Emtidi – Saat

A true progressive folk gem here is given a second life via a revived Pilz label. The imprint, which was primarily active in the late ‘60s / early ‘70s and run by German producer Jürgen Schmeisser, issued excellent records by Popul Vuh, Witthüser & Westrupp, Rufus Zuphall, Virus, and quite a few other German Progressive gems has begun reissuing its catalog and the excellent sophomore LP from Emtidi is one of the first offerings on the table. The band was comprised of German guitarist/songwriter Maik Hirschfeldt and Canadian vocalist Dolly Holmes, who also played keys with the duo. Their first LP is awash in hallmarks of psychedelic folk. It’s good, but pretty standard fare for the time. The band begins to shine brighter on their follow-up, a record that stretches much further into the progressive tides, stretching out from the strums and Holmes’ high, plaintive vocals that recall Linda Perhacs or Celia Humphris.

What the second album gets right is its wandering toward the Kosmiche throb of psychedelic textures. The album starts out with a strummer about walking around a park before it adds jazz textures and then dives into the solar-flare synth drones of “Touch The Sun.” Through even when the band pursue more traditional folk trappings, there’s a push away from the English ren-faire feelings that were prevalent around the time and towards something both pastoral, and yet streaked with the psychedelic overflow of it’s ’72 release. There are less maidens and courtship and more bouts of free love and cosmically streaked guitar passages. Following the release of Saat, Dolly Holmes left the band and Hirschfield attempted to reform with a fuller lineup, but even with more players on board, he could never find a replacement for her voice and the band was dissolved with the third album left unfinished. This still hits nicely today, a progressive folk treasure that’s been lost to time for far too long.