Cravinkel-Garden Of Loneliness (1971)

Officially categorized as krautrock, Cravinkel were actually a band closer to the sounds of acid folk and American country rock than to the experimentation and mystical avant-garde of their contemporary German bands in the same movement. Formed in the late sixties, the band consisted of Gerd Kravinkel (guitar), Rolf Kaiser (bass and vocals), George Haupt (drums), and Klaus Meier (guitar and vocals). Their first album, released in 1970, is a peculiar experiment in opaque psychedelic folk, fused with bucolic atmospheres and melodic rock. The solid melodies contrast with distorted guitars, emotive vocals, and a sense of melancholy. Songs like the appealing country-rock tracks "Candlelight", "Lonesome Road", and "Hidden Love", along with pastoral and nostalgic pieces like "Two Circles", are the highlights of this debut album. A year later came the second and epitaph of this dark group, "Garden Of Loneliness", which unlike the calm and peaceful debut, shows a more raw and ordinary facet with approaches to standard hard rock with subtle progressive elements as is evident in the energetic song that gives the album its title or in "Stoned", a tour de force of heavy and resounding heavy rock.