A symphonic storm — Wallenstein’s dense debut. Blitzkrieg is the first album by Wallenstein, one of the finest and densest records of the early German symphonic progressive rock scene, blending bombastic symphonic rock with cosmic Krautrock.

The short version

The debut album by the German band Wallenstein, recorded near Cologne and released in 1972 on the Pilz label; four long tracks, around forty-three minutes. A rich, powerful, largely instrumental blend of symphonic progressive rock and cosmic Krautrock, all of it written by the classically trained keyboardist Jürgen Dollase, who leads the international band with cascading piano, electric harpsichord and Mellotron. Recorded at Dieter Dierks’s studio, with the producer adding his trademark phasing effects, it is a treasure of the underground German prog of its era.

An international band

Wallenstein were led by the classically trained keyboardist and composer Jürgen Dollase, who had studied art and classical music before turning to rock. He assembled a strikingly international group: the American guitarist Bill Barone, the Dutch bassist Jerry Berkers and the German drummer Harald Grosskopf. The band first called itself Blitzkrieg, but with an English group already using that name, and German record labels uneasy about the term, they renamed themselves in early 1972 after Albrecht von Wallenstein, a commander of the Thirty Years’ War, keeping Blitzkrieg as the title of their debut. Recorded at Dieter Dierks’s studio near Cologne, the album launched one of Germany’s most distinctive symphonic bands. Dollase and Harald Grosskopf would later both be part of the Krautrock collective the Cosmic Jokers, and Grosskopf went on to work with Klaus Schulze and Ashra.

The sound

Dense, powerful, symphonic progressive rock shot through with cosmic, spacey Krautrock energy. The album is dominated by Jürgen Dollase’s classically trained keyboards, his rapid, nimble piano and electric harpsichord runs setting the pace, with Mellotron adding a lush, symphonic weight whenever it appears. Around him, Bill Barone’s guitar contributes a bluesy, cosmic edge, while the rhythm section of Jerry Berkers and Harald Grosskopf drives the music at a dizzying, hyperactive pace. Dieter Dierks’s studio work, including swirling phasing on the long opener, deepens the cosmic atmosphere. Indebted to Pink Floyd but developing a voice of its own, the music moves between bombastic symphonic passages and freer, jamming, space-rock stretches. Almost entirely instrumental, dense and complex, it rewards close and repeated listening.

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The songs

The album holds four long compositions, all written by Jürgen Dollase. The twelve-minute opener, Lunetic, is the acknowledged highlight, a brilliant, headlong piece of cosmic prog in which Dollase’s frantic keyboard runs and Bill Barone’s guitar are woven together and washed in Dieter Dierks’s phasing, so dazzling that the rest of the album can struggle to register on first hearing. Beyond it, The Theme, Manhattan Project and Audiences reveal a band operating on a more purely symphonic progressive level, easing back on the Krautrock intensity of the opener, each track built on memorable themes and dramatic breaks in a manner not unlike Nektar. Together they make a cohesive, ambitious whole.

Reception and legacy

Blitzkrieg is regarded as an excellent and defining debut, one of the hidden treasures of the early-1970s German progressive underground. Admirers praise Jürgen Dollase’s virtuoso, classically informed keyboards and compositions, Harald Grosskopf’s drumming, Bill Barone’s cosmic guitar and Dieter Dierks’s atmospheric production, and rank the whole among the finest work the band would produce. The chief criticism is the vocals, generally felt to be the weakest element, though the album is largely instrumental and this matters little. Some Krautrock purists were surprised by how symphonic rather than raw it is, but for many that blend is its great strength. As Wallenstein’s debut, and a fine meeting point of symphonic prog and cosmic Krautrock, it remains a much-loved cult classic.

The verdict

A dense, powerful, dazzling debut, and a treasure of the German progressive underground — symphonic prog meeting cosmic Krautrock, driven by Jürgen Dollase’s classically trained keyboards and Dieter Dierks’s studio magic. Come to it above all for the brilliant twelve-minute opener Lunetic, and for the ambitious, largely instrumental sweep of the whole, rather than for the vocals, which are its weakest link. Play it loud and give it time. From here, Mother Universe for the follow-up that came fast on its heels, and the Cosmic Jokers and Klaus Schulze for the wider kosmische scene that Dollase and Grosskopf moved in. A cult symphonic-Krautrock gem.

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