In searching for that psych nugget one can sometimes find themselves travelling to some odd places and certainly East Germany in the early seventies was a very strange place. The old G.D.R. ( a communist dystopia which needed to control and spy on its citizens) was the setting for 2 exceptional LPs that for some reason seem to have escaped attention of the most hardcore of collectors. Indeed Manfred Krug’s first two albums das war nur ein moment (1971) and ein hauch von frühling (1972) appear to have gone almost completely unnoticed. Maybe the fact that both albums are in German played a part in their obscurity, but also the albums musical form may well be to blame. Describing these two LPs is a difficult task – I have seen them labelled as jazz or even cosmic jazz. In reality they are an eclectic mix which encompasses jazz, schlanger, MOR, psych, pop, horn rock and even goodtime. But rather than individual songs in each genre there is a strange mix in each song which switches from one style to another in a rather breathtaking manner. Both albums are on the Amiga label and the paper sleeves are light and somewhat flimsy compared to western ones. Ein hauch von frühling (1972) is possibly the superior of the two and comes with a poster. Both appear to be available relatively cheaply. There is also a twofer cd from 1994 of the two albums that can be bought on Amazon relatively cheaply. This has very limited liners in German.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggy1ytdJYQM&list=ALBTKoXRg38BCJblk6WZURVIAVtjL7bYPw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmvRcxvwIrk

Manfred Krug on Wiki
After moving to East Germany at the age of 13, Krug worked at a steel plant before beginning his acting career on the stage and, ultimately, in film. By the end of the 1950s he had several film roles, and in 1960 he appeared in Frank Beyer's successful war movie Fünf Patronenhülsen (Five Cartridges). Many more film roles followed, with Krug often cast as a socialist hero. Krug also achieved notability as a popular jazz singer, often in collaboration with composer Guenther Fischer.
In 1976 the East German government (GDR) forbade Krug to work as an actor and singer because he participated in protests against the expulsion and stripping of GDR citizenship of Wolf Biermann. On April 20, 1977 he requested to leave the GDR and as soon as he got the approval he left the GDR and moved to Schöneberg in West Berlin.
After moving back to West Germany he very soon got new roles as an actor but very rarely sang in public for a long time. In 1978 Krug appeared as one of the male leads of the action-drama television series Auf Achse, and would continue to appear on the series until 1995, one year before the show ended its long run. Krug's various television roles even included a two-year stint on the children's program Sesamstraße, the German version of the American children's program Sesame Street. In the 1980s and 1990s, he also starred as Hauptkommissar Paul Stoever in theTatort series of TV crime movies, which would eventually run for forty installments in total.

Hiya Paul,thanks for bringing this to our attention,i got the twofer cd for just over 4 quid,waiting for its arrival,from your description is does sound rather eclectic.I'll leave a wee bit feedback on here once i get the cd and i can manage to hear it.Hey 4 quid for 2 albums aint bad at all,worth the risk of buying blind!!!!Cheers.

Yes, thanks Paul, I really liked the orch pop number you point to on Youtube, it has a certain Gary Farr quality in places with George Harrison guitar refs.. Is this indicative of the two albums you mention or an exception? I'll have to investigate.

Paul

Also Paul - where did you get the 2 x paper sleeve editions?

Paul

Hi all,

Hope ye like the two lps(cd)boys - I should have been clearer Paul, I have the original LPs I bought on Ebay. But it being the GDR the sleeves are more like what you would get in a poster than the thick cardboard you generally get in western countries. Discogs also have some of his LPs for sale-

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Manfred+Krug

Also the whole of the 1st album is up on YouTube with some rather sentimental videos and I think most of the second

Thanks Paul, I'll have a listne to those in more detail.

Paul

Like Stuart, I just ordered the 2 fer CD, I love what I've heard. I see both the original LPs are plentiful and cheap on German ebay, I may upgrade from the CD later. Thanks again for bringing Manfed to our attention Paul.

Paul

No problem Paul hope you enjoy.

I was interested in what you said its influences- to me I think there are elements of the Beatles, Procol, Tull and esp. Love is the Law era Grahame Bond. But as Stuart has said the sound is very eclectic.

I’ve just played the CD with the first two albums on and I really like it a lot. It is indeed a bit awkward to describe. Some of it sounds like Jimmy Webb, other songs are like a German Scott Walker structurally – even a bit like late 60s Johnny Haliday!. The first album especially, despite being recorded in 1972 has a 1967-8 style graphic sleeve and musically is also late 60s sounding. The second album I thought was more progressive but both are really very good. Klug has a club singer’s voice but it’s not shlawger, there’s too many moves going on for that. It’s like prog pop sung by Jack Jones if you can imagine that! There’s some great sounding studio musicians on here and the songs (all in German of course because the GDR didn’t see why you would want to sing in English, an enemy’s language) are often impeccable.

The CD was issued way back in 1994 but still good sound quality. Paul, the CD runs to over 78 minutes. I notice the first album has 11 songs, the second has 9, so 20 songs in all. Are there actually more than 9 songs on the second LP. I wondered if a couple might have got chopped off because of time constraints like the old See For Miles 2 fers used to do.

I’m really pleased with this for a fiver, what do you think of it Stewart?

PM

Glad you enjoyed it Paul,

nope only nine songs on the 2nd LP Paul- but your right about the musicians, boy can those guys play. The albums are so diffuse but still really coherent.

All the best

Hi to the 2 Pauls,its funny its just after 8pm and ive gave the whole cd a spin....i really enjoyed it,sounds way earlier than 72 in my opnion which i liked,cant really give it a better description than Mr Martin as he has described it to a T,but very good musicianship all the way through,i usually find Eastern European singin quite hard but this flows just nice and the whole cd has a great feel about it.Best fiver ive spent in a long time!!Thanks Mr Clarke for the heads up on this!!!As for the cd being from a way back in 94,it has a good sound quality to it not muddy like a lot of early cds are.Very pleased!!!!!Makes you wonder what other delights there are!!!

Glad you liked the cd Stuart

"Makes you wonder what other delights there are!!!"

Indeed if its anyway as good as this I can't wait - I've bought a few LPs from Eastern Europe lately so I'll let ye know if anything this good turns up.

The other thing about that Klug disc is there's barely a hint of jazz that he is supposedly better known for. Because the state record labels of the Eatern bloc countries were intended for classical recordings, they tended to be really professional. Certainly, all the Eastern bloc stuff I've got has very good production because these guys knew about mic placement and mixing etc very well.

For the GDR, look up the two LPs by Team 4 (both have been reissued) especially 'Das Strasse'(The Street), I like those a lot. When I did my 'Drawing The Curtain' comp of East European bands, I found Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland to be the most fruitful but there seems to have been bands in most Eastern countries and all well recordedm and good music too.

PM

One of my fave Krug cuts...

the tune is called MORGEN (tomorrow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs33mt7htrM

and another fave from 1972 called

Wenn's Draußen Grün Wird (Once it's getting green outside)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogv2mKF658c

Enjoy!

Thanks Hangman,

that Morgen track isn't on the LPs is it a single?