#night sun

[bonniebelbonbons]

Sun-kissed trees and pink skies

[biokam]

Julian Sands and Patricia Millardet in Night Sun (Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani, 1990), written by Vittorio Taviani (screenplay), Paolo Taviani (screenplay), Leo Tolstoy (story), and Tonino Guerra (collaboration)

[madonnaimpestata]

Night Sun - Got A Bone Of My Own

[alephskoteinos]

The thought occurs: what if Lucifer is the light bringer because he in his "fall" he descends and then rises up to bring the light of the underworld, or the rays of its hidden sun? And it's the visible sun, the sun of Apollo or Christ, that he raises his sword against; against whom he wages his war?

[radiophd]

night sun -- got a bone of my own

[vinylspinning]

Night Sun: Mournin’ (1972)

Long raved over by discerning proto-metal collectors, Night Sun’s sole LP from 1972, called Mournin’, was one of those overlooked gems which, whether through bad promotion, bad timing, or bad luck, barely notched a blip on rock ‘n’ roll’s radar at the time of its release. 

Formed from the ashes of a late-’60s jazz-rock band called Take Five, Bruno Schaab (vocals, bass), Walter Kirchgassner (guitar), Knut Rössler (organ, saxophone), and Ulrich Staudt (drums) briefly named themselves Night Sun Mournin’ ... see, it’s all there!

Like quite a few German hard rock albums of the day, Mournin’ was produced by the legendary Conny Plank (Faust, Kraftwerk, etc.), who took this Manheim quartet into Hamburg’s Windrose Studios and emerged with nine slices of dynamic, oft-surprising European heavy rock.

Surprising in that the spastic, explosive almost scat-sung opening tandem of “Plastic Shotgun” and “Crazy Woman” simultaneously launched the LP into full-blown metallic hyperbole, while acknowledging Night Sun’s unusual jazz experience, later revisited on the excellent, sax-dominated capper “Don’t Start Flying,” which reminds me of Blodwyn Pig.

But if this sounds a tad exotic to you, never fear, because, for the most part, songs like “Slush Pan Man,” “Blind,” “Nightmare” and “Come Down” follow in the footsteps of British heavies like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Atomic Rooster, much like Night Sun’s top-flight compatriots, Lucifer's Friend and Blackwater Park. 

I’d even go out on a limb and say that Night Sun are the equal of their heroes on a pair of foreboding standouts: “Got a Bone of My Own,” which eerily rises to greatness from murky guitar echoes, and the morbid “Living with the Dying,” which rides a hypnotic staccato groove, unleashing Blackmore-slippery guitar, overdriven organ, and even drum solos, along the way.

In all seriousness, if you’re curious enough to explore teutonic proto-metal beyond the Scorpions’ Lonesome Crow, the next two albums I’d recommend are Lucifer’s Friend’s self-titled debut and Night Sun’s Mournin’, and it’s a shame the latter would never record together again.

Instead, with the exception of frontman Bruno Schaab, who later worked with Kraut-rockers Guru Guru, the members of Night Sun quickly faded into obscurity, leaving Mournin’ as the only evidence of their mercurial existence, thus only increasing the mystique surrounding this LP over the years.

p.s. -- Some of these words were adapted from my All-Music Guide biography of Night Sun and my review of Mournin’.

More Obscure Early ‘70s Hard Rock: A.K.A.’s Do What You Like, Alamo’s Alamo, Ancient Grease's Women and Children First, Asterix’s Asterix, Atlee’s Flying a Head, Bang’s Mother/Bow to the King, Birtha’s Birtha, Blackwater Park’s Dirt Box, Blodwyn Pig’s Getting to This, Blues Creation’s Demon & Eleven Children, Bolder Damn’s Mourning, Boomerang’s Boomerang, Cactus’ Cactus, Captain Beyond’s Captain Beyond, Charlee’s Charlee, Copperhead's Copperhead, Cradle’s The History, Crushed Butler’s Uncrushed, Curly Curve’s Curly Curve, Dies Irae's First, Dust’s Dust, Flied Egg’s Dr. Siegel’s Fried Egg Shooting Machine, Flower Travellin’ Band’s Satori, A Foot in Coldwater’s A Foot in Coldwater, Gift’s Gift, Hairy Chapter's Can't Get Through, Hard Stuff’s Bulletproof, Haystacks Balboa's Haystacks Balboa, Head Machine’s Orgasm, Head Over Heels’ Head Over Heels, Heavy Cruiser’s Heavy Cruiser, High Tide's High Tide, Highway Robbery’s For Love or Money, Incredible Hog’s Volume 1, Jericho’s Jericho, Jerusalem’s Jerusalem, Jody Grind’s Far Canal, Kahvas Jute’s Wide Open, Leaf Hound’s Growers of Mushroom, Lucifer’s Friend’s Lucifer’s Friend, Murphy Blend’s First Loss, Night Sun’s Mournin’, Nitzinger’s Nitzinger, Orang-Utan’s Orang-Utan, Pink Fairies’ Never Neverland, Pluto’s Pluto, Poobah’s Let Me In, Road’s Road, Rumplestiltskin's Rumplestiltskin, Silberbart's 4 Times Sound Razing, Sky’s Don’t Hold Back, Sir Lord Baltimore’s Kingdom Come, Steel’s Steel, Stray’s Stray, Stray Dog’s Stray Dog, Tapiman’s Tapiman, Tear Gas' Tear Gas, Tempest’s Tempest, Thundermug’s Thundermug Strikes, Tiger B. Smith’s Tiger Rock, Tin House’s Tin House, Titanic’s Sea Wolf, Toad’s Toad, Toe Fat’s Toe Fat, Trapeze’s Medusa, Tucky Buzzard’s Tucky Buzzard, Ursa Major’s Ursa Major, Warhorse’s Warhorse, Warpig’s Warpig, Weed’s Weed.

[rockarollamansblog]

[lostjohnny]

Night Sun