Et Cetera -

Et Cetera was a multi-national jazz-rock ensemble led by German keyboardist Wolfgang Dauner. They cut the 1971 Global Records disc Et Cetera and the 1972/73 MPS titles Knirsch and Et Cetera Live.

Members: Wolfgang Dauner (piano, organ, keyboards, electronics, flute, vocals), Jürgen Schmidt-Oehm (flute, vocals), Pierre Cavalli (guitar), Siegfried Schwab (guitar, vocals), Larry Coryell (guitar), Eberhard Weber (bass, cello, vocals), Günter Lenz (bass), Matthias Thurow (bass), Fred Braceful (drums, percussion, vocals), Jon Hiseman (drums), Lala Kovačev (drums)

For the French-Canadian Et Cetera, click here.

Background

Dauner assembled Et Cetera in 1971 as a Krautrock variant of his ongoing band, the Wolfgang Dauner Group, whose 1970 album Rischka’s Soul featured veteran guitarist Siegfried Schwab, rising cello-bassist Eberhard Weber, and percussionists Fred Braceful and Roland Wittich – all present on the first Et Cetera album. That lineup, minus Schwab, also appears on Dauner’s 1970 solo album Output, a free-form effort on ECM.

Et Cetera (1971)

Et Cetera released their self-titled debut album in 1971 on Global Records.

The album spans extended improvisational formats and blends electronic, modal, and ethnic elements across layered instrumentation. SiegSchwab and Wolfgang Dauner alternate between stringed and keyed instruments, creating textural overlap between sitar, swarmandal, veena, and clavinet, while Dauner also adds trumpet, flute, and modulated signals. Percussionist Fred Braceful vocalizes between ensemble peaks, anchored by Eberhard Weber’s cello-bass and second percussionist Roland Wittich.

Across Et Cetera, the music moves in long arcs that favor accumulation over release, often beginning with a fixed pulse or repeating figure before dissolving into unstable textures. “Thursday Morning Sunrise” opens with distorted electric piano and clustered percussion, then fractures into blurred cello, electronics, and abrupt density shifts; momentum drops out mid-span before pressure rebuilds in short, abrasive bursts.

“Lady Blue” compresses spoken text, acoustic guitar, choral fragments, and echo into a tight frame where elements overlap rather than resolve, while “Mellodroma 2a” holds a steadier contour through repeated acoustic patterns and sustained keyboard layers that resist dramatic escalation. Side-long “Raga” stretches time through slow phase changes, cycling ethnic strings and percussion against warped trumpet and keys, alternating calm plateaus with brief surges before thinning again near the close. “Milkstreets” abandons linear development altogether, assembling pointillistic keyboard stabs, free percussion, and drifting electronics into an open field that emphasizes texture and pacing over continuity.

A1. “Thursday Morning Sunrise” (11:38)
A2. “Lady Blue” (3:03)
A3. “Mellodroma 2a” (5:10)

B1. “Raga” (16:17)
B2. “Milkstreets” (4:15)

Dauner’s full arsenal consists of synthesizer, piano, Clavinet, clavichord, ring modulator, percussion, trumpet, and flute. Schwab counters with guitar, swarmandal, sitar, lute, veena, sarangi, tambura, psalter, flute, balafon, kalimba, and ring modulator.

Et Cetera recorded the album between December 9 and 12, 1970, at Orange Studios in London. Brian Hatt engineered the sessions, which Peter Kirsten produced for Global.

Schwab played on 1972/73 albums by Charly Antolini, Sincerely P.T., Utopia (aka Amon Duul II), and the Chris Hinze Combination amid stints in Embryo, the Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combination & Brass, and the Roland Kovac New Set. Weber cut three albums with Volker Kriegel and launched his bandleader career with the 1974 ECM release The Colours of Chloë.

Brain reissued Et Cetera in 1980 as Lady Blue.

Knirsch

Et Cetera released their second album, Knirsch, in 1972 on MPS Records. The cover highlights two featured guests: American jazz guitarist Larry Coryell and Colosseum drummer Jon Hiseman.

Wolfgang Dauner centers the album around layered keyboard textures and modulated electronics, trading lines with Coryell, whose phrasing interlocks with Dauner’s synth clusters and ring-modulated runs. Dual drummers Hiseman and Fred Braceful alternate between tension and release beneath the ensemble interplay, with Günter Lenz anchoring the lower register on acoustic and electric bass.

Knirsch (German for Crunch) opens with Larry Coryell’s “The Really Great Escape,” a distorted mid-tempo workout driven by fuzzed-out keys and phased guitar, overlaid with voice and sustained rhythmic push that builds intensity by layering saturation over a fixed pulse. “Sun” retreats into a quieter piano-led space where Dauner guides the ensemble through layered development, punctuated by sharp guitar accents and compact flourishes. “Yan” stretches the furthest from structure, beginning with fragmented electronics and unmoored textures before shifting into percussion-forward passages that fold back into quieter intervals, alternating abrasion with spatial openness.

“Tuning Spread” centers on shifting motifs over an aggressive low-end, with dazed fuzz overlays, pulsing rhythmic interjections, and long-form guitar and keyboard exchanges that escalate in short spirals before breaking into piano-led lateral motion. “Yin” closes the album with gradual accumulation: quiet percussion and filtered keys yield to denser interplay, distorted riffs, and sustained low-end motion that gives Dauner space to layer high-register synth textures before pulling back into an open-ended fade.

A1. “The Really Great Escape” (4:20)
A2. “Sun” (5:00)
A3. “Yan” (12:50)

B1. “Tuning Spread” (11:05)
B2. “Yin” (9:50)

The group recorded Knirsch in March 1972 at MPS-Studio in Villingen with engineer Rolf Donner. Willi Fruth supervised the sessions and produced the album for MPS.

Et Cetera Live

In 1973, MPS issued Et Cetera Live, recorded live in-house at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg.

Wolfgang Dauner drives the set with shifting textures on synthesizer and electric piano, interacting closely with violinist Jürgen Schmidt-Oehm and bassist–sitarist Matthias Thurow across extended, texturally evolving pieces. Dauner’s phrasing alternates between sustained electronics and rapid clusters, countered by Schmidt-Oehm’s bowed lines and Thurow’s transitions between bowed and plucked passages. Twin drummers Lala Kovacev and Fred Braceful shape the dynamic shifts across the suite-like material.

A1. “Twelve and nine” (12:00)
A2. “Introduction” (10:34)

B1. “Es soll ein Stück vom Willi sein” [It’s supposed to be a piece from Willi] (9:45)
B2. “Plumcake” (10:05)

C. “G X 3 and Blues” (22:00)

D1. “The Love That Cannot Speak It’s Name” (16:40)
D2. “Nemo’s Dream” (4:24)

Dauner recorded A1 through D1 live with the ensemble at Sielmingen in May 1973 using the mobile facilities of Tonstudio Bauer. Engineer Martin Wieland captured the sessions. D2 was recorded separately at Dauner’s own studio.

Discography: