First line-up:

Peter Elbracht - Flute
Klaus Fichter - Percussion, Drums
Rolf Fichter - Synthesizer, Guitars, Keyboards, Piano (Electric), Vocals, Moog, Vibraphone, Indian Flute
Matthias Nicolar - Bass, Guitar

A Meditation Mass - Yatha Sidhra's only album - undoubtedly is one of the few really legendary albums released in Germany during the 1970s. Before founding Yatha Sidhra, the two brothers Rolf and Klaus Fichter had been members of the professional band Lea Gamble along with two Americans, merging rock with soul music. After Lea Gamble had dissolved, the Fichter brothers were joined by the French bassist Jean-Michel Boivert and the flutist Peter Elbracht to found Brontosau-rus; a band that, in terms of style, tried to create something like a tough version of Jethro Tull. Under the name of Brontosau-rus, Peter Elbracht and the Fichter brothers started working at an album that was released one year later by Brain: A Meditation Mass. The conclusion of the contract with Brain, the "krautrock" label of Hamburg's Metronome group, was also attributable to the help of Achim Reichel and his publishing company Gorilla Musik. In the course of the negotiations, the musicians (meanwhile Boivert had left and was replaced by German guitarist and bassist Matthias Nicolai) decided to think of a new name for their band. So Brontosaurus was given up in favour of Yatha Sidhra and the hitherto straight rock arrangements gave way to a more colourful, stylistically open concept.

Those who bought A Meditation Mass (admittedly, there weren't too many) were fascinated by what presented itself as a "cosmic" mixture of rock, jazz as well as ethnic influences. What they created found some sort of continuation later in the instrumental parts of bands such as Kollektiv or Thirsty Moon. Yatha Sidhra's music abounds in its own and very special kind of magic that is characterised by high atmospheric density as well as brilliant compositions and musical techniques. The long playing time of the 40-minute mass allows its listeners to virtually immerse themselves in the music.

Collectors might be particularly interested in the very first release with its stamped cover. In fact, the 1974 LPs pressed under the catalogue number Brain 1045 are often explicitly sought after at music exchange fairs. The second release that came out about one year later was in fact a slim version, carrying the simple cover print that was usual at the time. The fact that press reactions to the album were rather moderate was something that fans of Yatha Sidhra and of their only release must have failed to understand even up to today. Although Germany's major music magazine "Sounds" used to feature side-long hymns of praise in favour of similar releases by international bands, it considered a two-sentence note as sufficient to describe A Meditation Mass: "Rolf Richter (the writers were even indifferent enough not to notice that his name was actually Fichter, the author) presents the first album of his band Yatha Sidhra. As the name of the band as well as the title of the album suggest, Yatha Sidhra is built on restrained improvisation patterns and encourages listeners to lose themselves in meditation". It goes without saying that these simplistic statements did not really motivate to any further reading of "Sounds". Who knows how many works full of wonderful sounds Yatha Sidhra might still have released if the German press had not commented in such an ignorant way on their music. But let's rather not think about that...

Matthias Mineur, musician and freelance journalist, writes for several music magazines and owns a large music archive.

Discorgaphy

Meditation Mass - 1974 * * * * *