Before the self-assured, enlightened Chaitanya Hari Deuter there was a rather timid Georg “Schorsch” Deuter. The embryonic version of the New Age musician to come is still a bit uneasy looking on the back cover of his adventurous first one – and on the front cover he’s even avoiding eye-contact! But despite the little-bunny-in-the-pit-look Deuter’s musical debut is a brave one.
Released in 1971 by Munich Kuckuck label “D” is a restless and highly eclectic mix of sounds. Bells, flute, guitar, synthesizers, various kinds of percussion and samples of doves and street noise can be heard, for example. The record’s bursting of ideas, a glorious mash-up of maybe everything that needed to find a way out of Georg Deuter’s head at that time.
Compared to the music he dedicated to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh “D” is made more in the spirit of early Amon Düül: slightly amateurish but fearless and joyful forays into sonic outer limits. On “Babylon”, the first track, there are tape-recorder experiments next to guitar explosions, while “Der Turm/Fluchtpunkt” features a wild cymbals & bongo ride. And track three – a sitar (or something that sounds like a sitar) piece – is titled “Krishna Eating Fish And Chips”… – this surreal humour was already gone by the time Deuter recorded “Aum”.
“Aum” is full of sweet tunes, too and I like quite a bit of Deuter’s later recordings but “D” is maybe Deuter’s best record because the music just serves itself and not some religious purpose. “D” is a fine example of how music can go in every possible direction. There are no mindcuffs and there is no religious dogma attached. It’s music from and for the young at heart. Forty years on it’s still a charming record.
Review by Holger Adam
