01	Circles - The mighty						05:37
	02	Circles - The nude						01:58
	03	Circles	The Curse					05:01
	04	Circles - The blessed						01:17
	05	Circles - Loner's rhyme						09:16
	06	One niter medley - Benedictus						01:52
	07	One niter medley - Fuge						00:47
	08	One niter medley - V.A.T.						03:15
	09	One niter medley - Morning						01:57
	10	One niter medley - One niter						03:19
	11	One niter medley - Way down						07:30
	12	One niter medley - A spaceman came travelling						04:52
	13	One niter medley - Hats of glass						06:41
	14	One niter medley - Grover's mill						03:45
	15	One niter medley - Chances are						05:29
	16	One niter medley - Heaven sales						03:01
	17	One niter medley - Holstenwall fair						08:12
	18	One niter medley - Cheese						03:30

Eela Craig [Austria]

Discography
Eela Craig (71), One Niter (76), Hats of Glass (77), Missa Universalis (78), Virgin Oiland (80)

Reviews
Initial band featuring Bognermayr/Zuschrader. They were a very synphonic progressive rock group. Their music was very lush and majestic, build on a foundation of keyboard sounds. They released five albums, none of which are available on CD, which are now collectors items of some value, commanding upto $30 for the last four and upto $500 (!) for the first self-titled one.

Austrians Eela Craig have released a handful of progressive albums in the symphonic vein. One-Niter is an excellent release and is vaguely similar to late 70's symphonic German bands like Eloy.

Eela Craig were perhaps the best-known progressive band from Austria, and one of the few bands I can think of with three (!) keyboardists. (Utopia and Savage Rose are the only other two such bands I can think of.) Their first album was released around 1974-75 only in Austria on the ProDisc label, and is today very rare and expensive. (Does anyone know when it will ever be reissued?) The second album, One Nighter arrived in 1976 with much wider distribution and to much acclaim in proggressive circles, although I haven't heard this one either. :-( Hats of Glass was the band's third album. Although I'm usually wary of albums that start off with cover versions, Chris deBurgh's "A Spaceman Came Travelling" seems an inspired and unexpected choice, and one that lends itself well to the triple keyboard attack. Hubert Bognermayr, Harald Zuschrader and Hubert Schnauer are all creative synthesists, and their piano and organ tones are rich and full sounding. The interplay between the three keyboards is well illustrated on the fine "Holstenwall Fair," my favourite song on the whole album. Guitarist Fritz Riedelberger (who sings on most of the songs on this album) gets a chance to show off his Dave Gilmour-influenced playing on the ten-minute title-track, while on the whimsically-titled instrumental "(Remove another hat of glass and you could easily find assorted kinds of) Cheese," his guitar rebounds quite well off of Bognermayr/Zuschraders' synths and Schnauer's electric piano. The other songs aren't quite as notable, with the possible exception of "Caught on the Air," a nice ballad with great vocal harmonies strongly suggestive of Yes. The band's 1978 album, Missa Universalis was conceived as a "rock mass," an idea I thought had died with the psychedelic sixties. Given the concept, not to mention liner notes like ."..for young people, modern religious music provides a bridge to God," it doesn't seem very encouraging. Surprisingly, Missa Universalis went above and beyond the call of duty. Again the two longest tracks form a centrepiece for the album. It starts off with the amazing "Kyrie," percolating with triple synthesizers twisting around each other and building to an electric climax into a majestic rock finale with soloing guitar. Brilliant! The "Sanctus" (this album's only song to feature guitarist Riedelberger on lead vocals) is really a two-parter; Part One based on a Bruckner mass, Part Two is a rock piece with rotating keyboard solos a la "Holstenwall Fair." The one thing that makes this album so delightful is the impeccable production. Note the piano in the "Gloria," the acoustic guitars in "Agnus Dei," etc. All the instruments are imbued with a luscious sound that makes the album interesting to listen to on so many levels. The one thing that ruins both albums for me, though, is drummer Frank Hueber, who seems only to know the most skeletal rock riffs. If Eela Craig only had a better drummer, Missa Universalis would be nearly perfect. Still, this is one that begs to be reissued.




Eela Craig - "Eela Craig" (1971) Austria's most successful and best-known progressive rock band. Their self-titled debut-album consisted of four lengthy tracks that was heavily influenced by the German progressive underground-scene at that time. Their keyboards was limited to el-piano and some spacey organ at this moment in their career, but they would later expand their keyboard-arsenal a lot. Keyboard player Hubert Bognermayr was one of the main members of the band, and he wrote two of the tracks on the album. The opener "New Born Child" starts with a spacey, German-sounding organ part and some terrifying screams. The track then slows down, and the very beautiful and atmospheric flute-playing of multi-instrumentalist Harald Zuschrader appears. His flute-playing on this album makes me think of Yatha Sidhra's classic "A Meditation Mass", although the music is much less low-key. After a brief vocal-park, the track then kicks into a cool and energetic saxophone-part that lasts for the rest of the track. Bognermayr's other composition on the album, "Indra Elegy", is more of the same but without the saxophone. The two other tracks on the album was written by Zuschrader and has some slight jazz/blues tendencies with long and wonderful flute-solos. A good debut-album, but people would have to wait a long time before they heard anything more from the band...


Eela Craig - "One Niter" (1976) It would take no less than five years before Eela Craig released their second album. In the meantime they had released a 7" called "Stories". This heavily Mellotron-drenched single was the first sign of the band moving away from the underground influences of the debut-album and over to a pure symphonic progressive rock sound. The line-up had been expanded to three keyboard-players. And they played any 70's keyboard you can imagine: Hammond-organ, Mellotron, el-piano, moog, string synths and harpsichord. Their Mellotron-sound tends to remind me of Tangerine Dream's "Richchet". Anyway, "One Niter" is widely regarded as their best album and it's a very unique and distinctive work of symphonic progressive rock. The album is made up of two side-long suites that both are divided into several tracks. The first suite is called "Circles" and features everything of the classic Eela Craig-sound. Very majestic and beautiful with lots of Mellotron, flute, symphonic string synths and powerful guitar work. What really made their sound distinctive was the more up-tempo parts that had a slight 70's funk influence, especially on the keyboards. The melodies and themes are very strong and inspired. This is with no doubt also the best produced of all their albums. "One Niter Suite" is a tad more instrumental, and it opens with a very baroque and classical-influenced part before it burst into an energetic, funky jam that leads into the very beautiful theme of the title-track. This is the first album that you should check out by this band.


Eela Craig - "Hats of Glass" (1977) The third album suffered from a thinner and much less powerful production than "One Niter". A cover version of Chris DeBurgh's(!!!) "A Spaceman Came Travelling" and re-recordings of both tracks from the "Stories"-single revealed that the band may had some problems with writing enough new material for the album. But it's still a nice album, and "Holstenwall Fair" is a true symphonic progressive rock goodie. The floating title-track has a strong Eloy/Pink Floyd- feel to it. The re-recordings of the "Stories"-single are several levels under the much better originals, but they gave at least most people the chance to hear these two tracks. "Cheese" has been turned into a completely instrumental track and the mid-part sounds almost like Happy the Man. "Stories" has different lyrics and has been re-named to "Grover's Mill". Most of the Mellotron has been replaced by string-synths. Not exactly a wise move, although it's still a pretty symphonic progressive ballad even in this version. "Chances Are" was the first Eela Craig track to feature Bognermayr on vocals. A quite good track with more of their cool Mellotron-sound. "Heaven Sales" is basically a slick pop-song, but with a very progressive sound and a cool organ-riff. It's almost embarrassing to admit it, but I also like the version of "A Spaceman Came Travelling". A beautiful little tune that bands like Barclay James Harvest and Moody Blues could have written. This album never reaches the same heights as "One Niter", and the sound was also starting to be a bit synthetic. But it's still a listenable slice of late 70's symphonic progressive.


Eela Craig - "Missa Universalis" (1978) The band went in my opinion completely off the track with the disastrous 4th album. "Missa Universalis" remains one of the most religious and Christian progressive rock albums ever. The "lyrics" are sung in four different languages but I don't really understand the point, cause "Jesus Christ" is the same in all these languages. You also get some "lord have mercy", "I believe in one Lord", "vomb of Maria" and so on. I'm NOT religious at all and a progressive rock album is the last thing I need to force this bullshit on me. But it was obviously not enough for the band to give the album a rotten concept, they also had to make it the most boring symphonic progressive rock album I've heard from the late 70's. Some of the material (like "Credo") is actually the most complex they ever wrote and their vocal-harmonies never sounded better than on this album. But it doesn't help when there's not a single memorable melody or theme on the whole album. The instrumental-part of "Sanctus" is even based in a disco-rhythm!!! Most of the flute and Mellotron was also gone, and the album suffers from the same thin and weird production as "Hats of Glass". This was the last album before Bognermayr left the band, and it was in my opinion the worst possible way for him to finish his time in the band. The band recorded an album called "Virgin Oiland" after this one. I haven't heard it, but it can't be any worse than "Missa Universalis".