Haze -

Haze was the Swiss Krautrock band behind the 1971 album Hazecolor Dia on Bacillus Records.

Members: Heinz Schwab (lead guitar), Christian Scherler (vocals), Hans-Jürg Frei (guitar, organ), Dietmar Löw (bass), Kurt Frei (drums)

Inception

Haze formed in 1969 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, and spent two years honing a heavy psych-blues sound through local concerts and regional press coverage. They recorded Hazecolor Dia in April 1971, then faded from print after a final concert mention in mid-1972.

Hazecolor Dia

Haze released their singular album, Hazecolor Dia, in October 1971 on Bacillus.

The album presents extended arrangements centered on interlocking passages between guitarist Heinz Schwab and keyboardist Hans-Jürg Frei, who also doubles on rhythm guitar. Schwab alternates between sharp single-line leads and dense phrasing, while Frei’s organ underlines shifts in tonal momentum. Vocalist Christian Scherler threads through the instrumental dynamics with fluctuating urgency. Bassist Dietmar Löw wrote all five songs.

Hazecolor Dia unfolds across extended tracks that balance hard-edged blues structures with bursts of exploratory interplay. “Peaceful Nonsense” sets the tone with sharp alternations between slow-burning riffs and sudden tempo shifts, driven by angular guitar phrasing and waves of sustained organ. “Fast Career” moves through layered instrumental breaks with abrupt rhythmic turns and an improvisatory feel, letting organist Hans-Jürg Frei and guitarist Heinz Schwab trade lead presence in a climbing sequence of dynamic escalation.

“Decision,” the longest piece, builds on a slow, heavy-blues foundation that darkens steadily across its ten minutes, pulling tension from overdriven sustain, trailing fills, and drawn-out vocal phrasing that rises into piercing falsetto. Throughout the album, vocalist Christian Scherler stretches and exaggerates his lines with theatrical intensity—cutting between growls, shouts, and sudden upper-register howls—amplifying the album’s erratic energy.

A1. “Peaceful Nonsense” (7:21)
A2. “Fast Career” (8:37)
A3. “Be Yourself” (6:29)

B1. “A Way to Find the Paradise” (7:02)
B2. “Decision” (10:20)

Haze recorded the album in April 1971 at Dieter Dierks’ studio in Cologne-Stommeln under the production of Peter Hauke.

Hazecolor Dia appeared in a die-cut cover designed by Nine Days’ Wonder singer Walter Seyffer with photography by Nick Jarvis.

Postlude

Fifteen years after Hazecolor Dia, guitarist Heinz Schwab reemerged as a member of New Point, a jazz-funk and soul-rock outfit that briefly included Haze drummer Kurt Frei, reuniting the rhythm section from the 1971 lineup. Active into the 1990s, New Point issued three albums: Ma Sou Sou (1986, MSM), Monkey Forest (1992, Sound Service), and Different Colours (1996, Hear We Go).

Discography: