Nearly nothing personal on this man can be found on the internet, not even his real age and his whereabouts of today. Well, he’s a mystery of experimental guitar music of the 70s, so much I can tell. I had never heard about this man until I received the request to review this album and now that I repeatedly listened to “Opens the seven gates of transcendental consciousness”, I have to confess that I am really floored by the dark and mysterious atmosphere of the music. Rather than regular songs you have several layers of chord and melody patterns shifted upon each other, performed with a semi distorted electric guitar that lives from a strong echo effect. A few other instruments may have been used as well even though I doubt to hear anything but electric guitars on this album. Even the oscillating buzz of the third track “Transformation” could easily be created with a guitar and a few effect machines. Halfway through the tune the music knocks over into some very bright and jubilant guitar melody structures. This album is entirely instrumental by the way but I thought you already guessed that. It has a krautish vibe due to the repetitive “layer upon layer” structure of the compositions. It has a folkish and ethnical edge due to the use of Spanish or eastern folk harmonies. The intention of Wilburn Burchette has been the creation of spiritual music that expands your mind in a positive way and transforms your soul and with that your body into a state of enlightenment. Folk from several different parts of the world surely has a big stake in the direction of this guitar masterpiece and even though there are many mood changes from the obscure lairs of the ancient druids to the light filled Celtic spring time ceremonies, this record really lifts up your spirit and cleans it from all the stress, anger and pain you experience throughout each day. Despite not being from Germany this album could be a typical experimental and even cosmic release of the krautrock scene from its era. The years 1970 to 1974 saw quite a few similar releases. Especially the last track of side B, “Realization” is a beautiful example of cosmic guitar music as it was produced only in that short period of time. It begins with some whistling fizzling buzz and then changes to a calm and mystical chord structure with strange echoes and spooky howls in the background. “Realization” slowly develops into a maelstrom that drags you into a musical black hole and swallows you directly. Not as wild and heavy as the early ASH RA TEMPEL albums, this piece could easily be a composition of the guitar legend Manuel Göttsching. So all in all, this is music for fans of blues and folk based, yet utterly freaked out and dirty echo guitar music and cosmic sounds such as A.R. & MACHINES, early TANGERINE DREAM, early KRAFTWERK, the above mentioned ASH RA TEMPEL, Walter Wegmüller or GULAAB.
