well as 2 tracks by a later incarnation as the band Koala-Bar. These last 2 are lighter and more symphonic, with updated instrumentation. The first features english vocals. A raw, but inventive instrumental krautrock obscurity. This style can get monotonous in spots. If you can live with that and you like weird krautrock they are worth investigating.