Music from Germany

*Released in 8-panel Digipak. Includes a 20-page booklet in German and English.* "Re: People I Know" is the first of two long pieces that Klaus played at his concert in Düsseldorf on September 30, 1977, similar to the impressive piece that Klaus Schulze performed in Brussels the same year at "St. Michael's Cathedral". has played. "Avec Arthur": During the long tour in 1979, Klaus played a long solo piece that filled the first half of the concerts as usual. After the break, Arthur Brown joined fo…

The sixth part of the out-of-print series offers recordings from the second half of the 70s. La Vie Electronique Vol. 6 contains three CDs. The first disc features numbers that Klaus Schulze played at a concert in Oberhausen in 1976, including "Schwanensee". The whole thing is supplemented by two solo pieces that Klaus Schulze recorded in the same year in the then newly established studio in Hambühren. The finale is the title “Fear At Madame Tussaud’s”, recorded in April 1977 in the London Plane…

The rarities of the electronic pioneer Klaus Schulze were previously released in a strictly limited edition, called "The Ultimate Edition" and document the history and the rich diversity of this exceptional musician, even more impressive than on his official releases. Now these recordings - completely remastered and for the first time in chronological order - are available in elaborate editions: Every episode contains 3 CDs in high-quality "vinyl look" with digipack including booklet with detail…

The third in Klaus Schulze's series of three-disc compilations of live and rare material (all of it previously released in his 50-disc Ultimate Edition box from 2000) is pure bliss for fans of early-'70s analog synthesizer music. The melodies swoop and whoosh like comets passing by a slowly drifting space station manned by dudes and ladies in unisex jumpsuits with long, perfectly coiffed hair, and beards on the men. Close your eyes and you're there. Many of these tracks are grouped into half-hou…

The third in Klaus Schulze's series of three-disc compilations of live and rare material (all of it previously released in his 50-disc Ultimate Edition box from 2000) is pure bliss for fans of early-'70s analog synthesizer music. The melodies swoop and whoosh like comets passing by a slowly drifting space station manned by dudes and ladies in unisex jumpsuits with long, perfectly coiffed hair, and beards on the men. Close your eyes and you're there. Many of these tracks are grouped into half-hou…

*Issued in 8-panel digipak with 20-page booklet.* As a member of seminal "kosmische" groups Ash Ra Tempel and Tangerine Dream, and throughout his long and distinguished solo career, Klaus Schulze has emerged as one of the pioneers of modern electronica. Pulsing analog sequencer rhythms and proto-ambient synth drones, presaged developments in techno and trance by nearly two decades. The three-disc set, La Vie Electronique 2, is the second in a comprehensive reissue program focused on rare tracks …

In 2009, Klaus D. Mueller and Schulze began releasing La Vie Electronique ("The Electronic Life"), a series of three-CD sets that reissued all the material previously released in these long-deleted box sets, plus a few unreleased tracks, with all the material put back in chronological sequence (the Edition sets mixed things up, time line-wise). Volume 1 covers the years 1968-1972 and is mainly very interesting. One highlight is "I Was Dreaming I Was Awake and Then I Woke Up and Found Myself Asle…

After his involvement w/ the monster debut albums by both Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, Schulze went solo and this is the first album (originally issued on OHR, 1972). The first of many classic space rock/trance epics; long tracks in which Schulze plays everything (electronic machines, organ, guitar, percussion, much more), this is some of the finest German Kosmiche Musik there, staggering work and really quite underrated once you get outside his cult following.

Second solo album of Schulze with a Cosmic Orchestra (12 cellos, 3 basses, 30 violins, 4 flutes) from 1973 (originally issued on Kosmiche Musik). This is a longer, ninety-minute odyssey into the strange musical world of Klaus Schulze as first unveiled on Irrlicht. Electrical sounds, synthesizers and manipulated recordings of classical instruments (cello, violin) combine to create chamber music for the electronic age, divided into four side-long works that each balance the equation differently. O…

*2022 stock* "The rhythm section is thunderous in general with Nilssen-Love providing polyrhythmic barrage fire to Brötzmann’s assaults. It is a vortex of sounds – some shrieking, others almost torn, spat, even puked – owing credits both to hardcore and to Dadaistic sound poems, sharing their free rhythms, their devoted declamation and their rejection of conventional form and content. Trio Roma is a supremely passionate and committed group." -Martin Schray, Free Jazz Blog

*2022 stock* 'Hans Werner Henze was, during his lifetime, probably the most-performed composer of western modern music, and his advanced yet sensuously traditional music remains an important presence on stages around the world today. Henze was deeply attached to Italy, where he spent a large part of his life. The roots of this album go back to a personal meeting between Henze and the Italian double bass virtuoso Daniele Roccato when Roccato was attempting to obtain Henze’s blessing for a theater…

*2022 stock* The relationship between Hans Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen was one of great mutual respect. The German composer admired the British conductor and composer for electrifying performances of Henze’s own and other composers’ works. Knussen was an untiring and enthusiastic champion of his friend Henze’s music. The recordings collected here display Knussen’s deep understanding of Henze’s music. Knussen conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in sensitive and meticulous performances of comp…

'Both bassists had made regular appearances in Victo over the past two decades, but no one in the audience could have guessed that it would be Kowald's last. The German improviser died in New York City four months later. The French-Canadian radio was not recording this concert, but the mixing desk engineer kept a tape rolling, just in case, and negotiations toward the release of this performance were already in progress when fate struck. There is magic on this record, especially in the last minu…

The Music Mind Experience is all about how we can transform our playing and listening into convincing performances and satisfying meditations every time. No neuroscience here: this book is thoroughly practical, intuitive, chock-full of simple practices and deep, common-sense insights. “A fantastic resource. Karl’s purpose is to reach beyond all intellectual concepts and feel the magic of intuitive playing and listening that we are all born with. Very easy to read and follow“ says the world-renow…

LP version. Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to many other musical stations, bustling Schnitzler was a member of the kraut-electronic formations Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Numerous solo releases complete his extensive oeuvre. One of them is Con 84, probabl…

LP version. Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to numerous solo releases Schnitzler was also involved in various band formations not least Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Representing another of his musical landmarks are the Consequenz releases. Consequenz II eme…

'Composed in 1970, Mantra, for two pianos and ring modulation, was one of the decisive turning points in Karlheinz Stockhausen’s career. The 70-minute piece not only signalled a break with the text-based intuitive works, relying heavily on improvisation, that had come to dominate his output towards the end of the previous decade and a return to fully notated scores, but also introduced the idea of melodic formulae, the “mantra” of the title, which Stockhausen would eventually develop into the or…

Kontakte is a Stockhausen classic from 1959, for electronics, percussion and piano (played here by David Tudor). One of his "moment form" compositions, which "...lead up to no climax, nor do they have prepared, and thus expected, climaxes, nor the usual introductory, intensifying, transitional, and cadential stages which are related to the curve of development in a whole work; they are rather immediately intense and -- permanently present -- endeavor to maintain the level of continued 'peaks' up…

*2022 stock* The origins and technical content of Strahlen (‘Rays’), a work left incomplete at the time of Stockhausen’s death, are complicated. It’s best to watch the documentary about the work before hearing it through, so that your mind’s eye is tuned in to what is going on, and what lies behind the concept and techniques used in its realisation. Part of the genesis of Strahlen was a desire to create a ‘virtual vibraphone’ with the ability to play extended notes, dynamic crescendos and freaki…

Blue Translucent Vinyl   Originally released in 1972, Zeit would be Tangerine Dream's third full length album, and the first to feature the main trio of Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, and Chris Fanke. The German electronic group pioneered the entire dark ambient genre with this work, whose title translates to "time," and was based on the philosophy that "time was in fact motionless and only existed in our own minds." Also worth noting is that Popol Vuh's Florian Fricke plays Moog synthesizer on th…