review by thomas

The lone album by this German group could not possibly be more diverse and rich in ideas. Four tracks of heavy progressive fusion sometimes played so furiously that you get really frightened. The group itself was seven men strong and producer Joachum Peterson (ex-member of Ikarus) gave musical aid with his saxophone and flute. Cornucopia’s sound is far removed from the likes of Mahavishnu Orchestra and Catapilla - not only due to Cornucopia using more vocals. Instead of the mentioned bands strong jazz inclinations it’s the heavy, dark progressive rock that shines the brightest on “Full Horn”.

Their style is in its essence on the wholeside “Day of a Daydreambeliever” which furthermore has one of the most outstanding bass sound I’ve ever come across. Building up with a heavy and rumbling bass, an arsenal of percussion, a sinister organ sound, thunderous drums, twisted guitar sounds and an aggressive vocal style an emotion of fright and threat – doom if you like – establish itself during this masterpiece song. I really feel like someone or something sinister is lurking inside the speakers. This is however relieved by some acoustic moments halfway through the song; followed by some up-tempo heavy assaults and then a bit of melodic playing and quietness before a new sinister build-up starts. When the song is over you feel quite overwhelmed by the sheer aggressiveness and the overall sinister music.

While “Day of a…” may be truest to the fusion tag Cornucopia shifts quite naturally and easily between different genres and moods on the three songs making up side B. “Morning Sun, Version 127” is a short pop-folksy kind of piece complete with vocal harmonies (although giving you the impression that they are mocking the singles genre I wouldn’t have been surprised seeing this one on some single chart back in ’73). On “Spot on You, Kids” they unleash the circus organ together with heavy metallic parts in the beginning. With fantastic drums and that sinister organ again, they run through this twelve minutes long song with a cascade of sounds and finish it with more circus sounds which segues into “And the Madness…”, a beautiful swan-song with the organ and the vocals at front, creating a sort of transcendent sound.

“Full Horn” is altogether highly original and has a richness of ideas hard to beat. Despite this variety of sounds it never sounds diverged to the point of ruining the album’s conceptual body, the unified album as a whole. How I would have loved another album of theirs to explore! Sadly they did make only one album, but what an album!