Adelbert von Deyen: Atmosphere

I remember the shop where I bought this, as well. It was an independent store on Guildford High Street, that had a rack or two devoted to 'krautrock' and associated electronic music (like Tomita and Vangelis). 'New Age' still hadn't been invented, or reached Guildford, in about 1983. I'm trying to imagine how I felt when I bought this. The cost of a single album then would have been a significant slice out of my disposable income (what am I talking about, 'disposable income'? Pocket money, more like — which was all disposable. It's not like I had a mortgage or kids to support: I was a supported kid). But I was so keen to discover new music that I was prepared to take a chance on a record by someone I'd never ever read about or heard about. All I knew was that his record was in the same rack as some others I liked, so I took a chance on it.

And listening to it now comes as a big surprise. I can actually more or less date the point when I last heard this, or at least the point after which I didn't listen to it again. I recorded the album onto cassette, along with many others from my collection, to take up to university with me and play on my Sanyo C3 cassette-radio (you may remember that one — 23 years later, I've still got it and it's still working). I took the C3 on holiday to the Norfolk Broads in March 1985 with Jeremy and Jo Kirk. In the early hours, smoking and drinking in the cabin, I decided to record our incoherent conversation. Jeremy and Jo were understandably a little pissed off when they realised I was recording them, but I got away with it, and we listened back to the recording a few times. There was a bit where Jeremy asked me, "What are you recording over, by the way?", to which I replied, "It's only Adelbert von Deyen."

You see, I didn't rate this album at the time. I thought it was the wrong end of hippy mysticism. So I didn't listen to it for over twenty years. But this stuff has come back into fashion in the meantime. It sounds a bit like Klaus Schulze's early and mid-'70s albums… I can't remember the term he used for them; something like 'drifting music'. The one surprising thing about it is that it was recorded in 1979 and 1980, because I think Schulze and many others had moved on from this kind of instrumentation by then.

I did a Google search for von Deyen late last year (I think it was around the time I first started thinking about putting this site together) and found that he is now a painter. When you see the pictures, you see also how he came to give his tracks titles like Spaces of Infinity and Crystal Clouds.

Finally, I can't not mention the picture of Adelbert on the back cover — see below. He's got all his kit, and his rug, if you please, laid out on the beach at the water's edge. Don't let your kids see this.

Discogs entry for this album

Comments

[adelbert von deyen]

Hey!
I read your review today with interest.
You are not up to date. I´m back to life just now 20 years after "Dreamdancer" with my brandnew electronic-album "Painted Black".
Many greatings from
Adelbert von Deyen

[Kazimir]

Adalbert's Atmosphere is one of my favorite prog electronic albums, I'd say quite on pair with best TD or Schulze works. Great that author is on his way again.