Obscure Stylings

Although the English is a bit difficult to follow on the Black Rills Records web site regarding this release, I take it that the original master tapes of this session were lost, which I assume means it had to be remastered from one of the 200 original LP pressings. If so, they did a really clean job, I can't hear any surface noise on this CD at all. The original recording had obvious problems too, you can clearly hear the microphones being overloaded from the sound pressure levels, plus the "breathing" of limiters coming in and out in odd spots.
But what's important is the music ... and what I can hear here is a blast of previously unknown instrumental progressive innovation and experimentation from the past ... from three Swiss musicians of all things! Personally, I never thought of Switzerland as a hotbed of progressive activity, though the latest releases from Black Rills, who specialize in re-releases of old Swiss progressive bands, are beginning to change my mind about this.
Kedama must have just been kids at the time, a Swiss progressive garage band who couldn't afford studio time to record like the "big boys". Reading between the lines, they found a guy who was just building a studio to record them, but he was on a shoestring budget himself. Hence, "Live at Sunrise Studios", they recorded this live with a stereo pair of microphones direct to stereo tape. No mistakes allowed, no overdubs. As any musician can tell you, this is a gruelling way to record. So you'll have to forgive the odd squeak from chairs and clicks from pedals moving ... considering the recording technique, this performance is awesome.
The band consists of keyboardist Richard Rothenberger who plays heavily distorted Hammond, Mellotron, some sort of electric piano, and a Minimoog which of course had to be programmed on the fly by turning knobs, guitarist Christian Linder who also occasionally plays sitar, and drummer Peter Suder who also plays other percussion including tablas. The sound is slightly reminiscent of ELP, but only because of the distorted Hammond. Musically, it's more like Todd Rundgren's Utopia of the same era, though more avant-garde. There are also some mellow sections where the Mellotron reminds of King Crimson circa Court of the Crimson King. But to be honest, none of these comparisons captures the essence of Kedama's sound very well. They really had a very unique style. The first album sounds very improvised, while the second one sounds a bit more carefully composed, and therefore is a bit more complex, though it still with lots of space for improv. The studio technique is noticably better for the second album too.