★Bureau B
Martin Rev
LP version. "Martin Rev's eponymous debut solo record was released in 1980, not long after the second Suicide LP appeared. It is one of the most seminal albums to have emerged in the early years of electronic music?. The tension between his hypnotic drum machine salvoes and Alan Vega's irrepressibly expressive voice on stage or in the studio created an electrifying mix, and yet these six supremely minimal compositions were no less impactful without Vega's voice. There is an enchanting simplicity…
Electronique Guerilla (Heldon I)
50th Anniversary Edition: hand numbered, limited edition blue vinyl, 500 copies available. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's debut album Electronique Guerilla, originally released on Disjuncta in 1974. In 1973, 22-year old Richard Pinhas was well on his way to becoming a full-time philosopher. He had almost finished his PhD and begun teaching at the University of Paris. But he also had a hobby: writing music and recording it himself. When he submitted a few tracks to British label E.G. (hom…
Metaluna
The avant-garde Kraut ensemble Supersempfft laid the foundation for their techno-tropical pop music in 1979 with their debut album "Roboterwerke." In 1981, they followed up with the album "Metaluna," which is now being honored through a re-release on Bureau B. The group, consisting of Dieter Kolb, Franz Knüttel, and Franz Aumüller, fused global influences, experimental sonic landscapes, and surreal lyrics into a unique sonic cosmos. "Metaluna" stands out with its meandering sequences, unconventi…
Ein Bündel Fäulnis In Der Grube
With "Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube", Holger Hiller presented his solo debut having left Palais Schaumburg. Originally released in 1983 on the Düsseldorf scene label Ata Tak, an international release followed in 1984 via Cherry Red Records. Combining electronic sequencer sounds and sampling fragments with unconventional lyrics its multidisciplinary approach locates it somewhere between the pop and avant-garde. Bureau B is now making the work accessible again on its 40th anniversary.
1981
Based on the live versions of their "Liederbuch" tour, which took the Welttraumforscher from Milano to London or Vienna during the last two years, they developed completely new versions of songs such as "Der Traum der Welt", "This Could Be The Greatest Love in Town" or "Alpha Beta Centauri" in the summer of 2023. These special tracks as well as two unreleased songs can be found on their new cassette, which with the title "1981" refers to the founding year of the Welttraumforscher. After 19 years…
Zero Set
In 1983, Dieter Moebius (Cluster) and legendary producer Conny Plank teamed up for the third time, resulting in the Zero Set project, originally released on Sky Records. On this occasion, they were backed up by one of the best drummers on the German rock scene: Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru. Plank, usually more of a background figure as producer, takes an equal share of the limelight alongside the musicians. His supermodern studio is brought into play like an instrument in its own right; Plank expl…
Tonspuren
This is the first solo album by Dieter Moebius, recorded at Conny Plank's studio and originally released in 1983 on Sky Records. By 1969 at the latest, Dieter Moebius was synonymous with the avant-garde electronic music scene in Germany. He and Hans-Joachim Roedelius formed Cluster, a seminal electronic/ambient duo, while Moebius was also a member of the so-called Krautrock supergroup Harmonia (with Michael Rother and Roedelius), as well as collaborating on various other projects with the likes …
Oceanheart
"Sky, the record company, were more than a little disappointed with the performance of Grosskopf's first solo effort "Synthesist", so there was no great sense of urgency as far as its successor was concerned. "they even halved my advance!" Grosskopf recalls. "Oceanheart" was released some six years after "Synthesist". "The album title reflects my love of transcendental meditation, of course it might be taken for watery esoterics." (A similar vibe was evident in the cover art, hence fresh artwork…
The Sum Of Our Wounds (Cassette Recordings 1973-85)
Red Vinyl, edition of 500. The archetypal Martin Rev sound – a perennial influence on generations of musicians – is most prominently in evidence in the works of Suicide, the duo he played in across the decades with with Alan Vega. However, the radical and distinctive nature of his music can be traced further back in time, originating in the base energy of rock’n’roll which the teenage Rev experienced as the ubiquitous soundtrack to his home city of New York.
Geltungsbereich Universum
LP version. All the herbs have been smoked. Datashock deliver a new album: Geltungsbereich Universum. Their second for Bureau B and the eighth in a career as an internationally active collective of musicians which has spanned two decades (so far). Space is the place, as the moonstruck sparrows sing from the rooftops, or is the Earth the most beautiful place in the universe? Some say yes, others no. Datashock say nothing at all."Twenty years and counting, and yet here they are, as shoulder-shrugg…
Attack Time
With Attack Time’ by sound tinkerer Zeus B. Held, Bureau B is re-releasing one of the most exciting records of the original experimental Kraut-pop period. After various stints, including prog band Birth Control and underground dance tipple Gina X Performance, he also put out a string of solo releases. ’Attack Time’, originally released on Aladin in 1981, gave Zeus B. Held the opportunity to experiment sonically outside the mainstream and subversively undermine the hegemonic MTV sound of the earl…
Sprung Aus Den Wolken
*2023 stock* The Berlin project Sprung Aus Den Wolken was part of the "Geniale Dilletanten" movement in the early 1980s, along with Einstürzende Neubauten and Mechanik Destrüktiw Komandöh. The band first released an EP on ZickZack in 1981, followed by further releases on the band's own record label Faux Pas in 1982 and 1983, then on the French outlet Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'Acier until 1991. The track Pas Attendre was part of the soundtrack of Wim Wender’s movie Der Himmel über Berlin a…
Material
*2023 stock* "On their second album Material, originally released on Sky Records in 1981, Moebius & Plank ventured far, far away from the double coordinates of the Harmonia world and pop music cosmos. Amazingly, they did not find themselves floating in space, but made an exemplary landing, avoiding getting caught between a rock and a hard place. Material saw them generate a form of genre-busting electronic music, more radical than anything one might have expected to come out of Germany, not even…
To Live
American indie label File 13 Records released what was already Martin Rev's sixth solo album in the autumn of 2003. The previous year, Rev and his musical partner Alan Vega had struck out in a new direction on their "American Supreme" album and Rev's solo works continued in a similar vein. If "Strangeworld" from the year 2000 actually felt more like a timeless abstract of Martin Rev's entire spectrum of musical influences, "To Live", three years later, introduces more contemporary elements, incl…
Allez-Teia (Heldon II)
*2023 stock* Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's second album Allez-Teia, originally released on Disjuncta in 1975. Before making his own music in the early '70s, Richard Pinhas was a King Crimson fan. The British group has buzzed in Pinhas's mind for decades, but their greatest impact came early. When he first saw them play, Pinhas was struck by music played during intermission. "When I saw (King Crimson guitarist) Robert Fripp and Brian Eno perform in Paris later, I realized that the interm…
Double Cut
*2023 stock* The second of two collaborations involving Moebius and Gerd Beerbohm, Double Cut sounds miles away from the relatively harmless electronic/pop experiments of solo work by Moebius or Cluster. Consisting of only four extended tracks, the album expresses the dark side of electronics courtesy of the repetitive trance-state on "Hydrogen" and "Minimotion." Double Cut is much closer to electronic inheritors in the experimental and techno fields than Moebius' usual new age pursuits.
Offene Türen
*2023 stock* "...Offene Türen shows a more avant-garde side. The pieces in their brevity are often sketchy, acting as sound miniatures. The instrumentation is minimal with origins in the Selbstportrait series, with sound effects backing the Farfisa organ. There are also songs like 'Allemande,' which sounds a bit like a burlesque folk dance, or 'Abenteuerliche Begegnung' and 'Besucher im Traum' which resemble in their romantic mood more typical Roedelius music." - Jochen Rindfrey
The Diary Of The Unforgotten - Selbstportrait VI
*2023 stock* A beautiful collection of recordings from 1972 to 1978, first released in 1990 (with different artwork). "Selbstportrait VI" contains compositions Roedelius did in addition to his work with Cluster, Harmonia and Brian Eno in the legendary Forst years. In the booklet Roedelius looks back on this personal and artistical important period of his life. He explains the magic of the idyllic place and its influence on his music.
Wie Das Wispern Des Windes ... / Like The Whispering Of The Wind...
*2023 stock* If we can agree on 1969 as the year of Cluster's inception, then Roedelius needed a good 17 years to discover the aural qualities and musical beauty of the grand piano for his own compositions. Rarely has the title of a Roedelius album so poetically and yet so accurately described its content. On "Like The Whispering Of The Wind" from 1986 Roedelius expands his Études towards amorphousness, then suddenly a disarmingly familiar melody appears, from a completely different source perha…
Rot
** 500 copies. Limited 50th Anniversary Edition: embossed, reverse board, hand numbered, limited edition red vinyl ** There was a particular type of artist who could only have emerged in the legendary early 1970s. Few musicians fit the bill better than Conrad Schnitzler. Revolution, pop art and Fluxus created a climate which engendered unbridled artistic and social development. Radical utopias, excessive experimentation with drugs, and ruthless (in a positive way) transgression of aesthetic fron…