Composed largely by Manuel Göttsching, both serve as diverse, hypnotic breaks from the grind of standard progressive. It’s the kind of music that Robert Fripp has made in his best moments, a cross pollination of the dance beat days of Discipline-era Crimson and the mournful but compelling lines that have graced his best soundscape work. But these discs stand on their own, far above and beyond a number of releases that are presented as bold and imaginative works but prove to be only so in the minds of marketing executives. There’s an other-worldly atmosphere here, a kind of laid-back, late-night charm that leaves you in a pleasantly dumbfounded state of mind as the four members of the ensemble (Göttsching, Lutz Ulbrich, Harald Grosskopf and Steve Baltes) weave jazz and prog and chill out-inspired webs.

Volume 1 proves exciting if not a little more traditional and slightly less relaxed than Volume 2. That said, it still proves inspiring and, when followed with a healthy dose of the second album, only brings the listener to an even greater sense of inner-awareness, elevates them to an infinitely higher plane. (Really, if I haven’t said this before: you cannot separate these albums, no matter how you try.) Together they form an awesome, nighttime pastoral, an invocation to a muse that can finally bridge the mind with the soul. These are portraits of a world waking but not awake, people loving and being in love. Highlights include Sunrain, a journey between joy and sadness, Oasis, Echo Waves, Twelve Samples, and Hausaufgabe.«