Welcome to the Official Site of Brainticket & Joël Vandroogenbroeck.The history of Brainticket is virtually undocumented, and their origins are also very confused. And, although they are considered by many to be a Krautrock band, they were really a nomad troupe, going wherever the scene took them. Brainticket were formed in Basel, Switzerland, born out of the mid-1960's jazz and soul scenes, and were basically the project of Belgian born multi-instrumentalist Joël Vandroogenbroeck. Their origins can be traced back to 1968, as the nucleus of Barry & The Movements, though this was far away from the music they were later to create. Joël, along with a few like-minded musicians active in the South of Germany, inevitably got caught up in the fertile Krautrock scene, and like many other bands from the area they formed an international combo that drew on a wide range of influences.Their debut COTTONWOODHILL (sometimes just referred to as BRAINTICKET or "SAME") has long been one of the most revered and quoted of psychedelic albums. All but for the two short dreamy surreal tracks that open side 1 of the album (which hint at the later Brainticket sound), the majority of the album is a long repetitive funky groove opus, propelled along by chunky organ and percussion. It has the spirit of Can, the outrageousness of Funkadelic, and pre-empting Faust, and for 1971 it's certainly nothing less than revolutionary. Over this musical mantra, Dawn Muir recants vividly the experience of an extraordinary LSD trip, acting it out for us, including all the paranoia, visions of ecstasy, power and confusion, the pure surreal buzz of the experience. This is topped off by extraordinary use of special effects, sound-collage and electronics. And, if that weren't enough, they also resort to all manner of trickery and surprising diversions. It all adds up to a strange and unique album that's still surprisingly startling and fresh over 25 years on, and as a result it's also been the subject of numerous homage's.Moving base to Italy, some of the band split off and formed the Swiss hard-rock band Toad, and thus a new version of Brainticket evolved. Though Brainticket were never quite so radical or eccentric again, the second album PSYCHONAUT, being by a transitional band, covered a wide range of styles. It was more your typical trippy progressive, with actual songs and compositions, sometimes in the vein of early Hawkwind, yet often closer to Quintessence and Group 1850. There are many facets to the music here, especially when venturing on to trippy folk territory, with female lead vocals, akin to Emtidi or Pentangle (a little). New members: Swiss percussionist Barney Palm and American singer/multi-instrumentalist Carole Muriel, were to become the nucleus of the third version of Brainticket recording CELESTIAL OCEAN, a bizarre mystical concept based on Egyptian mythology. It's an album that saw a diversion to weirder more electronic realms, with strong use of ethnic instruments and a wealth of surprises. Strangely, in a way, it pre-empted Nik Turner's similarly conceived SPHINX XITINTODAY project, and its influence can be heard in much of 1980's space-rock. Though very different to the original Brainticket, they were still proving to be innovators. This trio apparently existed for some time touring Germany, Switzerland and Italy in the mid-1970's. Joël and Carole also worked with the Drum Circus project.We know that Brainticket carried on through the late-1970's, as concert tapes (unheard) have been advertised by some dealers, though nothing was released again until 1980. This later incarnation, who issued the albums ADVENTURE and VOYAGE, seemed to be purely a studio project, based in Basel Switzerland, making a highly experimental music, with lots of jazz and diverse ethnic influences. For the first time, Brainticket were a totally instrumental combo, leaving the music to speak for itself. Apart from a proliferation of electronics, these albums strongly feature percussion and flute, and in the established tradition of Brainticket, these were groundbreaking stuff, again radical innovative albums, though far from the psychedelic realms of the 1970's releases.In parallel to all this, during the late-1970's and through on to the 1990's, Joël Vandroogenbroeck has also fronted numerous other projects, he had is own jazz-rock band Joel, and has also done much solo work, collaborated with old Swiss jazz friend Bruno Spoerri, as well as travelling the world researching obscure ethnic music cultures. Currently he earns a living by recording music for film and TV. See Joël Vandroogenbroeck entry for more information.A 2001 Brainticket comeback could have been interesting, considering the stimulus that caused it to happen, yet ALCHEMIC UNIVERSE should never have been released as Brainticket (despite the inclusion of texts spoken by Carole Muriel), as largely it's a kind of techno-synth music solo album, and not a group project. Much of it sounds like an early Jan Hammer or Tonto (hints of David Vorhaus and Adrian Wagner) synth and jazzy mix, but with some modern techno elements thrown-in. The results are a bit of a mish-mash, and album that few will like all of.
-The Crack in the Cosmic Egg
