Virgo

*300 copies limited edition.* Formed in 1974 under the name Lava, Virgo emerged from the fertile German jazz‑rock underground with a line‑up anchored by founder members Bobby Stern, Clemens Schuster, Henryk Darlowski and Lothar Scharf. From the outset, the group’s focus was on fusing the harmonic openness of contemporary jazz with the amplified bite of rock, favouring long forms, intricate interplay and a distinctly European sense of atmosphere. After an initial phase under the Vertigo umbrella, they chose to step off the main‑label carousel in search of a more sympathetic home for their evolving sound.

That home came in the form of Bacillus Records, which offered both recording backing and the freedom to pursue a more conceptually unified work. In December 1976, Virgo entered Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg - a room already renowned for its clarity and warmth - to record what would become Four Season. Tracked live with minimal artifice, the sessions captured the band at a moment of quiet confidence, stretching their fusion vocabulary into a four‑part cycle that mirrored the shifting moods and energies of the year. When the album surfaced at the dawn of 1977, it stood as both a new beginning and a consolidation: the sound of a band that had shed its original skin, left a major label behind, and found in the change of seasons a perfect metaphor for its own ongoing transformation.