The East Movie

The Electric Family, led by singer and songwriter Tom "The Perc" Redecker, is not a group; it is a tribe of singers and players drawn from more than three decades of German space music. Previous records featured members of Thirsty Moon, Embryo, Amon Düül II and Grobschnitt as well as kindred spirits from the Tav Falco and Jimmy Page/Robert Plant bands. "Ice Cream Phoenix" (2003) is a true unity project. Part of the album was recorded in the old Studio of the DDR in the former East Berlin and brings together musicians from both sides of the fallen Wall and beyond, including pianist Rainer Kirchmann of the band Pankow, Agitation Free drummer Burghard Rausch and pedal steel guitarist Hermann Lammers-Meyer, a veteran of stone country sessions in Nashville and Austin, Texas…

Director David McVicar's original-period vision for this Mozartian gem allows its genius to speak for itself, offering a mesmerising, sensitive outstanding portrayal of Enlightenment-era fascination with the East that is both exquisitely acted and sung, featuring a Konstanze and a Belmonte sung with finesse and bravura and a sensationally voiced Osmin (The Guardian *****). Comic relief in Glyndebourne's brilliant production is provided by beautifully sung live-wire performances of Pedrillo and Blonde, and Robin Ticciati leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment through a restored, authentic rendition of the critical score with lovely fizz and poignant gravitas (The Independent).