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Isaiah was a band from Innsbruck/Tyrol in Austria, founded in 1971 by Edu Weber (g, voc), Hans Gasser (b), Gerd Raabe (voc, fl, g, perc) and Walter Reschauer (dr, perc). Shortly afterwards, Hubertus K. Nolte (keyb, p, voc) and Michael Bornhorst (sax, cl) joined the band, turning it into a sextet. They named themselves Isaiah after a poem by Leonard Cohen. Thanks to numerous successful performances with exciting light shows and slide projections, they achieved a certain cult status in their home country (alongside Eela Craig and Paternoster), which brought them to the attention of the major label CBS, who offered them a record deal.
The sextet released their first and only self-titled LP in 1975 with guest musicians Erwein Eltz (tr, flh) and Jean Pierre Wuttke (sax), recorded in May 1975 at Austrophon Studio in Vienna. Their debut album presented jazzy progressive rock with saxophone, trumpet, flute and vocals, a kind of mixture of progressive jazz rock and blues rock. However, as they were just one of many bands playing the same style of jazzy rock with some prog elements, the record company terminated the contract. They finally broke up in 1979. Despite their nationwide popularity, the band remained completely unknown outside Austria. However, the few original copies of their debut album are now sought after by collectors worldwide.
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