"Songs No Words - Songs without Words" was the first solo album of the ex-Tangerine Dream member John Schmoelling that I bought and it drew me at first listen already under his spell, so that I also other albums by him bought. Unlike his other solo albums this is his most personal and to my taste even his best. It starts with the children's song "Nursery Rhyme", composed after a phone call from his son, who initiates the disk. Continue with "Gondola Song", a Venetian gondola song and "Spinning Wheel" whose rhythm is modeled on a rotating spinning wheel. Then comes "Jester's Night Watch", the most closely reminiscent of the '80s sound of Tangerine Dream. Each piece on this record is completely different from the others and absolutely succeeded. Above all, the varied and unusual sounds ensure that this album does not become boring. In the middle of the album, there is the "Autumn Song", which, similar to the first piece of a melancholic piano ballad, before continuing with the most unusual piece of "Huntsman's Song". "Hymn" begins with an intro that John Schmoelling has taken on a visit to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. "Maypole Song" is a six-minute tinkling and ringing and is intended to represent the dance around a Maypole. "Funeral March" finally gives the whole with his choral and bombastic sound a dramatic end. All in all a top album, which is not only interesting for Tangerine Dream fans, but for everyone who likes electronic music demanding and unusual.
