Silberbart (metal, heavy krautrock / Germany)

Biography:

Not much is known about this obscure trio from Hamburg, Germany who only released one record during their short existence. 
That album, Four Times Sound Razing, from 1971 is one of the lost classics of Krautrock, an album that combines proto-heavy metal energy with free-form improvisation. 

Silberbart, whose name means Silver Beard, was formed in early 1971 by Hajo Teschner on guitars and vocals, Peter Behrens on drums and percussion, and Werner Klug on bass. Teschner had been in a Shadows-styled band Die Schocker in the mid-'60s before moving from a small town to Hamburg in 1967 to join the Tonics, a group that did studio work, television work, and even did some backup on some LPs for the Philips label in a musical style that Teschner would later describe as "everything that pleased and scratched nobody." 

When this group disbanded in 1970, Teschner, who had been interested in free jazz since age 15, was ready for something more adventuresome, and thus the experimental power trio Silberbart was born. Given his connections with Philips, he was even able to wrangle an album from the label. The trio recorded the album in April and May of 1971, and the record, Four Times Sound Razing, was released shortly after. 
The record contained just four long tracks, based on blues and heavy metal, but with a unique free-form structure and bizarre vocals on top. Unfortunately the strange, angst-imbued record did not attract much attention at the time, and with poor sales, Philips declined to keep the band on the label. The group kept going until the end of 1972 and then dissolved because of financial problems. Though Silberbart were barely known during their existence, by the end of the '70s they had appeared on the Nurse with Wound list of influences, as well as been being described as one of the most original bands in Germany in Tibor Knief's Einführung in die Rockmusik (Introduction to Rock Music).

Text: by Rolf Semprebon


Musicians:

Werner Klug - bass
Peter Behrens - drums, percussion
Hajo Teschner - guitar, vocals



Four Times Sound Razing (full album): https://youtu.be/oMUPlGrKtY8 :

Brain Brain: https://youtu.be/qgjzDghwn-E : 

Discography: 

Four Times Sound Razing (1971)