Gomorrha -

Gomorrha was a German Krautrock band behind two 1970/71 hard-rock albums, culminating with the 1972 Brain release I Turned to See Whose Voice It Was.

Members: Helmut Pohl (drums), Eberhard Krietsch (bass, organ, piano, vocals), Ali Claudi (guitar, vocals), Ad Ochel (guitar, vibraphone, vocals), Peter Otten (vocals), Mike Euler (bass)

Background

Gomorrha formed in early 1969 when Eberhard Krietsch and Helmut Pohl moved to Cologne and started assembling a band. Krietsch, a jazz pianist with prior ties to the Kurt Edelhagen Big Band, partnered with Pohl, a percussionist with formal training. They soon added guitarist Adalbert Ochel, a former Dixieland clarinetist and self-taught composer whom Krietsch met at an architecture firm. Jazz guitarist Ali Claudi, active since the early ’60s, joined later that year.

Gomorrha

Gomorrha released their self-titled debut album in 1970 on Cornet.

The album explores short-form psychedelic rock built on organ swells, flute interludes, and fuzz-toned guitar figures. Keyboardist Eberhard Krietsch alternates between piano, organ, and vibraphone in tandem with guitarist Ad Ochel and lead player Adi Claudi, who colors the arrangements with fluid lines and sharp bursts. Drummer Helmut Pohl supports the arrangements with tuned percussion and contributes to the vocal blend on several tracks.

A1. “Lola” (3:34)
A2. “Totes Land” (3:02)
A3. “Flammenhände” (2:49)
A4. “Reise” (2:11)
A5. “Regenbogenschein” (2:41)
A6. “Gestern” (2:59)

B1. “Kreiseltanz” (3:42)
B2. “Sommer” (3:21)
B3. “Trauma” (8:02)

Gomorrha recorded the album in 1970 with producer Konrad “Conny” Plank, who also supplied the liner notes. Printed and distributed through Carl v. d. Linnepe, the album appeared in a laminated gatefold sleeve with photography and layout by Graphicteam Köln. Plank composed the closing track “Trauma,” while the rest of the music is attributed to the band. Ochel and Krietsch share lyric duties across four tracks.

Due to Claudi’s vocal limitations and poor grasp on English, they hired bi-lingual singer/lyricist Peter Otten and remade the album.

Trauma

Gomorrha released their second album, Trauma, in 1971 on Cornet.

Here, they re-recorded select songs from their 1970 debut in English with new arrangements, longer forms, heavier arrangements, and increased interplay between organ, dual guitars, and flute.

Guitarist Ad Ochel splits instrumental duties with vibraphone, while Eberhard Krietsch alternates between piano and organ, layering harmonic accents under phrased leads by fellow guitarist Ali Claudi. Flutist Helmut Pohl moves between percussion and woodwind roles, supplying interjections that cut across the sustained keyboard figures and twin-guitar lines.

“Journey” opens in mid-pace repetition, cycling a fuzz-toned riff over understated vocals before organ and snare build tension. The 13-minute title track unfolds in distinct stages, first tethered to a rigid pulse, then gradually overtaken by guitar extrapolation that shifts from sluggish sustain into clipped and aggressive phrasing; by the nine-minute mark, organ overtakes the front channel with drawn-out modal figures. “Yesterday” builds in layers, with guitar and organ alternating short phrases above a staggered beat. “Lola” opens with fuzz guitar and organ trade-offs, settles briefly for vocals, then re-escalates into a denser instrumental sequence.

“Summer” relies more on upfront instrumental push, with guitar and bass staking out the foreground before the vocal enters. “Rainbowlight” stands out for its slightly warped pacing and keyboard blur, offering one of the album’s more atmospheric stretches. Elsewhere, “Dance of Circles” builds on percussive repetition with rotating organ lines, while “Firehands” rises on tense energy that dissipates once the vocals enter. “Dead Land,” placed early on the second side, lacks the same instrumental drive and has less impact overall. Throughout, the band emphasize dual-guitar tension, restrained use of organ, and intermittent vocal passages, stitched into compact or extended forms with shifting rhythmic intensity.

A1. “Journey” (3:10) = “Reise”
A2. “Trauma” (13:12)
A3. “Yesterday” (3:44) = “Gester“

B1. “Lola” (4:25)
B2. “Dead Land” (3:27) = “Totes Land”
B3. “Summer” (2:49) = “Sommer“
B4. “Rainbowlight” (2:41) = “Regenbogenschein”
B5. “Dance of Circles” (3:05) = “Kreiseltanz“
B6. “Firehands” (3:13) = “Flammenhände“

Cornet handled production and issued the album in a redesigned package with a translated lyric sheet by Brook Denning. Krietsch and Ochel authored the lyrics to the second side’s final four tracks, all reinterpreted from their earlier German versions.

Between albums, Gomorrha expanded to a six-piece with bassist Mike Eulner, whose presence allowed Eberhard Krietsch to concentrate on keyboards.

I Turned to See Whose Voice It Was

Gomorrha released their third album, I Turned to See Whose Voice It Was, in February 1972 on Brain.

The album stretches into extended forms with layered dynamics and thematic variation across six tracks, highlighting expanded interplay between dual guitars and keyboards. Ad Ochel and Ali Claudi trade passages across electric lines, while Eberhard Krietsch anchors and threads the arrangements with organ clusters and tonal shifts between piano and electric keys.

I Turned to See Whose Voice It Was opens with its longest and most structured track, “Dance on a Volcano,” which alternates phased-out heaviness and drifting restraint. The piece shifts early from overdriven guitar to a subdued midsection of acoustic strumming and soft organ tones, then rebuilds through staggered tension as the drums rise and organ reasserts dominance beneath the final vocal reprise. “Opening of the Sealed Book” opens sparse with percussion, voice, and scattered guitar; the second half pivots into a sharper instrumental drive shaped by repetition and snare. “Dead Life” unfolds in clipped sections, alternating slow vocal passages with an instrumental interlude of ascending organ lines and open-chord guitar.

The title track moves at quicker pace with acoustic rhythm guitar and auxiliary percussion, later branching into an extended jam with overlapping organ and electric guitar before pulling back for a final vocal. “I Try to Change This World” uses a loosely framed jam structure, with drums and organ stretching behind the vocal in the first half, then yielding to a prolonged instrumental section where guitar burns across shifting drum accents. “Tititsh Child” sustains high tempo with punctuated bursts from the full ensemble, centering organ stabs and angular guitar lines over a steady percussive base. Throughout the album, Gomorrha loosen their structures into more jam-oriented frameworks, keeping their sound grounded in rhythmic pulse while allowing the dual guitars and organ to dominate the foreground.

A1. “Dance On a Volcano” (10:07)
A2. “Opening of the Sealed Book” (5:46)
A3. “Dead Life” (3:54)

B1. “I Turned to See Whose Voice It Was” (7:46)
B2. “I Try to Change This World” (9:30)
B3. “Tititsh Child” (6:57)

Gomorrha recorded the album with Conny Plank, who returned as producer and oversaw lyrical adaptation on two tracks derived from traditional texts. Krietsch, Ochel, Claudi, and vocalist Peter Otten split writing duties across the remaining songs.

The sleeve presents a stylized torch-bearing figure on a plinth labeled “Gomorrha,” with the flame brightly colored against a grey pastoral backdrop. The bold, surrealist illustration contrasts artificial monumentality with stark, blocky landscapes, echoing the album’s jagged tonal contrasts and expansive energy.

Discography: