Alice in Wonderland (Neuschwanstein album)

Thomas Neuroth and Klaus Mayer, who were both students at a local secondary school (with 6th form) in Völklingen, Saarland, got to know each other there in the early 1970s. Their musical idols were Rick Wakeman (his solo albums), King Crimson and Genesis from the Peter Gabriel era. Wakeman's albums The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (epic pieces) particularly impressed them. Owing to their classical music training - Thomas Neuroth learned piano, Klaus Mayer flute - and their passion for symphonic progressive rock, they decided to form a band to realize their musical ideas. The result was the founding of Neuschwanstein.

After several personnel changes, a more permanent form of the band emerged in 1974. Besides Neuroth and Mayer, the band consisted of Udo Redlich (guitar), Hans Peter Schwarz (drums) and Uli Limpert (bass guitar). The strong impression Rick Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth left on Neuroth and Mayer prompted them to compose a long piece of instrumental music as well, and they subsequently worked on the musical adaptation of the famous Lewis Carroll novel Alice in Wonderland.

However, the idea for it and the first attempts to realise the piece had already been made in 1970; all that was missing was the final impulse. The first performance of this 40-minute musical piece took place in 1974 at a local secondery school. In 1975, Neuschwanstein performed it to win a band competition at the Saarland State Theatre in Saarbrücken; the audience was enchanted by the orchestral and melodic richness of their arrangement.

In the new cast, Neuschwanstein not only honed their music but also devised an elaborate stage decoration as well as complex visual effects with masks and costumes, similar to those used by Genesis in Peter Gabriel's time. Even slides were projected at the back of the stage, with Limpert, and later Weiler, reciting the song sequences, interspersed with illustrations of the story. Even a forest decoration was set up on stage, with a printed curtain behind the projected illustrations. Phosphorescent colours were painted on the leaves of the trees so that they glowed in the dark. The musicians' masks corresponded to their roles in the story: Neuroth was the wizard, Weiler the griffin, etc. Although there was a constant lack of both time and money, Neuschwanstein's show was amazing and very professional by more than ″local heroes″ standards.

In 1975, two new members joined the band: Rainer Zimmer, replacing Uli Limpert on bass, and Roger Weiler, who took over for Udo Redlich on guitar.

The live performances were of course accompanied by various costume parties, as was the case with Gabriel. The audience's reaction to the stage shows and the music was corresponding: it was the first time a German rock band performed such a long piece of music, with backdrops, costumes, masquerade and special effects. However, they were not spared from small mishaps. For example, at his very first concert with the group, Weiler had the misfortune to have his griffin mask with its large and heavy beak fall off. He had put the mask on too hectically before the performance and had not tied it properly.

In April 1976, Neuschwanstein booked a small recording studio near Saarbrücken to record their Alice in Wonderland on tape. This recording was intended as a demo tape for potential promoters. It was not until 32 years later, in 2008, that the French label Musea released the demo tape on CD for the first time. This demo tape lay in the form of a music cassette in the cupboard of Neuschwanstein guitarist Roger Weiler for a long time; at the beginning of the 2000s, Weiler told the people in charge at Musea about the tape, immediately arousing their interest. Although the sound quality was rather modest, Musea was confident that they could bring the tape up to an acceptable technical standard. Their great interest was also based on the fact that Neuschwanstein's ″official″ album Battlement was the best-selling album in the Musea catalogue.[1]

Despite the largely positive reviews, Thomas Neuroth later commented:

Alice in Wonderland is heart and soul, enthusiasm, charm and ambition. A firstling, unfinished and flawed. Alice in Wonderland was meant to be momentary and ephemeral. I never thought it would ever be published.

Shortly after the recordings, Frédéric Joos (from France) joined the band as a new singer, with a voice very reminiscent of Peter Gabriel, but also of Strawbs singer Dave Cousins. In 1978 the band recorded their first album Battlement in Cologne at the Scorpions' studios, leading to unexpected success in 1979. Amidst new wave and punk, it survived as one of the few finest albums by german progressive rock bands.[2]

The music, as already mentioned, is pure 70s progressive rock, then called symphonic rock.

• Thomas Neuroth – keyboards
• Klaus Mayer – flute
• Roger Weiler – electric guitar
• Rainer Zimmer – bass
• Hans Peter Schwarz – drums

All tracks are written by Neuschwanstein.

Blogger Gribovar sums it up this way:

The band succeeded, from the beginning, in creating a fluid and refined music, intense and suggestive, typical of the creative enthusiasm of the early Seventies. Usually structured around the keyboards parts, the music often underlines vivid and very refined piano pieces. With its strong melodies, its airy and dynamic flute soli, its dreamlike atmospheres, and the subtlety of the guitar effects, influenced by Steve Hackett's style, "Alice In Wonderland" easily takes its place among the best contemporary works of Camel or Focus.[3]

In his review ″Neuschwanstein - Alice In Wonderland″ Artur Chachlowski from Poland writes:

„Alice In Wonderland” to 40 minut ciekawej muzyki, trochę wzorowanej na „Supper’s Ready”, trochę na „Sześciu żonach Henryka VIII”, ale jednoznacznie pokazującej jak ważną dla niemieckiego progresywnego rocka lat 70. był zespół Neuschwanstein. Grał muzykę o mocnych liniach melodycznych, opartą na żywej, radosnej interpretacji z delikatnymi partiami gitar, świetnymi osnowami malowanymi przez syntezatorowe dźwięki, z licznymi dynamicznymi solowymi partiami fletu. Z muzyki Neuschwanstein przebija żywa radość grania, ulotny klimat eteryczności i niezwykła wręcz płynność brzmienia utrzymana w duchu dokonań Genesis, Steve Hacketta, Focus czy Camel. 40 minut muzyki wypełniającej ten album ulatuje nie wiadomo kiedy, co zachęca do jak najczęstszego powracania do tego wydawnictwa.

"Alice In Wonderland" is 40 minutes of interesting music, modelled a bit on "Supper's Ready", a bit on "The Six Wives of Henry VIII", but clearly showing how important the band Neuschwanstein was for German progressive rock of the 70s. They played music with strong melodic lines, based on a lively, joyful interpretation with delicate guitar parts, great warps painted by synth sounds and numerous dynamic solo flute parts. Neuschwanstein's music is permeated with a lively joy of playing, a fleeting atmosphere of ethereality and an extraordinary fluidity of sound in the spirit of Genesis, Steve Hackett, Focus or Camel. The 40 minutes of music filling this album fly away without us realising, which encourages us to come back to this release as often as possible.[4]

On Progressive Land Erik Neuteboom comes to the following conclusion:

Listening to Alice in Wonderland [...] I notice that at some moments Neuschwanstein sound like ‘an embryonal version of Battlment’ but in general it’s more in the vein of Seventies Camel and Focus and less obvious mid-Genesis inspired. And the music is also less elaborate, more laidback and remarkably is the omnipresent flute play (reminding me of Camel, Jethro Tull and Solaris), often accompanied by sparkling Grand piano work and coloured with very tasteful vintage keyboards (ranging from warm string-ensemble and powerful Hammond organ to fat synthesizer flights and swinging Fender Rhodes electric piano) along some sensitive electric guitar in the vein of Steve Hackett. [...] If I judge this album on its own merits (so no comparisons with Battlement), I conclude that Neuschwanstein has made a beautiful, very warm sounding album in the genuine symphonic rock tradition with a classical undertone (flute and Grand piano) and very pleasant vintage keyboards, the fans of Seventies Camel, Focus and Genesis will be pleased.[1]

• GarColga on toterallee.blogspot.com
• Jem Godfrey on Progarchives.com
• J.C. Miñana on Rockliquias.com (sp)
• Eric Neuteboom on Progressive Land

• Alice in Wonderland discography at Discogs
• Neuschwanstein discography at MusicBrainz
• Neuschwanstein at AllMusic