The possibility to excite and control charges in matter on ultrafast timescales is a key requisite to overcome the current limits of information transfer and data processing. The major route towards this milestone is based on the employment of short light pulses to manipulate the electro-optical properties of a solid. Nevertheless, the elusive physical mechanisms that unfold on extreme timescales are often complex and entangled, hindering their correct identification and possible exploitation. Here we investigate light-driven excitation in monocrystalline germanium by using attosecond transient reflection spectroscopy. We show that the complex regime established during light–matter interaction cannot be treated with simplified models but requires a detailed analysis in time and reciprocal space to address diverse phenomena such as tunnelling, band dressing, intra-band motion and multiphoton injection. Although …