Aqueous + Roedelius "Meeting The Magus" 25th Anniversary Full Session by Felix Jay

It's exactly a quarter of a century since Andy Heath and I ("Aqueous") met up with Hans-Joachim Roedelius to record together at Cress Cottage. Achim and I had "previous", having worked together on a number of his own releases (and we were to do so again) but it was Andy's first exposure to the living legend. Our CD release a year later sold out almost immediately (we had great distribution in those days via World Serpent!) and random inspections of download sites suggest it's still popular (one Italian operator claims six thousand downloads!). Bizarrely, the original album contains less than half of the actual session, being padded out with four non-Roedelius tracks which, equally strangely, re-appeared on Andy's subsequent "remix" album.

So, here for the first time, is the whole thing, well over an hour of wide-ranging improvisations, some ponderously orchestral, some frankly funny, but all completely live, with all the transitions left in, even if they don't go anywhere. Achim often prods Andy and me into a more motorik direction - his keyboard drumming on "Magister" is sensational, while I'm playing his Kurzweil piano sound with sticks from a drum pad.

The original titling idea was that each track would be a "Lesson" from the Magus to his acolytes. Three of the original lessons are exactly the same here (marked with a *), while two other tracks gain 8 minutes between them (markedwith a +). Everything else is previously unreleased!

00.00: Prologue
03.24: Respect*
11.11: Remember +2m.
23.41: Reveal
27.43: Rejoice*
33.22: Reflect
37.07: Repeat
39.18: Resist
42.42: Recycle
55.00: Magister interludi +6m.
65.00: Renounce*

If you have enjoyed listening to this material for free on SoundCloud please head on over to the Roedelius Bandcamp page and buy something - anything - to show your appreciation. The cover painting from the original Hermetic Recordings release was by the multi-talented Andrew Heath.