LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Vita Nova’s only album is a rare Austrian/German progressive rock recording from 1971, full of short, theatrical pieces and sudden changes of colour. Rather than building the record around long heavy jams, the group create a strange chamber prog atmosphere, using organ, flute, guitar, voices and unusual arrangements to move quickly between folk-like passages, jazz-rock turns and darker psychedelic moments.

The album has a very individual character, partly because of its use of Latin titles and choral textures, and partly because the songs often feel like small scenes from a larger, eccentric work. Pieces such as Quomodo Manet, Vita Nova Inventions, Heya-Cleya and Tempus Est make it a distinctive title for collectors of early-1970s continental progressive rock. This Garden Of Delights LP reissue adds Olymp 99 as a bonus track.

1. Quomodo Manet
2. Vita Nova Inventions
3. Whirl Wind
4. Istanbul
5. Sylvester
6. Wildman
7. Inventions Finale
8. Heya-Cleya
9. Olymp 99 (bonus track)

1. Adoramus
2. Sunt Alteri
3. Adoramus Finale
4. Tempus Est
5. Lacrimosa (Death Of A World)