Kamasutra: Vollendung der Liebe is the soundtrack to the West German documentary film of the same name (1969), written by Innerspace Productions, an early name for the krautrock band Can, and officially released in 2009 by "Crippled Dick Hot Wax!". Initially, the film's producers commissioned only Irmin Schmidt to work on the soundtrack, finished with the contribution from Innerspace Productions.
Background Rob Young, the Can's biographer, felt the parts of the soundtrack were "as conventional as the Inner Space ever sounded" and unrecognizable from their previous recordings featured on Delay 1968. "In Kalkutta III" is marked by thumping, hypnotic funk-rock grooves, "Im Tempel" and "Im Orient" touched by "eastern-tinged psychedelia", and "Mundharmonika Beat" leads the band into the "bluesy, proto-krautrock" direction. The soundtrack has streaks of Indo jazz sounds, keeping to Indian aesthetics of the film.
Two tracks of Kamasutra have appeared on other Can compilation albums, under different titles and with a different mix: "There Was A Man" was previously released in a longer form on Delay 1968 as "Man Named Joe", and "Indisches Panorama V" appeared on The Lost Tapes as "Obscura Primavera".
Kamasutra is a partially lost film. The only known surviving scene features Innerspace performing "I'm Hiding My Nightingale" with Margarete Juvan.
The band had a higher advance for completing the soundtrack for Kamasutra, compared to Agilok & Blubbo, but they had to press the Kamasutras producer to deliver the payment.
Legacy "I'm Hiding My Nightingale" would appear as a B-side to the album's only single "Kama Sutra" (listed here as "Indisches Panorama I"), only credited to Irmin Schmidt. In 2015, "I'm Hiding My Nightingale" was covered by White Magic. This version featured Ariel Pink on guitar accompaniment and was released on the eponymous I'm Hiding My Nightingale EP.
Track listing
Personnel There are no credentials given in the liner notes. The presumed contributors, based on their typical contribution, are listed below.
Irmin Schmidt - composer Malcolm Mooney - vocals on "There Was A Man" Jaki Liebezeit - drums Michael Karoli - guitar David C. Johnson - flute Holger Czukay - bass Margarete Juvan - vocals on "I'm Hiding My Nightingale"
References