★Bureau B
Conditions of the Gas Giant
Previously unreleased tapes from the Kluster co-founder and restless electronic pioneer. Cold, pulsing sequencer patterns and alien tone-colours map an imaginary planet: raw, hypnotic and unmistakably Schnitzler, from his vast archive.
Cheyenne
Suicide's synth architect goes solo and lyrical. 'Cheyenne' trades menace for melody: bright, looping keyboard motifs and toy-box rhythm, naïve and radiant. Minimal electronics with an unexpectedly tender heart.
Clouds of Glory
Rev at his most beatless and beatific. 'Clouds of Glory' floats on cheap-keyboard hymns and shimmering repetition: devotional, lo-fi and strangely sublime. The gentlest, most transporting corner of the Suicide man's solo world.
L\'Ethique
LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Richard Pinhas's L'Ethique, originally released in 1982. Following the vaguely poppy shapes of 1980's album East West (BB 292CD/LP), his fifth album L'Ethique saw the ex-Heldon guitarist and synth wizard return to bigger and bolder band-like methods. After the release he disappeared from the limelight for nearly a decade and returned in the 1990s. Interviewed by the Electronics & Music Maker magazine in 1982, Pinhas spoke in buoyant terms about the futur…
Die Vertreibung Der Zeit (1980-1986)
Home-taped minimal synthesis from the German cassette underground, 1980-86. Alu's austere drum machines, cheap keyboards and deadpan Deutsch build a private, hypnotic little world. A lost minimal-wave gem exhumed by Bureau B.
Last Wave
LP version. Bureau B presents a reissue of Bernard Xolotl's fifth album Last Wave, originally released only on cassette in 1982. This is French electronic music from California. He named himself after the Aztec god of lightning and death; his music is influenced by the Berlin school of electronic music. As a teen, Xolotl (b. 1951) was introduced to electronic music through the works of Musique Concrete composers like Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, although he found the early recordings of Pi…
Call For World Saviours
A lost transmission from Britain's early cassette network. Carl Matthews builds patient, meditative electronic drones and tape textures: homemade ambient minimalism of quiet conviction, rescued from the margins of the DIY underground.
Tasten
LP version. Includes CD. The artists: Hans-Joachim Roedelius (piano), Onnen Bock (piano), Armin Metz (piano). The music: minimalist, spherical sounds by three grand pianos. Introverted, minimalist "classical" music has reached full bloom as devotees of the neo-classical movement flock to see the likes of Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, and Chilly Gonzales. One pioneer of the resurgence in minimal piano music is Hans-Joachim Roedelius, best known as a member of the avant-garde electronic combo Cluste…
Auferstehung: Elektronische Musik aus Berlin 1983/1984
LP version. In 1983, electronic musician Rudolf Langer (Tyndall) and guitarist Peter Preuß teamed up to form a duo by the name of LAPRE (LAnger + PREuß). Aligned with the second generation of the Berlin School, their output is incredibly varied: from repetitive sequencer patterns via playfully cheerful synth pop all the way to atmospheric, hypnotic minor key expanses. It's all there. By 1984, LAPRE had released two tapes and a 12" vinyl. Bureau B's compilation presents the most compelling tracks…
Chronolyse
Bureau B present a reissue of Richard Pinhas's Rhizosphere, originally released in 1977. Richard Pinhas is one of the most important French electronic space rock musicians. Following five albums with his band Heldon, he released his first solo record in 1977. Backed by Heldon's congenial drummer François Auger but no longer bound by the group dynamic, he explores his freshly purchased Moog modular system in search of new sounds. It marked a departure into new realms. "We don't need new technique…
East West
Bureau B presents a reissue of Richard Pinhas's East West, originally issued in 1980. The fourth solo album by French spacerock mastermind Pinhas, East West was his first and only album to be released by a major label (CBS). Some say it is his most commercial but Pinhas doesn't see it that way. "Signing to CBS was a blessing. It gave me the tools for better production. At that time, some big companies were better and more honest than the so-called underground labels. Besides, I don't see any vir…
Sonnenlicht
'Sunlight': Berlin duo Tyndall bathe their sequencers in warmth. Bright arpeggios and melodic synth lines glide through classic cosmic terrain, homemade German electronics of real charm, a cult reissue.
Synthesis: Electronic Music 1984-1988
LP version. Dennis Young is best known as the percussionist of the New York band Liquid Liquid, which is known for their piece "Cavern" from 1983, which in turn became very well-known because Grandmaster Flash sampled it and used it as the basis for their hit "White Lines". But Young was more than just a member of the band, he produced plenty of his own music, much of it reflecting his passion for analog electronics. He was fascinated by the pioneers of the genre. In 2016 Bureau B released Wa…
Allez-Teia (Heldon II)
LP version. 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 intermi…
Les Cassettes 1980-1983
French minimal-wave shadows from the cassette years, 1980-83. Fondation's cold drum machines, brittle synths and noir atmosphere distil an entire underground era: austere, romantic and hypnotic. A coldwave excavation.
Live in Vienna 1980
Caught onstage in 1980, Cluster improvise an evening into long, mutating electronic landscapes. The duo's live telepathy in full flow, sequencers churning, textures blooming and dissolving. A vivid document of kosmische in real time.
Nordborg
More deep-space synthesis from the reclusive cosmic voyager. Nordborg unfolds in patient, glacial layers of Moog and Mellotron: Berlin-school drift at its most oceanic and serene. A cult private-press artefact returned to CD.
Rhizosphere
LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Richard Pinhas's Rhizosphere, originally released in 1977. Richard Pinhas is one of the most important French electronic space rock musicians. Following five albums with his band Heldon, he released his first solo record in 1977. Backed by Heldon's congenial drummer François Auger but no longer bound by the group dynamic, he explores his freshly purchased Moog modular system in search of new sounds. It marked a departure into new realms. "We don't need n…
After The Heat
Brian Eno's second album collaboration with Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius of Cluster consists of slow-moving instrumentals full of repeated synthesizer sound patterns and sustained guitar notes. An idyllic spot ofland