★Bureau B

'Through the desert': Roedelius sets out on solitary electronic wandering. Spare, hypnotic keyboard figures and dry, shimmering textures conjure vast imaginary landscapes, early solo kosmische of quiet, questing beauty.

* All the three groundbreaking LP in bundle at special price, 180 gram vinyl version, 2021 repress *  "Kluster was found by Conrad Schnitzler in 1969. It can be considered as one of the most radical and influencial german progressive, avantgarde bands. Its music-approach and playing-techniques are related to Stockhausen and the group "Nuova Consonanza" & its influences and protagonistic characteristics in music can still be found in works of many avantgarde & Industrial-bands of today. Kluster p…

** For the 40th anniversary of this influential album from Hamburg-based band Palais Schaumburg Bureau B are releasing a limited LP version: 500 copies, numbered, red vinyl, and with printed inner sleeve including all lyrics in German and English ** The influential German post-punk electronic pop band Palais Schaumburg has reunited in the classic line-up. Since its release in 1981, their debut album has remained in a league of its own: fleet-footed and peculiar, abstract and pop, amateurish and …

This first Bureau B retrospective devoted to Die Welttraumforscher covers the Swiss project's early creative period from 1981 to 1990. The eccentric, heartwarming pop songs now sound like documents from a parallel world, interwoven with idiosyncratic fantasy, surreal stories and dreamlike apparitions. All tracks have been remastered and the artwork has been lovingly crafted with the original Forscher drawings.Die Welttraumforscher is one of Switzerland’s most enigmatic musical projects, with a c…

On War Pur War, Frieder Butzmann and Thomas Kapielski distill West‑Berlin’s 1980s absurdism into a Dada‑charged clash of electro‑pop and sonic collage. Minimal synth patterns, spoken fragments and everyday noises tangle into a wry, musique‑concrète‑like diary of a city thinking against meaning.

On Magazin Frivole, Serge Blenner pushes his cold, concise analogue synth instrumentals toward a subtly pop‑inflected edge. Dark harmonies and clipped electronic patterns intertwine with clearer song structures, yielding an early‑80s blueprint where minimal synth severity brushes against the nascent shadows of synth‑pop.

On La Vogue, Serge Blenner distills early-80s anxieties into dark, monotone synthesizer miniatures. Minimal Berlin‑school pulses and crystalline melodic “phrases” sketch an electronic soundtrack to Cold War Germany, where somber patterns, pop‑tinged harmonies and stark repetition feel like signals beamed from a haunted control room.

Ever since he released his music in the early '80s, Michel Banabila has been hard to pinpoint to a specific genre or style. His musical output includes jazz, experimental cut-up electronics, world music (especially influenced by the Fourth World music as developed by Jon Hassell), New Age, eclectic pop tunes, music for dance or other stage projects, and soundtracks for TV productions. Wah-Wah Whispers focuses on Banabila's more recent output. It is a collection of works showcasing many facets of…

This first Bureau B retrospective devoted to Die Welttraumforscher covers the Swiss project's early creative period from 1981 to 1990. The eccentric, heartwarming pop songs now sound like documents from a parallel world, interwoven with idiosyncratic fantasy, surreal stories and dreamlike apparitions. All tracks have been remastered and the artwork has been lovingly crafted with the original Forscher drawings.Die Welttraumforscher is one of Switzerland’s most enigmatic musical projects, with a c…

CD version. "If you're already aware of Rüdiger Lorenz , chances are you washed ashore on Southland , his cult kosmische curio graciously reissued by the ever-benevolent Bureau B in the middle of the last decade. Either that, or you're one of the few hundred electronic music obsessives who encountered his work the first-time round, giddily grabbing up the eighteen cassette, vinyl and CD releases the prolific part-timer delivered DIY style on his Syntape and Syncord imprints between 1981-1998. I …

"Conrad Schnitzler is incredible. I would dearly have loved to meet him, to have been present when he, Seidel and Baumann were working their magic at Paragon Studio. Fortuitously, Wolfgang Seidel, co-author of these pieces, has opened up his archive of recordings to the Bureau B label. He and Conrad Schnitzler spent many years together experimenting with sound, capturing the results on the two Consequenz albums, amongst others. I had the honor of meeting Wolfgang Seidel at the Golden Pudel Club …

LP version. "Sowas Von Egal, is the result of a collaboration between Bureau B and the Hamburg party series Damaged Goods. Record companies and DJs are aligned through a love and passion for seeking out rare music which simply needs to be heard. For the three of us as DJs, we created Damaged Goods as a party where we could play music beyond the electro clichés. Our focus would be seldom-heard post-punk and synth-wave from, or in the style of, the 1980s. We'd slip in these unknown or long-forgott…

Two years have passed since Bureau B released the first Sowas Von Egal compilation (BB 310CD/LP, 2018). With the musical movement or genre known as NDW celebrating its 40th anniversary, what better time than now to launch an ambitious successor to the first sampler. The beating heart of this endeavor is once again invigorated by the synchronous passions of bespoke Hamburg label Bureau B and the label's Damaged Goods nights where they present rare, obscure synth and wave discs from the early 1980…

Auf Dem Schwarzen Kanal is one of the most outstanding, most sought-after releases in Conrad Schnitzler's extensive catalog. It was the only Schnitzler record to appear on a major label and saw him flirting with the experimental new wave sound that was emerging in 1980, particularly on the title track. Nevertheless, it still managed to sound idiosyncratically unlike any other music around at the time. Recorded with Wolfgang Seidel at Peter Baumann's Paragon Studio in Berlin, the four tracks take…

LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Conrad Schnitzler's Con, originally released in 1978. Conrad Schnitzler: In the electric garden by Wolfgang Seidel, May 2020: "... Whilst on shore leave in Düsseldorf, Conrad Schnitzler heard about a professor at the School of Art (Kunstschule) who also accepted students into his class without high school diplomas. Conrad Schnitzler became one of them. The spirit of a fundamental new beginning bonded this generation of artists together, with Karlheinz St…

About the Con-Struct series: Conrad Schnitzler liked to embark on daily excursions through the sonic diversity of his synthesizers. Finding exceptional sounds with great regularity, he preserved them for use in combination with each other in subsequent live performances. He thus amassed a vast sound archive of his discoveries over time. When the m=minimal label in Berlin reissued two Conrad Schnitzler albums at the outset of the 2010s, label honcho Jens Strüver was granted access to this audio …

Having completed his military service as a naval radio operator, Gunther Wüsthoff was in the midst of his German and fine art studies when he encountered Rudolf Sosna and Jean-Hervé Peron. It was May 1969 and each of them had a guitar so they decided to make music together. Polydor International headhunter Uwe Nettelbeck tracked them down on February 23 1971, prompting them to form the legendary krautrock band Faust with three other Hamburg musicians a few days later. Wüsthoff stayed with the ba…

From the vaults: essential early tapes, 1973-78, from Cluster and Harmonia's melodic soul. Home experiments and sketches reveal Roedelius inventing his gentle electronic language in real time, a treasure for the devoted.

Felix Kubin and percussionist Hubert Zemler as CEL: analogue synths meet live drums in taut, kinetic instrumentals. Playful and precise, kosmische energy channelled through a restless modern sensibility. Hamburg futurism, dancing.

Bureau B present a 40th Anniversary Edition reissue of Harald Grosskopf's Synthesis, originally released on Sky Records in 1980. 40th Anniversary Edition features new interpretations by Steve Baltes, Thorsten Quaeschning, Paul Frick, Kreidler, Pyrolator, Love-Songs, Stefan Lewin, Camera, and Tellavision."Harald Grosskopf was in his early twenties when LSD "blew [his] reality away", as he recalls. Born in Hildesheim in 1949, he had previously drummed in fairly conventional rock bands, most recent…

The first part of Hans-Joachim Roedelius's Selbstportrait (Self-Portrait) series was originally released under the title Sanfte Musik on Sky Records in 1979. Now, some forty years later, a new instalment has arrived in the form of an album entitled Wahre Liebe. One of the initiators of the Berlin Zodiak Free Arts Lab in 1967, Roedelius went on to co-found Kluster/Cluster and Harmonia, unleashing a new and free form of music which, with the benefit of hindsight, can be considered a milestone in t…

'Electronic music from Berlin, 1985-87.' Lapre's private-press sequencer explorations glide through classic Berlin-school terrain: pulsing arpeggios, cosmic pads and patient build. A cult synth artefact rescued from obscurity.

CD version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's 6 - Interface, originally released in 1977. A brilliant moment occurs right at the end of Heldon's sixth album, Interface. The album's final song, its side-long title track, builds up slowly into a roaring tornado of fiercely mutating drum patterns, effervescent synth work, and guitar licks that wail into the atmosphere like an abandoned astronaut. Then, after nearly 19 minutes of highly futuristic avant-garde space rock, this ultramodern music …

CD version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale, originally released in 1976. Heldon's Richard Pinhas has never been shy of pinpointing his influences while, at the same time, making music that is noticeably distinct from any of his designated sources. He has, for instance, made it clear that a significant font of inspiration was Robert Fripp's guitar style and melding of rock music with cutting-edge electronics (especially in collaboration with Brian Eno). I…

LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's seventh and final album of the 1970s Stand By, originally released in 1979. After the release of Stand By, Richard Pinhas focused on solo LPs before quitting music for around a decade. "It was the end of the tale," he explains. "We decided to split for many reasons. The main one was that one or two of the other musicians wanted to stop. They were session musicians, mainly. At one point they said they didn't have so much time to give. And it was …

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.

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.

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.

Bureau B present a reissue of Young Scientist's debut album Results, Not Answers, originally released in 1979. When you think of the music to have emerged from Seattle, grunge and Sub Pop are probably the first things that come to mind. But Seattle was already home to a vibrant alternative music scene back in the 1970s. One of the most prominent synthesizer acts of the period was the trio Young Scientist. Influenced by the likes of Cluster, Harmonia, and Tangerine Dream, they released thei…

CD 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…

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…

Günter Schickert's debut Samtvogel (1975) was one of the most significant guitar albums of the krautrock era. Points of comparison from today's perspective are Syd Barrett or Pink Floyd's more adventurous early recordings. Schickert's follow-up, Überfällig (1980) was released on the legendary Sky label. Once again a milestone recording, it showcased Schickert's hypnotic echo guitar which developed into one of the hallmarks of the krautrock sound. Schickert's new album Nachtfalter, translating as…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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.

Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's fourth album Agneta Nilsson, originally released on Urus Records in 1976. Agneta Nilsson opens with a mind-paralyzing track that proves stillness can have a pulse. "Perspective I" spends ten minutes poring through tectonic layers of heavy sound, piling everything so thick that the song becomes like quicksand for your brain. It's one of the most daunting works in the Heldon catalog, made all the more impressive by how simple it is. It's just sounds put toget…

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. (home of King Crimson and Roxy Music), the imprint was interested, but Pinhas was frustrate…

'Dreamland': more sunlit Berlin-school reverie from Tyndall. Interlocking sequencer patterns and glowing melody drift in gentle motion, private-press cosmic music of great warmth and innocence.