Van Baelen’s English Connection
In early March 1978, the band, minus van Baelen, reconvenes at Der Blaue Auster in Berlin. Jamming as a trio, the band reach new levels of free-form expression centring around Kruger’s sexually promiscuous lyrics set to the primal thud of Kazuki and Berger’s percussion. The sessions evolve into the basis for the fifth album which remains untitled. Kruger places advertisements in the music press. Early versions of the album remain untitled and have no contributions from van Baelen. Using the new possibilities offered by Ashworth’s fanzine Falke Tränen the album distributes better than any previous Lustfaust release.
Meanwhile, van Baelen is recuperating in his hometown of Ghent and seeking session work to cover the financial losses he made personally on Lustfaust’s tour. Whilst in Ghent he applies (with his English-speaking mother’s help) to the Melody Maker Rock/Folk Contest South-East regional heats despite the fact that the competition is open only the UK natives. Van Baelen travels to the UK to play at the Folk/Rock contest and performs as a solo artist under the Lustfaust name, albeit in a style far removed from the noise excesses of the band. Van Baelen’s MOR-leaning pomp sees him successfully progress through to the grand final in July.
On his return to Belgium, van Baelen begins to learn English, sensing the potential of the career he dreams of in New York realised closer to home in London. Despite his attempts at mastering the language, he becomes aware that is linguistic capabilities are restricted and he makes the decision to return to Berlin and invite the other members of the band over to the UK to play with him.
Back in Berlin, Kruger, Kazuki and Berger remain cold to van Baelen, who is devastated to learn the band had released material without him. Van Baelen re-enters the fray after informing the other members of the gig he has scheduled in the UK – the first performance the band will have had outside of Germany. The band is again united by a communal will and sees the UK gig as a stepping stone to bigger things. Subsequently Kruger, Berger and Kazuki agree to re-release the fifth album, now titled Es Reut Mich and allow a single van Baelen contribution to be fitted in. This results in Van Baelen’s straightest rock song to date Faust von Gerechtigkeit, Faust der Wahrheit.