Gulaab - Ritt Durch Den Hades

Ultra-rare lost psychedelic Kraut-folk from 1979. First time on CD and LP. Taken from the original master tapes. "Gulaab" means "rose" in the Nepalese language. Gulaab is a German virtuoso on the acoustic guitar who served three years as an after-dinner musician in a luxury restaurant in Nepal, playing for an amazing number of well-known personalities of the 20th century during the early '70s. This was a strongly-influential experience that shaped his musical expression big-time, but also let him become an open-minded spirit. Ritt durch den Hades is the result of his experimentation with sounds, atmospheres and a multitude of styles in traditional music from Latin to Eastern Asian elements. It was first released in 1979, vanishing into obscurity soon after, waiting to be rediscovered by a more open-minded generation of music lovers now. Traditionalists be forewarned: This mystic grail of '70s "Kraut folk" stands far out from the average folk and singer/songwriter stuff, combining guitar harmonies of the highest order with a cosmic drone that backs up the hypnotizing picking and trippy swirls of sounds. This album is in fact more like a musical journey than just a piece of music, taking you from secret sacrificial altars in the Andes to the ceremonial places of the ancient Himalayan population with a short stopover for a little "joint venture" in the musical space-centers of highly flown-out German originators like Ash Ra Tempel/Manuel Gottsching, Popul Vuh/Florian Fricke, Witthusser & Westrupp, Broselmaschine, Dom or Deuter. Now take a ride through Hades with Gulaab.