Nine Days´Wonder-Nine Days´Wonder (1971)

The story of the band Nine Days' Wonder began in late 1966, when its founder, Walter Seyffer, started developing a project, working on a series of original compositions that would become part of the repertoire of his band, The Graves. However, it wasn't until three years later that this idea began to take shape with a defined style. Seyffer was a German singer and drummer who had been part of different bands throughout the 1960s, and it wasn't until early 1970 that he finally managed to establish a stable and definitive lineup, forming Nine Days' Wonder. By the middle of that year, he had completed the group's lineup, composed of musicians of various nationalities. Seyffer was accompanied by German Rolf Henning on piano and guitar, Irishman John Earle on saxophone, flute, guitar, and vocals, Austrian Karl Mutschlechner on bass, and Briton Martin Roscoe on drums. All these musicians began working together to create an experimental style, based on a fusion of different elements and diverse influences converging essentially on krautrock, with a marked influence from Frank Zappa and the British progressive rock of the time. In 1971, they entered Dierks Studios and recorded their debut album, a prime example of the most extravagant and unusual German progressive rock ever recorded, clearly inspired by bands like King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Soft Machine, Traffic, Family, and Deep Purple, among many others. This fusion of styles is reflected in an album that features long and complex compositions of progressive music, jazz-rock, frenetic sounds, extravagant music, heavy blues-rock riffs, and avant-garde sounds. All of this is grounded in astonishing creative freedom, with altered vocals, psychedelic touches, sound effects, noise, and many moments of total musical frenzy. This debut album comprises four lengthy tracks, ranging from 12 to 15 minutes in length, beginning with "Fermillion", which, in a Monty Python-esque style, showcases the band's madness, dynamism, experimentation, and superb progressive instrumentation. This is followed by the intense "Moss Had Come", the humorous "Apple Tree", and the avant-garde and spacey "Drag Dilemma", undoubtedly the standout track on an outstanding and simultaneously schizophrenic album. It's worth noting that, unlike conventional progressive rock, there are no organs, mellotrons, or even synthesizers here three of the essential instruments of progressive rock which are replaced by the formidable interplay between wind instruments and guitars. In short, an album with some of the most unsettling music of the early 70s, combining the deranged sounds of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, medieval and chamber music, and the powerful sensations of hard rock.