Tarot (Remastered) Walter Wegmüller (feat. Jürgen Dollase, Dieter Dierks, Hartmut Enke, Manuel Göttsching, Klaus Schulze, Harald Grosskopf, Jerry Berkers)

• 1 Der Narr (Remastered) 03:55
• 2 Der Magier (Remastered) 04:39
• 3 Die Hohepriesterin (Remastered) 04:17
• 4 Die Herrscherin (Remastered) 04:16
• 5 Der Herrscher (Remastered) 02:58
• 6 Der Hohepriester (Remastered) 03:11
• 7 Die Entscheidung (Remastered) 03:52
• 8 Der Wagen (Remastered) 05:16
• 9 Die Gerechtigkeit (Remastered) 03:01
• 10 Der Weise (Remastered) 04:02
• 11 Das Glücksrad (Remastered) 03:37
• 12 Die Kraft (Remastered) 03:27
• 13 Die Prüfung (Remastered) 04:57
• 14 Der Tod (Remastered) 01:16
• 15 Die Mässigkeit (Remastered) 04:45
• 16 Der Teufel (Remastered) 03:36
• 17 Die Zerstörung (Remastered) 04:02
• 18 Die Sterne (Remastered) 06:14
• 19 Der Mond (Remastered) 02:49
• 20 Die Sonne (Remastered) 03:03
• 21 Das Gericht (Remastered) 02:04
• 22 Die Welt (Remastered) 08:40
• Total Runtime 01:27:57

Info for Tarot (Remastered)

“Walter Wegmüller wasn’t actually a musician, but rather a mystic, artist and eccentric. Some of the cream of cosmic Krautrock backed him up on his one album, Tarot, which is generally considered a masterpiece. This Swiss Gypsy was well known in the late ’60s, where he hung out with Sergius Golowin and visual artist H.R. Giger, and in the early 1970s, Timothy Leary, on the run from the American authorities, hung out with them as well. At this time Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, rock journalist and head of Ohr Records, decided to start a new label, Kosmische Musik, to release more cosmic sounds, with the idea of having various visionaries on vocals, which soon lead him to Switzerland. After recording the first of these albums, Seven Up, which paired Ash Ra Tempel with Leary in autumn 1972, work began on the second and third records, by Golowin and Wegmüller. By now Kaiser had gathered a stable of musicians, which included Ash Ra Tempel and Wallenstein, to work on these various projects as the Cosmic Couriers.

As Wegmüller had been working on a set of handmade tarot cards over several years since 1968, at the suggestion of Leary he decided to do an album based on the tarot deck. The project started in Switzerland in late 1972, again with Ash Ra Tempel as backing musicians, when Wegmüller suddenly decided there should be a track for each of the 22 cards of the major arcana. Kaiser, becoming more impressed in the project, flew Wegmüller and Ash Ra Tempel to Germany, to add more musicians into the stew. The band Wallenstein and keyboardist Klaus Schulze had just finished the Golowin project, so they joined Manuel Gottsching and Hartmut Enke of Ash Ra Tempel, as well as Walter Westrüpp from the duo Witthuser-Westrüpp, on the Tarot lineup to create a cosmic Krautrock super-group.

The Tarot sessions were recorded in December of 1972 in Dieter Dierk’s studios in Stommeln near Cologne. During one of the sessions, Gottsching, Enke, and Schulze, were waiting for the other musicians to arrive, and decided to record an album. Schulze had left Ash Ra Tempel in early 1971, after their first album, so the record, Join Inn, found that band with their original lineup, with the addition of some spoken vocals from Gottsching’s girlfriend, Rosi Muller, who also provided backup vocals on Tarot.”

"This massive double album is cosmic Krautrock at its finest hour, as visionary Walter Wegmuller leads a tour through the entire major arcane of the Tarot deck while the Cosmic Couriers -- basically Ash Ra Tempel, Wallenstein, and whoever else producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser could rope in -- create a remarkable soundtrack encompassing space rock, folk music, funk, psychedelia, and electronic music. Wegmuller's album followed in the footsteps of Timothy Leary's Seven Up, Ash Ra Tempel, and Sergius Golowin's Lord Krishna von Goloka, backed by Wallenstein, the duo Westripp-Witthuser, and keyboardist Klaus Schulze. Tarot, with almost all these musicians on the roster, is the culmination, a bizarre roller coaster ride through sonic soundscapes, while Wegmuller intones in his deep voice, sometimes augmented by more effects, though he often remains silent for long instrumental stretches. From the opening track, a funky number with blazing guitar and rolling piano over which a circus-barker voice announces the band with grand élan, to the side four track's nonstop blast into hallucinogenic after-burn, this one is a monster all the way. Shimmering Ash Ra Tempel guitar freakouts blend with Wallenstein's more rollicking psych rock, Schulze's deep space keyboards, and Westripp's cosmic folk to create strange blitzes of electronic weirdness. This album provide an incredible pallet of styles that all seem to gel in a cohesive mass of pure mystical wonder." (Rolf Semprebon, AMG)

Walter Wegmüller, vocals
Walter Westrupp, acoustic guitar, vocals
Jerry Berkers, bass, guitar
Jürgen Dollase, keyboards
Harald Grosskopf, drums
Manuel Goettsching, guitar
Hartmut Enke, bass
Klaus Schulze, drums, electronics
Dieter Dierks, backing vocals
Rosi Müller, backing vocals

Digitally remastered

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