Brave New World -

Brave New World was a German Krautrock band behind the 1970 single “The World’s Full of People” and the 1972 Vertigo album Impressions on Reading Aldous Huxley.

Members: Dicky Tarrach (drums, percussion), Lucas Lindholm (bass, bass fiddle, organ, piano), Herb Geller (flute, cor anglais, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, organ), Reinhart Firchow (recorder, flute, ocarina, stylophone, percussion, vocals), John O’Brien-Docker (guitar, organ, percussion, vocals, wind chimes), Esther Daniels (vocals)

Background

Brave New World was a short-lived Hamburg-based studio project formed by musicians from jazz, rock, and studio backgrounds.

Saxophonist Herb Geller relocated from the US West Coast scene—where he played with Chet Baker, Maynard Ferguson, and Dinah Washington—to Germany, joining the NDR Bigband and lending his multi-reed versatility to numerous sessions. Guitarist–keyboardist John O’Brien-Docker, a London-born arranger active in Hamburg since the mid-1960s, performed earlier with Die City Preachers and penned songs for Lucifer’s Friend. Swedish bassist Lucas Lindholm arrived from sessions with Björn J:son Lindh, Bengt-Arne Wallin, and Doris, contributing both upright and electric bass to Nordic jazz and crossover projects. Drummer Dicky Tarrach, an early member of The Rattles and its spinoff Wonderland, brought rock credentials and rhythmic command.

Brave New World debuted in 1970 with “The World’s Full of People,” backed with an instrumental version. The single appeared on Columbia EMI (Germay) and AZ (France).

“The World’s Full of People” (2:42)

Impressions on Reading Aldous Huxley

Brave New World released Impressions on Reading Aldous Huxley in July 1972 on Vertigo.

The album unfolds as a conceptual suite with spoken passages and layered instrumental sections built on shifting textures and extended interplay. Guitarist John O’Brien-Docker and woodwind player Herb Geller trade foreground roles across long-form arrangements, weaving flute, saxophone, and keyboard motifs around O’Brien-Docker’s atmospheric guitar patterns. Reinhart Firchow’s reeds and stylophone accents serve as tonal foils, often entering in tandem or counterpoint to Geller’s phrases. Bassist Lucas Lindholm underpins the ensemble with low-end steadiness and intermittent piano grounding, while drummer Dicky Tarrach anchors each movement with a controlled, spacious backbeat that leaves room for the ensemble’s dynamic flux.

Impressions opens in suspended drift, with the brief “Prologue” layering faint organ tones under pastoral flute lines. “Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon…Ford” moves in phases, beginning with slow rhythmic pulses and textural overlays that alternate between acoustic guitar, fluid bass, and sustained keyboard swells. The tempo periodically falls away to near stillness before rebuilding into rolling cadences marked by busy cymbal work and sharper tonal contrasts. “Lenina” circles around a light flute motif and subdued rhythmic undercurrent, eventually framing a brief spoken sequence before dissolving again into airy flute.

“Soma” trades momentum for saturation, lining reverb-heavy guitar against spiraling organ tones and surging drums; short-tone phrases and gliding electronics interrupt the structure at key intervals. “Malpais Corn Dance” strips the pace to a steady percussion base, over which flute and recorder interlace with sing-song vocalizations. The 19-minute “The End” flows through distinct passages—at first sparse, then clustered—cycling between acoustic strumming, swelling flute, droning electronics, and saxophone bursts that emerge in the closing stretch. The recitative “Epilogue” ends the sequence with a brief spoken passage over faint wind chimes and open space.

A1. “Prologue” (1:02) – Firchow, O’Brien-Docker
A2. “Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon…Ford” (7:55) – O’Brien-Docker
A3. “Lenina” (4:27) – Geller, O’Brien-Docker
A4. “Soma” (5:22) – Geller, O’Brien-Docker
A5. “Malpais Corn Dance” (3:27) – O’Brien-Docker

B1. “The End” (19:22) – Firchow, O’Brien-Docker
B2. “Epilogue” (0:05) – Firchow, O’Brien-Docker

The group recorded the album on 16-track tape at Studio Maschen across six dates between May 1 and June 11, 1972. O’Brien-Docker produced the sessions and handled most of the arrangements, except for “Lenina,” which was arranged by Geller. Esther Daniels contributes a spoken part on that track.

Discography: