SILENT TRANSITION

“We had a lot of fun recording Silent Transition because of our shared passion for music”

(text Menno von Brucken Fock, edited by Peter Willemsen)

Flame Dream, hailing from Switzerland, may not be known by every fan of progressive rock. The band released six albums between 1977 and 1986, all of them self-financed without the backup of a (big) record  company. Like Genesis, Yes, Marillion, their fellow countrymen from Irrwisch, and many other bands from the eighties, the music became less progressive and more main stream, more radio-friendly and, so to say commercial. However, this attempt in order to be appealing to a wider audience, didn’t turn the way the band hoped for and Flame Dream seemed to have disbanded in 1986. The four core members Pit Furrer (drums, percussion), Urs Hochuli (bass, design), Peter Wolf (vocals, flutes), and Roland Ruckstuhl (keyboards) remained friends and all four of them earned their money in the music business with theatre productions, soundtracks, session work and designing. Keyboardist Ruckstuhl had begun to digitalize some of the older albums since fans kept asking about re-releasing the older albums on CD. It turned out to be impossible to add new music to these albums, so this led to the decision to record a whole new album to regain some attention from the fans of seventies progressive rock. So, after 38 years, Silent Transition is an impressive come back! Through an e-mail interview all my questions were answered by the whole band although some of the questions had been dealt with before in another interview, notably with Carpe Diem.

What did the members of Flame Dream do before Calatea? What kind of musical education did you all have to be able to play your instruments?

“We all started at an early age. Therefore, while still being in our musical education as well, we began Flame Dream. The band developed over the years, and to this day each of us individually and together are still learning new things as well as expanding our musical horizons.

Pit Furrer (drums, percussion) has followed private lessons, he went to a jazz-school, he studied classical percussion, and he had a drum school in Luzern. He also plays the accordion.

Urs Hochuli (bass, bass pedals, guitar, design) had private bass-lessons, and he was educated in rock music for guitar. He also studied graphic design.

Roland Ruckstuhl (piano, organ, keyboards, percussion) studied piano at the conservatory and arrangements, orchestrations, organ, and classical percussion. Moreover, he did workshops in sound engineering and production, and he was a long-time keyboard demonstrator.

Peter Wolf (vocals, flute, saxophones, oboe) studied flute at the conservatory, and saxophone on a jazz school. He had classical voice training, private lessons for oboe and workshops for writing lyrics in Dublin, his place of birth.”

Did you have a choice when you decided to finance all previous albums yourselves? The albums I own are on the Phonogram and Vertigo label, in those days well-known labels. Was no single record company interested after the first albums?

“When composing or writing your own music, the key question is: do you want to have artistic freedom and stay independent as much as possible? It’s also important to know who owns the recording rights of your compositions and lyrics? Therefore, we never had a choice since Switzerland is a very small country for progressive rock music. When we started Flame Dream in the mid-seventies, there was a lack of infrastructure and network. Our aim was to be able to produce independent music without restrictions, and to be the owner of our own musical works. Given the fact that our music was not regarded as being commercial, our first progressive rock albums were never played on the radio. The tracks were considered to be ‘too complex and too long’ for a radio format, so we had to do most of the work ourselves including the organization of our concert tours. We didn’t want to compromise as far as our music and the production were concerned. Therefore, we took our chance when Phonogram offered us a distribution contract, so we delivered the finished audio master tapes including the complete cover art. For the first album Calatea, Phonogram chose the Philips-label. The album was recorded and engineered by Jean Ristori, who used to be the bassist and cello player of Mainhorse. The positive feedback, the great reviews as well as the considerable sales, due to our strong live presence, gave us then the possibility to release the next albums Elements, Out In The Dark, and Supervision on the Vertigo-label. At that time, Vertigo was dedicated to progressive rock, and the label was also part of the distribution company Phonogram.”

What made the band decide to continue Flame Dream after Calatea, and how did you play live shows in the early eighties: with or without a guitarist?

From the detailed answer in ‘Der Carpe Diem (Prog-) Rock-Newsletter No.2 Dezember 2024:

Peter Wolf: "Due to the musical developments, there were differences regarding the future direction of the music and how we wanted to develop further. There were also irreconcilable opinions about the lyrics. It was his wish to leave our band and we respected that. It’s a fact that strong personalities in a band have areas of friction in the creative field, which also makes the music exciting. At the same time, it’s impossible to incorporate all the different ideas and/or musical styles in a band. For the four of us, this situation in the summer of 1979 was a turning point. As we couldn’t find a suitable guitarist, we decided to continue working as a four-piece. You have to bear in mind that the training opportunities for the e-guitar were very limited here at the time. There were no music schools or courses where you could learn pentatonic chords, bending or tremolo arm technique for sustained notes. Today, this is standard when learning the e-guitar. In addition, the new possibilities that we had thanks to the keyboard instruments and polyphonic flutes and saxophone presented us with an exciting musical challenge. The arrangements had to be different. Another difference was the fact that we no longer had a singer. As a result, I took singing lessons and trained vocal technique for years. A subject that is still with me today and is very important. This is particularly important in rock music. Regardless of the style of music, a voice makes a lasting impression depending on its sound and expression. As a result, it took a lot of work until we were able to set the vocals to match my voice with the complex arrangements and rhythms. The musical arrangements and Roland Ruckstuhl’s vast know-how form the basis for this."

Didn’t you make any live recordings between 1977 and 1986 or a single recording usable for an album or as a bonus track on the planned re-releases?

“We always had to record and produce our albums on very tight budgets. We had to set priorities for instruments, album productions and stage-equipment for our concerts. Therefore, professional full-scale live recordings on a multi-track machine were not possible. The purchase and maintenance of our instruments, the monitoring equipment as well as our own PA and light system were very cost intensive. However, we have 2-track recordings which we did at the time on a REVOX A 77 tape machine.”

Just as your compatriots of Irrwisch, you switched from progressive rock to a more commercial sound on your last two albums. Why did you make that choice?

From the detailed answer in ‘Der Carpe Diem (Prog-) Rock-Newsletter No.2 Dezember 2024:

Peter Wolf: "We were constantly working (daily rehearsals, part-time jobs and music lessons to finance the instruments and technology, tours, organization, recordings in the studio, 5 LP productions from 1979 to 1983 - i.e. one LP production per year in a very short time) and, as already mentioned, we had to organize everything ourselves. In 1978 we had a concert in Zurich at the Volkshaus together with the excellent band CIRCUS from Basel. They produced three (to this day) very listenable LPs themselves. We also had contact with the P.A. engineer of the band ISLAND, who had split up after their first excellent studio album in 1977. Their composer, Peter Scherer, then worked in NYC for around 30 years and, in addition to his versatile work as a musician and arranger (including with Laurie Anderson), composed excellent film soundtracks - e.g. «MORE THAN HONEY» by director Markus Imhof. There was also the band IRRWISCH, who played complex pieces on their first two albums. The common denominator was that, as a progressive rock band in Switzerland, you had to do (almost) everything yourself and budgets were extremely tight. The fact was that none of the musicians in these bands could make a living from their concerts, LP sales or music. The effort involved in playing and producing this music was not only very time-consuming, but also required financial resources. Thanks to their strong live presence and the distribution contract with Phonogram, FLAME DREAM had considerable LP sales and were also able to play live in neighboring Italy and Germany. Nevertheless, we also lacked the financial resources and a professional artist management with a longterm horizon and the necessary budget and stamina for Europe-wide tours. Fortunately, we were always able to ask Peter Zumsteg for his advice, who had a lot of international experience and know-how in the areas of live concerts and artist management. We were the only one of these bands to produce 6 LPs in a short time. In order to be able to realize these 6 LP productions, we went through a lot of hardship and dedicated ourselves solely and exclusively to this project from 1978 to 1983." 

Yes, our albums Travaganza and 8On6 were a lot more song orientated. We wanted to explore some new musical fields in songwriting. Around 1982-1983 the market for progressive rock bands with long tracks became exceedingly difficult. In retrospective, it became truly clear that our long prog rock tracks no longer generated interest, but eventually the complex compositions of our first four albums gained a lot more recognition.”

What was the reason the band decided to get back together again and record the new album Silent Transition?

From the detailed answer in ‘Der Carpe Diem (Prog-) Rock-Newsletter No.2 Dezember 2024:

Roland Ruckstuhl: "We had been working on digitizing our earlier progressive rock albums for quite some time. At the same time, of course, we were also thinking about how we wanted to release these works after such a long time. This gave rise to the idea of a bonus track in the form of a completely new song. Because I was working for one of the leading musical instrument manufacturers at the time, I was able to use the latest technical equipment to develop my musical ideas and record them. However, it turned out that the integration of an additional composition was impossible. This gave rise to the project for a new, complete album. After I had recorded the compositions as demos and presented them to Pit, Urs and Peter, we started the rehearsals with great enthusiasm. Peter’s lyrics were written during our rehearsals and in Dublin/Ireland. It was also about being able to draw a topical connection, or an arc, to the NOW. PW: We have never stopped playing or writing music. Our friendship has also continued and even deepened over the years. There were many reasons for working together again - including the ever-increasing demand for the re-release of our earlier progressive rock albums. You have to seize opportunities when they are available. 2022 was the year. Passion for Music."

Do you have the intension to release all previous albums on cd?

“As previously explained we work as independent producers, and as a unit with our own label. Therefore, we will re-release our back-catalogue step by step. The progressive rock albums Elements, Out In The Dark and Supervision are the albums mostly requested by our worldwide listeners or fans. Once we’re done with this work we’ll see what happens next.”

Will the re-releases be remastered and/or partially be re-recorded?“

Obviously, we aim for top quality. Therefore, the original half inch 15 IPS analog audio-master tapes will be digitized and the extensive cover art including the lyrics will be adapted for a CD-digipack. We will keep the sound from those analog days as authentic as possible. Therefore, we have no plans to re-record any tracks.”

Do you plan to produce a follow-up to Silent Transition within a few years?

“We continue to work on new compositions and on lyrics. There will be a follow up to Silent Transition. We will give ourselves enough time to develop another exciting album, and we assure you that the time-gap won’t be that long again.”

Many thanks for answering my questions, and I really hope the new album will sell well and finally give you some revenues!

“Again, we would like to thank you for taking the time to listen to the tracks of Silent Transition, and of course we also wish you the very best.”

Discography: Calatea (1978), Elements (1979), Out In The Dark (1981), Supervision (1982), Travaganza (1983), 8 On 6 (1986), Silent Transition (2024)