Novalis

About Novalis

Novalis was a 1970s progressive rock group formed in Germany. Their best-known albums include Sommerabend and Wer Schmetterlinge lachen hört.

Inception: 1971

Sommerabendknown for Banished Bridgeknown for Novalisknown for

Overview

Novalis was a 1970s progressive-rock group formed in Germany. Their best-known albums include Sommerabend and Wer Schmetterlinge lachen hört. Band history Vocalist Jürgen Wentzel and bassist Heino Schünzel placed a newspaper advertisement in search of bandmates in Hamburg in 1971. They were joined by organist Lutz Rahn and drummer Hartwig Biereichel. Together with guitarist Carlo Karges they formed Mosaik, soon changing the name of the band to Novalis. After the release of their first album in 1973, Wentzel left the group and Heino Schünzel took on vocal duties. Carlo Karges, who would go on to join Nena's backing band, was replaced by Detlef Job. Austrian vocalist Fred Mühlböck joined the group in 1976. The lyrics used on the group's first album were written in English, but on the suggestion of new producer Achim Reichel, formerly of The Rattles, they began to sing in German in 1975. The group incorporated poems by their namesake, the Romantic-era writer Novalis, among others, into their work, along with their own lyrics.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“Unser Leben ist kein Traum, aber es soll und wird vielleicht einer werden.”
— Our life is no dream, but it should and will perhaps become one.
“Die Möglichkeit aller Philosophie ... dass sich die Intelligenz durch Selbstberührung eine Selbstgesezmäßige Bewegung - d.i. eine eigne Form der Tätigkeit gibt.”
— The possibility of all philosophy ... namely, that the intelligence, by affecting itself, gives itself a movement in accordance with its own law — that is, gives itself a form of activity all its own.
“The best thing about the sciences is their philosophical ingredient, like life for an organic body. If one dephilosophizes the sciences, what remains left? Earth, air, and water.”
— Fragment No. 62
“The normal present connects the past and the future through limitation. Contiguity results, crystallization by means of solidification. There also exists, however, a spiritual present that identifies past and future through dissolution, and this mixture is the element, the atmosphere of the poet.”
— Fragment No. 109
“Philosophy can bake no bread; but she can procure for us God, Freedom, Immortality. Which, then, is more practical, Philosophy or Economy?”
— The first sentence of this was used by William Torrey Harris for the motto of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy
“Nature too remains, so far as we have yet come, ever a frightful Machine of Death: everywhere monstrous revolution, inexplicable vortices of movement; a kingdom of Devouring, of the maddest tyranny; a baleful Immense: the few light-points disclose but a so much the more appalling Night, and terrors of all sorts must palsy every observer.”
— Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1840) vol. 2, p. 232

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.