Circles
s/t
2016 Mental Experience

In the late 1970s and '80s there was a lot happening in the German post-krautrock underground that few people knew about -- lots of independent artists doing their own thing, either via small labels or no labels at all. Circles was one of these bands. Based in the suburbs of Frankfurt, they consisted of Dierk Leitert (synthesizer, sequencer, drums, bass, guitar, voice, saxophone, flute) and Mike Bohrmann (guitars, bass, synthesizer), plus a few collaborators. Carrying the torch of '70s bands like Cluster, Harmonia, or Liliental into the '80s, Circles were also contemporaries of groups like Throbbing Gristle, Ilitch, and Nurse with Wound, so one can also expect some similarities to those artists. Circles is their first album, originally privately released in 1983 on the duo's tiny Einhorn label and housed in a mysterious cover. This little-known but excellent kraut/psych/experimental album is highly recommended for anyone into Harmonia, Cluster, Fripp & Eno, Heldon, Conrad Schnitzler, NEU!, Throbbing Gristle, Ilitch, Irmin Schmidt, Amon Düül II. . . . First-ever reissue, including detailed liner notes by Alan Freeman (The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Ultima Thule) telling the band's story for the first time.