AW-019: TUNDRAL - Übergangsklima
Label: Aurora Weltklang
Catalog No.: AW-019
Format: LP + Foldout Poster Insert
Release Date: May 1975
Recording Dates: January 11-21, 1975
Recording Location: Herzkammer Studio (Main Room + Vault G), Freiburg
Edition: 203 copies (hand-stamped, each with thermal ink imprint)
Total Runtime: 35:46
Genres: Psychedelic Rock · Prog-Kraut · Fusion · Free Rock · Experimental Groove
1. SIGNAL PRESSURE REVIEW
There’s something reckless about Übergangsklima that makes it hard to believe it ever came
out under the Aurora Weltklang banner. It sounds like the label’s house band got fed up with
ritual electronics and decided to plug in and blow out the studio walls. Recorded in January ’75
and pressed in barely two hundred hand-stamped copies, TUNDRAL’s sole LP burns through the
Herzkammer like a weather front.
The title translates to Transitional Climate, and that’s exactly the mood - no fixed season, just
pressure shifts and thermal flux. The opener, “Erstarrungsphase,” creeps in slow: Elsa
Trudering’s organ hovers cold and dense, Hajo Kler’s fuzz guitar coughs like machinery waking
up, and Bernd “Kyro” Mahl drives the kit like he’s kicking ice off the pedals. It finally thaws into
a full-on avalanche, prog gone volcanic. The follow-up, “Wärmewellen I,” stretches to nearly
eleven minutes - a cosmic jam where Mellotron ghosts and bass thunder coexist uneasily. Giro
Detzel anchors the chaos, and you can feel the tape straining to keep up.
Flip to Side B and it gets stranger. “Nachtstromfigur” is the storm’s eye - KUNO’s sax shrieks
through a pedal chain like it’s caught in the wrong century, while Trudering’s electric piano
rattles around the stereo field in panic mode. The closer, “Wärmewellen II (Return
Migration),” tightens the screws into something almost triumphant, a cracked sunrise after the
collapse.
TUNDRAL never made another record, but Übergangsklima didn’t need a sequel. It’s the sound
of a band testing the structural limits of their commune’s own studio - finding out how loud
freedom could get before the walls started sweating. If MIRRORDEN built temples to tone,
TUNDRAL lit theirs on fire.
2. TECHNICAL INFORMATION & RECORDING SPECIFICATIONS
• Recording Method: Live 4-track direct-to-reel (Telefunken M15); groove drift embraced; no
click track; minimal overdubs (organ/tape loop); live mixing via Patch Bay G (Herzkammer) by
Bernd “Kyro” Mahl.
• Instrumentation & Player Notes:
• Bernd “Kyro” Mahl - drums, tubular percussion, tape sync cues; most extroverted
performance in his AW discography.
• Elsa Trudering - organ, electric piano, Mellotron, tape cuts, group vocals; harmonic anchor
and source of texture shifts.
• Hajo Kler - guitar, lap steel, distortion-box modulation; jagged melodic bursts and wide
band sustain.
• Giro Detzel - bass guitar, bass clarinet, rough vox; dub-leaning low end with reed overtones
for harmonic grit.
• KUNO - saxophone, clarinet drones, vocal interjections; explosive reed swells often driven
into feedback.
• Additional Equipment: Gernot Wolff loaned a CR-400 deck integrated with a Noise Knot
oscillator core (CIG 1977) for temperature-reactive low-frequency drift, aligning with the
climatic concept.
• Tape Stock & Specs: BASF LGR 50, ¼″, 15 ips; reel wear and tape-loop chatter intentionally
retained.
• Mastering & Pressing: Lacquer cut by Gernot Wolff at Schwarzschild Vinyl Works (Freiburg);
center labels printed in thermal-reactive ink revealing glyphs with temperature shifts; deadwax
etching: “Druck ist Klang” (“Pressure is Sound”).
• Vinyl: 180 g black vinyl; matte black center labels; AW 019 stamped on inner ring.
3. PERSONNEL
• Bernd “Kyro” Mahl - percussion, tape, live mix routing
• Elsa Trudering - keyboards, Mellotron, tapes, vocals
• Bernd Gostner - guitar, low-field modulation
• Hajo Kler - guitars, modulation
• Giro Detzel - bass, clarinet, vocals
• KUNO - horns, drones, group vocals

4. TRACKLIST + CUE LOG
Side A - Outer Pressure (18:15)
1. Erstarrungsphase - 07:29
2. Wärmewellen I - 10:46
Side B - Interior Weather (17:31)
3. Nachtstromfigur - 09:42
4. Wärmewellen II - 07:49
Total Runtime: 35:46
5. INSERTS & VISUAL EPHEMERA

• Jacket: Reverse-board matte black with blind-embossed “storm grid” front pattern; no front
text; silver-foil spine reads AW 019 - Übergangsklima - TUNDRAL; rear label printed in thermal
reactive ink that fades under heat or cold.
• Insert: Foldout A3 poster - “Temperaturfelder” barometric overlay diagram (front); cue
diagrams, loop-routing sketches, and Detzel lyric fragments (back); rubber-stamped “JAN
1975.”
• Inner Sleeve: Poly-lined with camphor-oil residue (intentional anti-static treatment by Mahl);
approx. 11 known copies show fingerprint smears from oil application.
6. PHYSICAL RELEASE DETAILS

• Edition: 203 LPs, each hand-stamped and thermal-ink marked.
• Vinyl: 180 g, matte black center labels; inner ring printed with AW 019.
• Pressing/Assembly: Schwarzschild Vinyl Works, Freiburg.


7. SUBSEQUENT FORMATS & VARIANTS

• Alternate Track - “Schwellenzone”: Cited in Jori Tetschel’s notes; abandoned mid-take after
amp-spike incident.
• Unofficial Bootleg (1998, Leipzig): CD-R titled Trudering Group; sourced from worn vinyl with
incorrect credits.
• Lyric Fragment (insert marginalia): “…es war nicht laut, aber es zitterte” (“…it wasn’t loud,
but it trembled”).
8. EPILOGUE
TUNDRAL’s Übergangsklima hits like a long-delayed storm report - messy, loud, and full of
voltage. In a scene better known for ritual austerity, this record reminded everyone that the
commune could still rock like their lives depended on it. Every track is a snapshot of energy
under pressure, the sound of Herzkammer’s air thick with heat and feedback.
The album’s climate metaphor runs deep: a moment of change before things froze again. Even
now, Übergangsklima stands apart - not as an outlier, but as the document of a system in
motion, caught mid-shift between precision and chaos.
FOR LISTENERS OF:
• Guru Guru
• Agitation Free
• Yatha Sidhra
• Mythos
• Ash Ra Tempel
• MIRRORDEN - Side Room Recordings