"Brandung" was clearly an album designed not only to maintain the success the band had gained with "Sommerabend", but also expand it further. And it worked. Glossy, polished and with a clear focus on lighter, more upbeat and catchier melodies, but fortunately still framed within the symphonic progressive rock style. Based around a beautiful Mellotron theme and an immediately catchy chorus, Job's opener "Irgendwo, Irgendwann" even became a sizeable hit in Germany. Mühlbück also revealed himself as a talented songwriter. The short acoustic ballad "Wenn Nicht Mehr Zahlen und Figuren" features his voice at its pleasantly best. "Astralis" was however more typical for his compositional style, and would become the best-known and most popular track from the album. It opens and ends with an infectious synth/vocal theme, and the verse and chorus maintain the melodic and atmospheric qualities that always were Novalis' strongest card. Both tracks also continued the band's tradition of using Freiherr von Hardenberg's poetry in the lyrics. Rahn wrote the multipart suite "Sonnenwende" together with Mühlbück, and it would turn out to be the band's last side-long epic. It consists of four distinctive sections, and opens with the instrumental "Brandung" that features Rahn's Mellotron flute over a steady mid-paced rhythm. Shimmering piano, string-synths and clavinet also join in after a while, but are all quickly cut off when "Feuer bricht in die Zeit" comes in with its quirky, funky rhythm and utterly catchy chorus. "Sonnenfinsternis" builds up from a low-key vocal opening to a symphonic instrumental dominated by Rahn's organ, harpsichord and Mellotron-choir. The closing section "Dämmerung" has a mellow verse and quite mighty chorus before it ends in an emotional and grandiose finale well worthy the whole suite. "Brandung" was even acclaimed by the music-press, and that was not a thing that any symphonic progressive rock band could take for granted in 1977.