CITY - "AM FENSTER" [aka "CITY"] (1978)

East Germany was not the most welcoming nation if you wanted to play rock music, expecially in the Seventies, when it was put under state control and artists had to obtain an Official License to record albums or play concerts. Obviously, that license was granted only to those who acknowledged many compromises (no long hair, no rebel clothes, no aggressive sound, no protest lyrics, and so on).
That's why a great part of East Germany's rock music in this era was bland and uninteresting. Anyway, there are some exceptions, and "Am Fenster" is definitely one of these.

The five tracks on the first side of the record represent the innocent face of the "license rock" I was saying, even though they are quite entertaining.
The second side is entirely occupied by the title track, a 17 minutes folk/rock fantasia, which is nothing less than an epic masterpiece. It's kinda surprising that a long composition like this was accepted by the authorities, considering that it's full of strange violin solos (wonderfully executed by bassist and band leader Georgi Gogow) and experimental evolutions. Maybe its moderate lyrics helped them approving it. 
The song was presented to the audience as an evidence of East Germany's artistic brilliance, and its radiophonic edit enjoyed popular success in West Germany and Greece also. The album has sold 500.000 copies in its homeland up to 1997. 

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