(KrautRock Electronic) Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland 1978 - 1978, FLAC (tracks+.cue)

Michael Hoenig is a German synth/electronic composer who started his career in the "cosmic" krautrock classic Agitation Free. He joined the band in 1971 thanks to Michael Gunter. Hoenig notably provided the electronic treatments, spacey and hypnosis synth sounds on "Malesch" (1972) and "second" (1973). His most important contribution in Agitation Free remains in "last" (live, 1974) for the monumental "beatific" electronics and rumbling drones. In march 1975, Hoenig was hired to replace Peter Baumann in Tangerine Dream for an Australian tour and BBC recorded London Royal Albert Hall concert. After his short appearance in Tangerine Dream, Hoenig released two solo albums: Departure From The Northern Wasteland (1978) and Xcept One (1987). Considered as a little classic the first one reveals strong connexions with Tangerine Dream’s typical synth arpeggios and abstract atmospheres.

Michael Hoenig, the keyboardist from the legendary krautrock German band Agitation Free does a great job in this album with his synthesizers and keyboards. The overall sound is very close to Tangerine Dream works from the late seventies.

Departure From the Northern Wasteland is an electronic progressive song filled with sequencers and synthesizers. Good melodies provided by synthesizers (although not listed) like Arp Solina Strings, Moog, Mellotron, etc. There are different moods and melodies through the lenghty song. There are some guitars too, though the song is synthesizer dominated.

Hanging Garden Transfer is another lenghty song much in the same vein of the title song, with great harmonies and good use of sequencers. Voices Of Where is the different song here, because it contains some processed vocal arrangements, creating a somewhat psychedelic effect, with some backward voices. Sun And Moon is a short and beautiful song with good synthesizer harmonies and melodies over the main sequencer rhythm base.

Overall the sound is as good as the other great progressive electronic albuns from the seventies. If you like them, go for this album. Unfortunately Michael Hoenig didn?t follow his career and didn?t release more progressive electronic albuns like this one.

Let's go straight to the point: If you are fond of mid 70s Tangerine Dream, you will enjoy for sure this album. Departure From The Northern Wasteland is crafted in the same stone than Ricochet and Encore, minus the guitars. With this record, Michael Hoenig offers beautiful, contemplative and inspired electronic music dispatched in four pieces, mostly instrumental.

The title track is undoubtly the highlight of the disc. Perfectly sequenced, synthetizers' themes evolve slowly and superposing mellotron waves reveal magic and crystalline landscapes. The song fades away softly during its final part. The tune could have well figured on a Tangerine Dream release. The next track, Hanging Garden Transfer, displays a much faster, colder and more robotic sound. There are truely very trippy and catchy passages in it. Voices Of Where arrives as a surprise, as it features no rythm and hardly no sequencing at all, mainly mellotron and backing vocals. The tune is relaxing but is also the weakest of the album, as it tends to be repetitive by moments. This is easily catched up with the ending track, Sun And Moon, which brings the sequencer back. It is at first glance reminiscent of Ashra's New Age Of Earth. Then keyboards become more energic to offer a quite enchanting and spacey futuristic conclusion.

EAC extraction logfile from 12. February 2008, 12:54 for CD
Michael Hoenig / Departure From The Northern Wasteland

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVD-RW GSA-H11N Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 0
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : C:\Users\Pepe\Downloads\Flac\flac-1.1.4-win\bin\flac.exe (User Defined Encoder)
192 kBit/s
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Track 1
Filename C:\Users\Pepe\Music\Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland\01 - Departure From The Northern Wasteland.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 66.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 375653AE
Copy CRC 375653AE
Copy OK

Track 2
Filename C:\Users\Pepe\Music\Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland\02 - Hanging Garden Transfer.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:07.48

Peak level 56.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FD5702C9
Copy CRC FD5702C9
Copy OK

Track 3
Filename C:\Users\Pepe\Music\Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland\03 - Voices of Where.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:05.53

Peak level 34.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E4641EDF
Copy CRC E4641EDF
Copy OK

Track 4
Filename C:\Users\Pepe\Music\Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland\04 - Sun and Moon.wav

Peak level 45.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 3289B80E
Copy CRC 3289B80E
Copy OK

No errors occured

End of status report

------------------------------------------------------------

EAC extraction logfile from 12. February 2008, 12:54 for CD
Michael Hoenig / Departure From The Northern Wasteland

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVD-RW GSA-H11N Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 0
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : C:\Users\Pepe\Downloads\Flac\flac-1.1.4-win\bin\flac.exe (User Defined Encoder)
192 kBit/s
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Track 1
Filename C:\Users\Pepe\Music\Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland\01 - Departure From The Northern Wasteland.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 66.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 375653AE
Copy CRC 375653AE
Copy OK

Track 2
Filename C:\Users\Pepe\Music\Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland\02 - Hanging Garden Transfer.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:07.48

Peak level 56.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FD5702C9
Copy CRC FD5702C9
Copy OK

Track 3
Filename C:\Users\Pepe\Music\Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland\03 - Voices of Where.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:05.53

Peak level 34.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E4641EDF
Copy CRC E4641EDF
Copy OK

Track 4
Filename C:\Users\Pepe\Music\Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland\04 - Sun and Moon.wav

Peak level 45.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 3289B80E
Copy CRC 3289B80E
Copy OK

No errors occured

End of status report