Straight to the Krankenhaus

Secret Oyster became somewhat of a super group when members of Burnin'red Ivanhoe, Coronarias Dans and Hurdy Gurdy formed this unit. By the end of BURNIN' RED IVANHOE's career (that spawned seven years), Karsten Vogel started forming a new band taking along with him BRI's drummer Thrige and often jazz-partner bassist Vinding with him. Knowing from the Danish circuit guitarist Claus Bohling, he enticed him into the band that took its name from a track from BRI's second album Secret Oysters Service. The last to join was keyboardist Knudsen, who had never played an electric instrument prior to entering this outfit, but was playing in a piano avant-garde trio. Knudsen would prove particularly helpful as the second songwriter of the group and allowing Vogel to leave the keyboards at will to play wind instruments.

Their sound recalled Mahavishnu Orchestra, Nucleus, Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi and Sextant albums as well as Miles Davis's Bitches Brew. Quite a success and this prompted their record company to release that album internationally but under the title "Furtive Pearl". After a line-up changze that saw the rhythm section get a complete overhaul (Staer for Vinding and Streenberg for Thrige) their second album, Sea Son, is even better but failed to get international public recognition, even if all connoisseur will mostly agree on this album being the band's apex. At one point the line-up of this group was also exactly the same as BURNIN' RED IVANHOE (after it got revived because they also developed rockier material) as well as a third outfit, "Day Of The Phoenix". This did not stop them from writing the music to a ballet "Vidunderlinge Kaelling" released as an album under the name of "Astarte", with very mixed results just a few months before their final album, the much better "Straight From The Krankenhaus" also known as "Orlander".

Aside from their confusion of their album names and general discography, Secret Oyster is a great jazz-rock/fusion outfit that deserved a lot more attention for they were almost as good as the groups named above.

All four original albums have received a thorough and outstanding remastering with added bonus tracks on the great label Laser's Edge. Secret Oyster got back together (Bohling, Vogel and Knudsen plus a new bassist and drummer) during the re-issues of their albums, touring the states and Denmark. Also maybe in the works, an un-released studio album (roots in the Astarte ballet deal) and a live album from these years could see the light of day in the following years.