Biography Wikipedia
Group Members: Micky Duwe, Michael Hoenig
Wikipedia:
Agitation Free was a German experimental krautrock band. The band was formed in 1967 with Michael "Fame" Günther (bass), Lutz "Lüül" Ulbrich (guitar), Lutz Ludwig Kramer (guitar) and Christopher Franke (drums). They were initially called Agitation, a name they chose at random from a dictionary. The name later changed to Agitation Free as the result of a panel before a free show played in the early 1970s where it was written "Agitation Free" (meaning "free concert"). The other reason for the band to change their name was that another band with the same name already existed.
After losing guitarist Axel Genrich to Guru Guru in 1970 and drummer Christopher Franke to Tangerine Dream in 1971, the band recruited Jörg "Joshi" Schwenke (guitar), Burghard Rausch (drums), and Michael Hoenig (keyboards). They released their debut album, Malesch in 1972 on the Music Factory label. The album was inspired by their tour through Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus, sponsored by the German Goethe Institute. Later that year, they performed at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
A second album was released in 1973, and guitarist Jörg Schwenke was replaced first by Stefan Diez, then Gustl Lutjens; but the band disbanded in 1974.
Agitation Free reunited in 1998 and released River Of Return in 1999; then reformed in 2007 (with the 1974 line-up) for a series of concerts in Tokyo. In 2008 remastered CDs of their back catalogue were officially released, and in 2011 they released Shibuya Nights, recorded at their 2007 Tokyo concerts. 2012 sees them touring again to promote this album.
The band is included on the Nurse With Wound list.
Musical style and sound
Agitation Free's music is psychedelic, experimental krautrock with elements of spaced-out ambient, experimental electronic, and drone. Their music for the most part consists of driving organ-patterned drone-like rock; seamless psychedelic cosmic musical textures with intricate musicianship and musical variety; hard, driving rock similar to Amon Duul II but more compelling, refined, and developed; and jamming that occasionally invokes the interplay and styles of Garcia, Weir and Lesh of The Grateful Dead and hints at a blues rock base not unlike The Allman Brothers Band. Their music features frequently great musical interplay and great playing, great textures, melodies and grooves. Many of their songs have a trance-inducing, psychedelic feel with sections of driving rock fueled by fiery and melodic moving guitar lines and solid, propelling and intricate drumming and a prominent bass. All of Agitation Free's Songs are instrumental apart from some recitation on "Haunted Island".
Their first album Malesch is much more cosmic, aggressive, psychedelic, creative, ethnically flavored (mainly by short interludes of recordings from Egypt), mysterious and densely packed with ideas whereas their second, titled 2nd is more laid-back and upbeat, with longer structure, much more of an emphasis on traditional styled jamming à la The Grateful Dead and a warmer and more straightforward sound. On Malesch the songs blend together to make a seamlessly flowing, tangential and uninterrupted musical journey, whereas on 2nd songs are more predictably structured, more varied in their sound, and stand more as independent works.
Their sound is similar to, but fairly distinguishable from, other contemporary Krautrock bands such as Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Düül II, Guru Guru, Brainticket, Yatha Sidhra, and Kalacakra, as well as the mixed-influence blues-based jam rock of The Grateful Dead and the The Allman Brothers noticeable on 2nd, and slightly later and more symphonic bands like Asia Minor and Anyone's Daughter.
