It only makes sense that the land that brought us both Bach and Beethoven and Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt would be the first to even think about transcribing Lou Reed’s 1975 hocus pocus opus. Back in March of 2002, saxophonist Ulrich Krieger and accordion player Lucca Venitucci had their 34-page, through composed score performed by forward-thinking Teutons zeitkratzer at the venerable Maerzmusik, Haus der Berliner Festspiele. The Coney Island baby himself was in attendance that night, and with guitar in hand, he joined the rest of the strings, winds and percussion for the last 16-minutes of ear fuck.

Finally, after more than five years of only imagining, San Francisco label Asphodel will release the results of that magical night on Saturday, September 1st. No matter what it sounds like, I bet it kicks the teeth in of that “Ensemble Modern plays Zappa” disc a few years back. Either way, Bismarck must be beaming with pride.