A truly astounding artefact that towers in the history of Krautrock and Kosmische, Wah Wah’s beautiful vinyl reissue of Between’s 1972 masterstroke, And The Waters Opened, levels the playing-field and melts the mind with its incredible and singular world of sound.

Every so often, the reissue market surfaces a giant from the depths. Not only do these records send hearts and minds spinning with their incredible sounds, but they offer crucial revisions to history, serving to right years of neglect. Wah Wah’s long overdue repress of Between’s 1972 masterstroke, And The Waters Opened - originally issued by Vertigo - is one such case. A truly stunning artefact from the obscure border of Krautrock - folding rhythmic tribalism, a diverse number of cross-cultural touchstones, sprawling ambience, sonic radicalism, and communal psychedelia, into a cohesive, mind-bending, and singular form - it’s among the best records from 70s Germany that almost no one ever heard.

Few musical movements have ever been as vast, wild, varied, or exciting as those that became retrospectively gathered under the headings of Krautrock and Kosmische. Blossoming across Germany during the 1960s and 70s, bands sprouted like a series of immaculate conceptions from a collective zeitgeist, with few aware of the full scope of the context to which they belonged. These sounds and experiments belonged to a true social and creative counterculture, imagining a new, radical future through hybrid forms that integrated the ideas and techniques of the post-war musical avant-garde, improvised jazz, and countless folk traditions from across the globe, into a decidedly singular form of rock & roll.

Among the most exciting of Krautrock’s endeavours - long overshadowed by bands like Can, Neu!, Amon Düül, Faust, Popol Vuh, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, and Harmonia - was Between, something that the ensemble’s 1972 LP, And The Waters Opened, brings into quick and sharp focus.

Formed in 1970, Between was the brainchild of former Agitation Free member, Peter Michael Hamel (the band’s early output roughly overlaps with his legendary solo LPs for Vertigo, ‘Hamel’ and ‘The Voice Of Silence’). Featuring an international cast, comprising two Americans - oboist and Popol Vuh member, Robert Eliscu, and the percussionist, Cotch Black, who appeared on Niagara’s seminal 1970, self-titled LP - the Argentinian Roberto C. Détrée on guitar, motocello, and adapted harp, as well as Duru Omson on bamboo flute, percussion, and vocals, Walter Bachauer on electronics, and Hamel on keyboards / synths and vocals, the band inexplicably achieved a sound that was arguably even more diverse and global than its membership.

And The Waters Opened - Between’s second LP - is a veritable journey in sound. Across the album’s two sides, passages of immersive percussion intertwine with explicit avant-gardism, outright jams, and dreamlike passages that range from droning, electronic ambiences, pulsing minimalism, group chant, and bristling melodic compositions that channel the musics of North Africa, the Middle East, and India, culminating as a body of sound that, with the exception of Popol Vuh and Deuter, veers far closer to the roughly contemporary efforts of Third Ear Band, Sandy Bull, Arica, Aktuala, Prima Materia, and Futuro Antico, than almost anything in the Krautrock sphere.