Klaus Wiese — Maraccaba

Originally released in 1982 Maraccaba was the second album from Germany's Klaus Wiese- whose work sat between ambient, minimalism, and pared-back/drone-focused world music. Here from Kray Records is no thrills/no inlay booklet release of the two-track album.

Wiese was fairly prolific as between the early 1980s & early 2000s he released over a hundred albums. His work often focused on the use of singing bowls- though he also used other sonic tools-  for example on this release he also unitizers harmonium, zither, Tamboura, drums, and his own voice. On this album, he is joined by Ted De Jong- who played on quite a few of his albums.

Maraccaba was first released in the form of a C60 cassette on German New Age Label Aquarium Verlag- going on to have a few more reissues over the years- with this CD being its sixth reissue. The CD is presented in clear jewel case with very basic black & white texts, and reproduction of the original cover artwork.  With a similar white card slip- this is ltd to 300 copies.

Both tracks hit near or around the thirty-minute mark, and both are fairly episodic & varied in their unfold.  “The Ritual 1” opens with glowing ‘n’ rising almost organ-like hover, onto a steady medium-paced rhythm with chime strikes & a low-key ambient hum.  Later on, the track shifts into eastern-meets- almost blues-twanging territory- with the whole thing set in a golden shimmering drone.

“Ritual 2” begins with a blend of swooping-almost-space-bound hover, rounding simmering, and building percussive tip-tapping.  As we move on we find regal ‘n’ goldenly rising drone sustains, going down to the tolling ‘n’ chime bound haunted-ness.

Maraccaba shows that early on in his career Wiese knew how to compose eventful & varied (relatively) long-form works. I do hope we see some more of his large discography getting reissued down the line- as his work has its own distinctive flavour/ feel within the ambient/ minimalism/ droning world music genres.