TYNDALL - Reflexionen

Bureau B present a reissue of Tyndalls third album, Reflexionen, originally released in 1982. The third Tyndall album is less experimental than the electronic duos previous work from 1981 Traumland (BB 287CD/LP). The songs, featuring vocoder vocals, are more clearly structured into verses and choruses, the arrangements more considered. Stylistically, Reflexionen is a mix of synth-pop and electronic krautrock, at times not a million miles away from the early works of Andreas Dorau. More so than on their preceding instrumental albums, Tyndalls Reflexionen held a mirror to the band members personal situation and the prevalent mood of the period during which they made the record. First of all, the two musicians (Rudolf Langer, Jürgen Krehan) had relocated to West Berlin, an exclave in the GDR. Due to the fact that German military was forbidden by the Allied Powers in West Berlin, neither Krehan nor Langer had to do national service or its alternative, community service. Meanwhile, 1982 was the year when German-speaking pop and rock found its way into the charts alongside old-fashioned Schlager songs. Punk and new wave had done the groundwork a few years earlier, but the music of bands like Fehlfarben, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, or the Doraus Und Die Marinas were now ready to enter the mainstream under the banner of Neue Deutsche Welle. Music with German lyrics was flavor of the season. On a lot of tracks Jürgen Krehan sings in German on Reflexionen as well (using a vocoder). Reflexionen is a less experimental album than its predecessor Traumland. Due in no small measure to the vocoder vocals with verses and choruses, the tracks feel more clearly structured, the arrangements more considered. Bass octave, simple, breezy, dreamy harpsichord melody sprinkles, cheerful, carefree, sometimes enigmatic lyrics. The album closes with a series of eminently listenable instrumentals, which hint at the next stage of musical evolution which would ultimately reach its conclusion on the fourth and final Tyndall album. - Bureau B.