Rüdiger Carl Inc., King Alcohol (New Version) (side A)

Rüdiger Carl's 1972 debut is typical of German free-improv albums from the early-70s.  King Alcohol (New Version) is well executed, but it gives few hints of how inventive his work would become soon thereafter.  Where his mid-70s collaborations with Irène Schweizer are more differentiated, King Alcohol is nonetheless a fine album.  Rüdiger Carl Inc. was a trio with Gunter Christmann on trombone and the less-well-remembered percussionist Detlef Schönenberg.  Their playing is interesting and tasteful, and the live recording quality is competent.  The simple line drawing on the cover is funny and contrasts emphatically with the gothic font.  The combination, while absurd, gives little hint of the album's musical contents—as this style of improvisation had not yet calcified into a genre, the incoherence seems historically somewhat appropriate.