Circus -

Circus was the Swiss symphonic-rock band behind the 1976–78 Zytglogge albums Circus, Movin’ On, All Stars Live, and the 1980 Illuminatus title Fearless, Tearless and Even Less.

Members: Marco Cerletti (bass, bass pedals, guitar, backing vocals), Andreas Grieder (flute, alto saxophone, backing vocals, tambourine), Roland Frei (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, saxophone), Fritz Hauser (drums, vibraphone, percussion), Stephan Ammann (keyboards)

Background

Circus formed in 1972 in Basel, a city in Northwest Switzerland at the border between the Alemanic (German speaking) and Romand (French speaking) regions. Percussionist Fritz Hauser and singer–guitarist Roland Frei (both born in 1953) formed the band with reedist Andreas Grieder, keyboardist Stephan Ammann, and bassist Marco Cerletti, the only non-Alemanic member.

Hauser made his first appearance (at age fifteen) as a contrabassist on the 1968 Jecklin-Disco release Elegie Op. 36 / Lieder Nach Gedichten Von Eichendorff Und Hesse, an album of compositions by Swiss Romantic composer Othmar Schoeck (1886–1957). He subsequently played in a ten-piece big band with future Circus members.

They attended local shows by Yes, Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator, and Audience — key influences along with English folk acts (Pentangle) and 19th-century classical composers (Dvorak, Ravel, Tchaikovsky). In September 1973, Circus played the Zurich Jazz Festival, a six-day event directed by Bruno Spoerri with sets by Esperanto, Passport, Chris Hinze, Larry Coryell, and Premiata Forneria Marconi. Ammann stepped aside before Circus reached the studio but returned to the band after their second album.

Circus

Circus released their self-titled debut album in September 1976 on Zytglogge.

The album navigates between restrained acoustic counterpoint and stretched-out ensemble passages, marked by the interplay between flutist Andreas Grieder and guitarist–saxophonist Roland Frei, who adds contrast in timbre and register with alternating lines on 6- and 12-string. Bassist Marco Cerletti provides a textural anchor with occasional pedal synth, supported by Fritz Hauser’s intricate underpinning on drums and vibraphone, which adds shifting accent patterns and pointillistic color to the longer pieces.

Circus unfolds as a study in extreme dynamic control and long-form pacing, where near-silence, gradual accumulation, and sudden density shifts drive the listening experience. “Stormsplinter” enters softly with voice foregrounded while flute traces light, hovering figures, then yields space to bass movement before closing without escalation; “Nowadays” stretches this approach across a broader canvas, opening almost imperceptibly, cutting between quiet plateaus and brief surges, and withholding sustained intensity until late sections tighten the ensemble.

“Sundays” holds a slower, even pulse, balancing acoustic guitar, keys, flute, and drums in contoured layers that thin and re-thicken as vocals recede and reappear. “Dawntalk” delays definition, spending its early minutes sparse and low-contrast before bass weight and later reed entries reshape the texture. The extended “Room for Sale” operates in chapters, building from a restrained opening into firmer ensemble motion, settling again for a vocal-led plateau, then cycling through heavier bass emphasis and a long instrumental span where flute, guitar, and rhythm pivot through shifting tension levels without locking into a fixed rhythmic center.

A1. “Stormsplinter” (2:45) – describes a world torn by elemental and emotional unrest, where the wind, storms, and ancient forces reflect human vulnerability and alienation. “I got to hold you somehow human / Watching the blame” anchors the speaker’s search for meaning in a broken world, amid imagery of myth and decay.
A2. “Nowadays” (10:49) – expresses detachment from sensation and connection, imagining a present devoid of touch, taste, or emotion. “Your fingers won’t be trembling like mine” conjures the solitude of emotional dislocation, as the speaker observes numbness spreading through others.
A3. “Sundays” (6:56) – conjures generational drift and spiritual inertia, framing family absence and modern distraction within a playful yet uneasy refrain. “There’s a dawning presage, it enfolds the tale / Everyone knows: there must be a fay” hints at forgotten mythic wisdom eclipsed by shallow routines.

B1. “Dawntalk” (5:07)
B2. “Room for Sale” (15:07) – unfolds as a surreal interior monologue tangled in paranoia, jealousy, and psychodrama within a decaying house, both literal and symbolic. “I widen my carnal outcry in a yawn” fuses lethargy and lust into a grotesque, self-aware gesture that echoes the album’s larger sense of disorientation.

Circus recorded the album in April 1976 at Studio Harald Blobel in Bottmingen. Martin Enggist served as chief engineer and also handled mixing, assisted during sessions by the band.

Turicaphon AG pressed the LP, which appeared in a fully-laminated cover printed by Druck AG Hombrechtikon with a thick insert featuring lyrics. Initial copies display the large Circus logo on dark red Zytglogge labels and some were issued with a promotional bio sheet.

Movin’ On

Circus released their second album, Movin’ On, in October 1977 on Zytglogge.

The album builds on their chamber-rock palette with a heavier focus on extended acoustic interplay and reed-layered passages. Flute by Andreas Grieder converses with Roland Frei’s tenor saxophone and acoustic guitar, while Marco Cerletti underpins the flow with twelve-string rhythmic figures and sustained bass pedal tones. Fritz Hauser anchors the ensemble with a hybrid percussion approach, combining vibraphone textures with shifting accents and dynamic restraint.

Movin’ On builds its momentum gradually across Side A, cycling through shifting densities and rhythmic forms before culminating in a side-long suite that unifies the album’s contrasting elements. “The Bandsman” opens with flute and acoustic guitar pacing in tandem, then pivots into layered instrumental interplay where tenor saxophone and drums stretch the pulse into alternating bursts and valleys. “Laughter Lane” and “Loveless Time” operate in overlapping registers—both start with subdued phrasing and incrementally intensify, exchanging quiet voice-led passages for sudden bass surges and saxophone interruptions.

“Dawn” extends this arc without vocals, splitting into two episodes: an initial segment of suspended vibraphone and flute statements, and a second half that resets into lopsided ostinatos and reed-centered improvisation. The 22-minute “Movin’ On” fractures and recombines its own structure repeatedly, shifting from fuzz-toned bass with darting flute lines to wordless choral refrains, then into extended instrumental transitions where each segment reorients the group’s internal gravity—alternating centered voice episodes with wide-open instrumental dispersals that return to tempo only to scatter again.

A1. “The Bandsman” (4:25) – conjures a surreal, ritualistic procession led by an enigmatic figure whose music moves the masses into trance and transformation. “I entered a silent procession, vibrating obsessions / a nightmare!” evokes a hypnotic submission to collective spectacle—equal parts magic, menace, and mystery.
A2. “Laughter Lane” (4:10) – reflects a confused emotional search for meaning, where memory, metaphor, and misdirection twist together in a haze of introspection. “It took me to a place where the light was so bright / I couldn’t find the pieces—I was blind” captures the paradox of clarity that blinds rather than illuminates.
A3. “Loveless Time” (5:33) – explores uncertainty, emotional renewal, and the fragility of belief, shifting from fear toward a guarded hope. “Set all your sails! your ship is heading east” urges release into uncharted waters, balancing vulnerability with the impulse to move forward.
A4. “Dawn” (7:50)

B. “Movin’ On” (22:19) – unfolds as an existential journey from doubt to affirmation, shifting between lyrical longing and sudden bursts of clarity. “How can you spell all the starlights you tell?” frames the impossibility of fully articulating transcendent experience, even while reaching for it.

Circus self-produced the album in May 1977 at Sinus Studio in Berne with engineers E. Merz and P.J. MacTaggart, assisted by Martin Enggist. Turicaphon AG pressed the album for Zytglogge Verlag, which packaged it in a semi-gloss gatefold sleeve with photography by Stefan Wenger and cover design by Christian Hügin. First-edition copies appear on dark blue Zytglogge labels.

All Stars Live

In 1978, Circus released All Stars Live, a concert album of fresh material from shows on January 26–27 at the Volkshaus Zurich and the Hotel National Berne. The album documents a singular collaboration that briefly repositions the band’s chamber-like approach within a more open, communal framework.

Unlike their tightly interwoven studio albums, this performance expands the lineup into a one-off collective of Swiss musicians from rock, folk, and jazz backgrounds, assembled under the name “Circus All Star Band.” The four core members—Marco Cerletti, Roland Frei, Andreas Grieder, and Fritz Hauser—anchor the arrangements, but much of the set’s texture comes from the extended ensemble.

Grieder’s flute and alto saxophone retain a central role, but now offset by Stephan Ammann’s electric keyboards and a rotating cast of guest guitarists, including Shiver Schafer and Eric Flückiger. Frei’s acoustic framework interlocks with Cerletti’s twelve-string counterpoint, while Hauser shares rhythmic duties with Ditschgi Gutzwiller and conguero Polo Hofer, creating a layered percussion base that departs from the restraint of Circus’s earlier sound. The expanded instrumentation opens space for freer dynamics and longer structural arcs, particularly across the two extended pieces that bookend the set.

A1. “Eight Miles on a Highway” (10:30)
A2. “Drivin’ Wheel” (6:00)
A3. “Andante maestoso / Rondo furioso” (5:47)

B. “Augusta rauricorum” (19:00)

Circus recorded the album live with the Maison Rouge Mobile Studio and completed mixing at Sinus Studio, Berne, with engineer Peter J. MacTaggart and assistant Norbert Brandt. Circus and Ammann share credit for composing and producing the material. All Stars Live appeared in a gatefold sleeve designed by Stephan Wenger with additional photography by Joseph Oubrecht.

Fearless, Tearless and Even Less

Circus released their third studio album, Fearless, Tearless and Even Less, in May 1980 on Illuminatus.

The album emphasizes expanded textures through synthesizer overlays and sustained reed tones, with Arp Quadra by Stephan Ammann orbiting the harmonic frame set by guitarist Roland Frei and bassist Marco Cerletti, whose interplay crosses between electric rhythm figures and fretless slides. Ammann’s Hammond C-3 voicings alternate with Frei’s tenor saxophone lines, while Fritz Hauser provides the rhythmic anchor through shifting backbeats and pitched percussion, adding color with vibraharp and wooden xylophone.

Fearless, Tearless and Even Less shifts Circus into more textural and synth-inflected territory, trading dual reeds for Arp layers and guitar shadings that alter their internal balance. “Leave It or Love It” builds through looping keyboard figures and staggered bass phrasing, eventually locking into a tensioned pull between Frei’s angular vocal lines and Cerletti’s fretless undercurrent. The title track carries that strain into clipped percussive patterns and cycling sax inflections that peak before receding into unresolved fragments.

“Hearts and Spaces” opens Side B with sparse pacing and clustered motifs that swell in controlled swells, while “Manaslu” stretches its runtime across slow-form sections that rise only in the final third, where the full quartet finally intersects around Ammann’s swelling organ backdrop.

A1. “The Night Step” (3:48)
A2. “Leave It or Love It” (7:33)
A3. “Berlin” (5:04)
A4. “Fearless Tearless and Even Less” (4:15)

B1. “Hearts and Spaces” (9:40)
B2. “Manaslu” (12:16)

Circus recorded and mixed the album in March 1980 at Trident Studios, London, with Steve Short as engineer and Martin Enggist assisting. They self-produced the material for Illuminatus, which issued the LP in a glossy sleeve featuring back cover photography and design by Stefan Wenger, with a front cover photo credited to Eric Weidmann.

Illuminatus lifted “The Night Step” as a single backed with the exclusive “Overture,” a live number sourced from a bootleg cassette (4:21).

Postlude

Later in 1980, Fritz Hauser and Stephan Ammann formed Blue Motion, a keyboard–percussion trio with Stephan Grieder. They pressed 500 copies of their live-in-studio album, later reissued on Lasers Edge.

Marco Cerletti surfaced with the 1990 jazz-rock solo album Random and Providence, which features him on Chapman Stick, bass, and e-bow, interacting on “The Art of Weathering November” with Irish didgeridoo player David Hopkins.

Discography: