Analogy - 1972 - Analogy

Analogy
1972
Analogy

01. Dark Reflections (7:00)
02. Weeping May Endure (4:50)
03. Indian Meditation (4:10)
04. Tin's Song (1:40)
05. Analogy (9:45)
06. The Year's At The Spring (4:35)
07. Pan-Am Flight 249 (5:15)

- H. J. "Mops" Nienhaus / drums
- Jutta Nienhaus / lead vocals
- Nicola Pankoff / keyboards
- Wolfgang Schoene / bass
- Martin Thurn / 12 strings acoustic & electric guitars, flute, bongos

In 1968 german Martin Thurn (guitar) went to an international school in Varese (North Italy) where he founded a band named SONS OF GIOVE. Other members were Wolfgang Schoene, Thomas Schmidt (later PELL MELL) and Jutta Nienhaus. Renamed to JOICE (due to a misprint later YOICE) the band went on in 1970 with drummer Hermann-Jürgen Nienhaus (brother of Jutta) and Mauro Rattaggi (bass), the only italian member of the band. After a lot of gigs in the south of Swiss and North Italy they were able to buy some professional equipment and in 1971 JOICE got a contract with an italian label. During a festival in Arona a spontanous collaboration happened with keyboarder Nikola Pankoff whilst playing a free interpretation of Pink Floyd's "Atom heart mother". Pankoff became a band member afterwards. Their first release was the Single "Sold out/God's own land", two songs written by Thurn. At the end of the year Rattaggi had to join the army and left the band. Schoene changed to the bass.

The recordings for their first LP started early 1972 in Milan and they finally renamed to ANALOGY corresponding to the title of their most important song. Soon some trouble occured about the sleeve pictures. The band wanted an artwork illustrated by Pankoff but the label demanded on some nude photos which had been taken for the former single production. Rattaggi was covered by the blue vertical bar which includes the band logo. The songs of their debut are gradually developed with a more psychedelic and experimental style provided with a dark atmosphere. ANALOGY's distinctions were Jutta Nienhaus' unique vocals, Thurn's and Pankoff's impressive instrumental skills on guitar and Hammond organ. In Italy the band now could reach some attention and appreciation. They played at a Rock festival in Rome with 30.000 spectators, appeared during some RAI radio sessions and could also be seen on TV. But ANALOGY remained practically unknown outside of Italy though.

In September 1972 Pankoff left the band because of some disagreements about the musical direction. 1973 it came to a new collaboration with flute player Rocco Abate, member of the Milano Scala Orchestra, who was searching for new experiences. Martin Thurn and Wolfgang Schoene composed a 30 minute set of thematically-linked musical pieces simply entitled "The Suite". In this work the classical music of the Renaissance-period was combined with Progressive Rock. ANALOGY played this several times live and received good reviews. The band had successful performances together with ATOMIC ROOSTER and CURVED AIR but nevertheless problems with the money were growing. Additionally Rocco Abate's issues increased to perform his obligations. So in November 1973 ANALOGY had the last live performance and disbanded at the end of the year.

Afterwards Martin Thurn, Jutta Nienhaus and her brother looked forward to a longer cooperation with Franco Battiato. Jutta Nienhaus appeared on the 1973 release Sulle Corde Di Aries. Some months later their plans failed because Battiato's interests changed to more synthesizer based music. They went on tour with Dario Fo's Collettivo Teatrale La Comune and during one performance in Milan they happened to be arrested and sent to jail for two days. After this experience they left the project and in summer 1974 the original JOICE line-up joined in a new project with JUMBO keyboarder Sergio Conte which was not very successful. So Martin Thurn and Jutta Nienhaus went to England where they had several other collaborations during the next years. The second ANALOGY album "The Suite" based on their live performances in 1973 with more Prog Folk impressions. It was completed and recorded in 1980 along with members of their subsequent band EARTHBOUND. 1994/95 they finally reworked some ANALOGY songs together with Mauro Rattaggi and released "25 Years Later" including the early JOICE songs in two different versions. The sound on the debut by german band Analogy is dominated by the vocals of Jutta Nienhaus and Hammond by Nikola Pankoff. Obviously their style had been inspired by late 60's psychedelic rock featuring some folksy and as well some Krautrock elements.
Already the opener is a quite nice one with a rather sluggish and dragging rhythm and strong vocals fitting perfectly together. In Weeping May Endure vocals are reaching at times some higher pitch, some fellows might have problems with but they are a nice contrast to the rocking guitar play and the roaring Hammond sound. Indian Meditation sounds even more psychedelic and Martin Thurn's guitar play is a bit reminiscent to early Floyd. There's also some flute added by him. After the short instrumental Tin´s Song there is the quite long title track which is deeply in the vein of late 60's psyche rock. Finally there is the very dynamic The Years At The Spring and the nice song Pan-Am Flight 249.