Mariane Faithful

Todd Rundgren considered 1966 the beginning of his professional musical career, largely because the Nazz formed around that time. As a celebration, he recorded Faithful. Presumably, Faithful celebrates the past and the future by juxtaposing a side of original pop material with a side of covers. Actually, "covers" isn't accurate – the six oldies that comprise the entirety of side one are re-creations, with Rundgren "faithfully" replicating the sound and feel of the Yardbirds ("Happenings Ten Years Time Ago"), Bob Dylan ("Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine"), Jimi Hendrix ("If Six Was Nine"), the Beach Boys ("Good Vibrations") and the Beatles "("Rain," "Strawberry Fields Forever"). All of this is entertaining, to a certain extent, especially since it's remarkable how close Rundgren comes to duplicating the very feel of the originals.

Faithful Breath - Fading Beauty (1974) & Faithful Breath - Back On My Hill (1980).
Those connecting Faithful Breath from Bochum with hard rock are right as regards their later works. In the beginning, however, they played psychedelia, then, initiated by their keyboarder Manfred von Buttlar, symphonic rock dominated by Mellotron. Their first LP is considered to be their best work: "Fading Beauty", recorded at the end of 1973 and released as a private pressing in early 1974. Especially the long track "Tharsis", occupying an entire side of the LP, is a real masterpiece. Already in 1991, the LP was released as a CD in the U.S. As it was no longer available, however, a re-release was overdue, which has been made from the master tape. In the 32-page booklet, there is the usual detailed band history and discography as well as plenty of cover and label reproductions and photographs of the artists…

An apocryphal tale says Juilliard Music Conservatory-trained musicians Michael Kamen, Marty Fulterman, and Dorian Rudnytsky decided in the late '60s in New York that they could make bigger bucks as rock stars than as classical musicians. The results of this legendary experiment were inconclusive. Forming the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, they broke with tradition on their first two albums – 1968's self-titled debut and Faithful Friends the next year – by using classical music instruments in rock songs and using rock instruments on classical pieces…

This is one of the first Symphonic albums to come out of Germany. And it's nothing like TRIUMVIRAT or even NOVALIS for that matter.This is melancholic and plodding with plenty of synths and mellotron. There are basically two side long suites with the first side being divided into two parts…