fading beauty

• Mastering Source: Transferred from the master tapes
• Packaging: Jewel case with an extensive illustrated booklet featuring the band’s history, detailed discography, photographs and reproductions of the original cover and record labels

Originally privately released in 1974, Fading Beauty was the debut album by Faithful Breath and captures the German group during its early symphonic and progressive-rock period. Its spacious compositions, science-fiction imagery and extensive use of keyboards are far removed from the harder rock and heavy-metal direction the band would follow during the 1980s.

The album consists of two extended suites. “Autumn Fantasia” occupies the first half of the recording and is divided into the movements “Fading Beauty” and “Lingering Cold.” The music develops gradually through acoustic and twelve-string guitar, piano, organ and Mellotron, moving between quiet pastoral passages and fuller symphonic arrangements.

Female backing vocals by Renate Heemann give parts of “Lingering Cold” an almost choral character, while the interplay between Manfred von Buttlar’s keyboards and Heinz Mikus’ guitar creates a melancholy atmosphere. The restrained bass and drums allow the arrangement to expand naturally without losing its melodic focus.

The twenty-one-minute “Tharsis” is the album’s most ambitious composition. Built around a science-fiction and fantasy narrative, it moves through dramatic vocal sections, Mellotron textures, heavy guitar passages and long instrumental developments. Its changing moods range from reflective symphonic rock to darker and more forceful psychedelic sections.

Recorded at Tonstudio am Dom in Cologne at the end of 1973, the album was initially issued by the musicians themselves. This Garden of Delights edition was prepared from the master tapes and includes extensive documentation of Faithful Breath’s formative progressive-rock years.

Track Listing

1. Autumn Fantasia – 22:32
   1. First Movement: Fading Beauty – 12:08
   2. Second Movement: Lingering Cold – 10:25
2. Tharsis – 21:38