Electric Sandwich -

Electric Sandwich was a German Krautrock band that released a 1972 album on Brain.

Members: Jochen Carthaus (vocals, saxophone, harp), Jörg Ohlert (guitar, organ, Mellotron), Klaus Lormann (bass, vocals), Wolfgang Fabian (drums)

Background

Electric Sandwich formed in late 1969 in Bonn from a rotating pool of session players who favored spontaneous composition over rehearsed material. Bassist Klaus Lormann, a law student, had played with Chaotic Trust. Guitarist Jörg Ohlert studied physics and recorded with Slaves of Fire. Drummer Wolfgang Fabian co-founded the band while active in Muli and the Misfits. The final lineup solidified with the arrival of Jochen Carthaus, a saxophonist and vocalist fresh from The Flashbacks. Eschewing fixed arrangements, the group held weekly sessions to develop open-form material, complemented by additional meetings to shape lyrics and conceptual direction.

Their breakthrough came in 1972 when Brain Records producer Günther Körber discovered them at a national TV talent search held in Hannover. Though not officially invited to the finals, they performed during a break, impressing organizers enough to earn second place. Ohlert, Fabian, Lormann, and Carthaus soon signed with Brain for a trial session, which led to an album of jazz-influenced interplay, blues-inflected vocals, and textural instrumental shifts.

The Album

Electric Sandwich released their self-titled album in December 1972 on Brain.

The album centers on instrumental interaction between guitarist–keyboardist Jörg Ohlert and saxophonist–harmonica player Jochen Carthaus, who trade foreground roles across extended ensemble passages. Bassist Klaus Lormann and drummer Wolfgang Fabian provide an anchored underpin for the solo flights, with Lormann’s thick low-end runs locking into Fabian’s clipped rhythmic patterns.

Electric Sandwich opens with “China,” an eight-minute setpiece that pivots on a suspended beat, where phased wah-wah guitar threads through a slow, weighty pulse set by Wolfgang Fabian’s downstroke patterns and Klaus Lormann’s thick, asphaltic bass. Ornamented with hand percussion and subjected to abrupt tempo fragmentation near the end, the track stretches into a haze of distortion and drift. “Devil’s Dream” alternates between slow vocal passages and an improvised midsection marked by nimble ride cymbal, walking bass, and saxophone that escalates into distortion at the 3:45 mark.

“Nervous Creek” switches rapidly between forceful blues phrases and clipped jazz-rock turns, snapping back to its initial guitar–vocal theme after a minute-long instrumental bridge. On “It’s No Use to Run,” Jochen Carthaus layers sharp harmonica accents into a slow-shifting frame of blues-derived guitar and echoing snare punctuation. “I Want You” moves in stages from soft phrasing to full-volume sax and electric guitar dialogue, with thick organ bursts filling in the final stretch. “Archie’s Blues” strips back into a guitar-led jam built around controlled bends and slurred vibrato. “Material Darkness” begins in staggered bursts of bass, sax, and sustained guitar before loosening into a slower current that overlays fragmented Mellotron and delayed vocal lines without ever collapsing into a climax.

A1. “China” (8:03) – Ohlert, Lormann, Fabian
A2. “Devil’s Dream” (6:15) – Ohlert
A3. “Nervous Creek” (5:00) – Carthaus, Lormann

B1. “It’s No Use to Run” (4:00) – Lormann
B2. “I Want You” (5:24) – Carthaus
B3. “Archie’s Blues” (4:40) – Carthaus
B4. “Material Darkness” (5:02) – Carthaus

Sessions took place at Dierks Studios in Stommeln with production by Dieter Dierks, who worked in sequence on titles by Ash Ra Tempel, Dzyan, Emtidi, Hoelderlin, Jane, Krokodil, Lily, Message, Missing Link, Mythos, Nektar, Nine Days Wonder, Pell Mell, Twenty Sixty Six and Then, Wallenstein, and Wind.

Electric Sandwich appeared in a gatefold designed by Heinz Dofflein. It presents a chaotic sculptural still life staged against a black backdrop. At center, an exploded bun spills out wires, tubing, light bulbs, circuit boards, clock parts, and fruit, all splattered with yolk and detritus. Sparks burst from the background like firework arcs, creating mirrored light flares on both panels. Mock input jacks labeled “RUN,” “MIC,” and “EAR” decorate the bottom right, reinforcing the hybrid organic–electronic theme implied by the album’s title. The inner-spread shows the band seated behind the spectacle. Dofflein’s comedic, unsettling imagery appears on concurrent albums by Birth Control and Guru Guru.

In 1973, an edit of “China” (3:06) appeared as the b-side of their Dierks-penned standalone “On My Mind” (3:25), included as a bonus track on later CD reissues.

Postlude

Electric Sandwich continued three more years and issued one further single: “Das Liebe Bonn” backed with the funk-tinged “Der Guillaume Ist Ein Spion!” Jörg Ohlert co-wrote both sides with producer H.D. Ehrich. The single appeared in 1975 on Bonn-Bons Records with a cartoon sleeve by one W. Mössler.

A. “Das Liebe Bonn” [The Lovely Bonn] (5:45)
B. “Der Guillaume Ist Ein Spion!” [Guillaume Is a Spy!] (3:00)

Each member left music until the band’s 2003 reunion with all four members. They gigged locally despite the 2004 death of Jochen Carthaus. In 2018, Wolfgang Fabian issued Lava, a second Electric Sandwich disc, released one year after Klaus Lormann’s death.

Discography: