Amon Duul II. 1970/Gems/Redferns/Getty Images
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
This is a classic (and some would say the first) Krautrock album that encompasses all its invasive basics—large extended forms, psychedelic swells, otherworldly vocals, and a surprising musical rigor balanced with rawness. It was recorded in 1969 by a Bavarian art commune featuring the beautiful singer Renate Knaup. The opening song of the first album, ‘Kanaan’, sounds like a prayer in broken Greek, where the guitar imitates an Indian sitar, and together, all of it is a moment of pristine biblical horror four minutes long. The effect of the song is astonishing; it is like being there—the sound does not seem to come from a hippie squat in Munich, but from the western section of the fertile crescent of the East in idolatrous times.
Yet the experiments of 1969 seem as far removed from modern music today as ancient Canaan. Although, to be fair, Amon Düül II later recorded some excellent music that included oriental motifs, such as ‘Einsatz in Timbuktu’ or ‘No Sushi for Camels’. In 1981, they even released a song about Putin—well, okay, it’s not quite about Putin but it has a very prophetic spelling: ‘(Ras)Putin in der Badewanne’.