(krautrock) Wallenstein - Stories, Songs & Symphonies (1975) - 1993, FLAC (tracks+.cue)

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

EAC extraction logfile from 13. February 2009, 18:10

Wallenstein / Stories, Songs & Symphonies

Used drive : TSSTcorpCD-R/RW SH-R522C Adapter: 2 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : No
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Not detected, thus appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 320 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %s -o %d

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.30 | 4:19.54 | 30 | 19508
2 | 4:20.09 | 9:53.63 | 19509 | 64046
3 | 14:13.72 | 6:06.15 | 64047 | 91511
4 | 20:20.12 | 11:26.73 | 91512 | 143034
5 | 31:47.10 | 6:05.03 | 143035 | 170412

Track 1

Filename D:\Common Files\01 - The Priestess.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 272EB74A
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename D:\Common Files\02 - Stories, Songs & Symphonies.wav

Peak level 96.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 3D7B5643
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename D:\Common Files\03 - The Banner.wav

Peak level 96.4 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC A6CDAFC3
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename D:\Common Files\04 - Your Lunar Friends.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 032B7E45
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename D:\Common Files\05 - Sympathy for Bela Bartok (Parts I, II and III).wav

Peak level 94.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 035A58FF
Copy OK

No errors occurred

End of status report

Formed in Mönchengladbach by classically trained art student Jürgen Dollase in autumn 1971 as Blitzkrieg, with an international cast of: American Bill Barone, Dutchman Jerry Berkers, and local friend Harald Grosskopf. After only a couple of concerts, they were quickly spotted and eagerly signed up by Pilz. But, there proved to be a problem, also touring Germany at the time was a British band called Blitzkrieg, so a change of name was needed. They decided on Wallenstein, a notorious character of the Thirty Years War.
Remarkable for a band that had only existed a month or so, Wallenstein's debut album BLITZKRIEG certainly lived up to its title, a power-drive of psychedelic classical rock, overloaded with energy. The opening track "Lunatic" has the energy of High Tide crossed with the complexity of the finest Italian classical rock. Not unlike Mythos' Stephan Kaske, Jürgen Dollase had a similarly strong accented Peter Hammill style of singing, which lead to Wallenstein often being quoted as a German classical twist on Van Der Graaf Generator. But there was more to Wallenstein than that! With MOTHER UNIVERSE, it was big mood-change time, as Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser attempted to mould Wallenstein as a folk band (a strange idea) and so Jerry Berkers took the reigns for much of the album. It added up to a weird concoction that drew in many styles, sometimes comparable to Dutch legend Supersister. An awkward album, and thus it takes quite a bit of effort to really appreciate it. Obviously, Kaiser was impressed by Jerry Berkers uniquely folky angle, and thus he went solo.
Without Berkers, Wallenstein again returned to the control of Dollase, with a return to classical rock, but not heavy as on BLITZKRIEG, as Kaiser now wanted them to play cosmic music! You see, Jürgen Dollase and Harald Grosskopf had been jamming with Klaus Schulze and Manuel Göttsching for what became The Cosmic Jokers series. The influence of this obviously rubbed off, and so, Wallenstein becoming cosmic, meant a shift sideways to Pink Floyd stylisms. Mix this with the symphonic blend of Jürgen's keyboards and newcomer Joachim Reiser's violin, and a new Wallenstein sound resulted. COSMIC CENTURY was quite a remarkable album, and it set the trend for STORIES, SONGS & SYMPHONIES, credited to "The Symphonic Rock Orchestra Wallenstein" which developed this style on a lighter footing, featuring new bassist Jürgen Pluta.
Away from Kaiser's guidance however, after signing to RCA, Wallenstein soon started to pale. Harald Grosskopf had left to work with Ashra and Klaus Schulze, and the only member to continue on with Dollase was Pluta. As such, NO MORE LOVE offered a heavier rock style, still with some uniquely Wallenstein touches, generally very good, but lacking the creativity that made the earlier albums special. This was the end of Wallenstein the Krautrock band.
Being with RCA obviously wasn't such a bright move either, as they wanted a pop band. But, it seems that the money incentive was too enticing, and Dollase was quite an able pop song writer. Kim Merz, a Sting styled vocalist was drafted-in, and thus Wallenstein totally reinvented themselves, with little resemblance to anything before, excepting a slight classical angle. These albums are just pop music, getting less interesting with each release. ~ The Crack In The Cosmic Egg by Freeman bros.