★Bureau B

'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.

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…

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.

On Consequenz III, Conrad Schnitzler and Wolf Sequenza (Wolfgang Seidel) drive their most “pop‑adjacent” collaboration to a razor’s edge. Eleven short rhythmic études balance strict, serial electronics against near‑song structures, turning drum‑tight patterns and sequenced pulses into miniature, dance‑optional experiments in post‑Berlin‑school repetition.

Double CD version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's third album Third (It's Always Rock 'N' Roll), originally released on Disjuncta in 1975. Third album from the French space-rock electro combo masterminded by Richard Pinhas. Heldon's darkest work lays another stone in their sonic mosaic: synths, drones, fuzz, and trippy improvisations. There's something wicked happening on Heldon's third album It's Always Rock And Roll. Richard Pinhas's essential attack of searing guitar and space-bound s…

*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…

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…

The first of two milestones in ambient music recorded by Germany's legendary electronic pioneers Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius together with Britains music eccentric Brian Eno.

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 Wave (BB 219CD…

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

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.

A Dutch composer's private synthesizer odyssey, 1977. Andriessen conjures a 'trance symphony' on Minimoog and Rhodes: luminous, minimal and quietly euphoric, drawing on Berlin and Düsseldorf electronics rather than the concert hall.

with CD. The two authorized recordings presented on Konzerte 1972/1977 vividly conjure up the atmosphere, perhaps even the magic, of a Cluster performance back in the day. One took place in 1977 during a science fiction festival in Metz (France). The other dates back to an earlier show in Hamburg's Fabrik venue. Cluster played three gigs in the city in 1971/1972, including the one partially included on 1972's Cluster II (LR 335LP). Cluster shows routinely lasted six hours or more, luring bot…

Orange vinyl version with bonus 7". Includes CD. Faust's new album Fresh Air differs in several respects from its predecessor, Just Us (BB 182CD/LP, 2014). The recordings were made at Jean-Hervé Péron's rehearsal studio in Schiphorst in northern Germany, hypnotic pieces with the kind of noisemaking the band is known for. For the new album, Péron and Werner "Zappi" Diermaier were looking for communication with musician friends and the audience. The tracks were recorded in changing ensembles …

The second volume of Schnitzler's cinema for the mind's eye. Sequencer motifs and alien textures sketch scene after scene of electronic drama: the restless imagination of a true pioneer, drawn from his boundless tape archive.

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…

France's electronic guitar visionary. The Heldon founder folds searing, delay-treated guitar into churning synthetic drift: heavy, hypnotic and cosmic, where krautrock momentum meets sci-fi menace. Pinhas at full intensity.

The abrasive, epochal debut. Moebius and Roedelius push organ, guitar and homemade electronics through banks of effects into three untitled slabs of proto-ambient drift. Year zero for German electronic music, still startling fifty years on.

LP version. Includes CD. Dieter Moebius (1944-2015) was one of the most important protagonists of avant-garde electronic music in Germany. He was a founding member of Kluster/Cluster (with Conrad Schnitzer and Hans-Joachim Roedelius) and Harmonia (with Michael Rother and Hans-Joachim Roedelius) and worked with several artists such as Brian Eno, Conny Plank, Mayo Thompson, Hellmut Hattler, Asmus Tietchens, Mani Neumeier, Arno Steffen, Jürgen Engler, Jean Hervé Peron, Zappi Diermaier, and Chris Ka…

LP version. Post-war apartments dominated the views of Düsseldorf in the early 1980s - cement slabs, the "art bunker" known as the Kunsthalle, and the elevated railway called "The Millipede". Yet reconstruction was in full swing - bank buildings on the "Kö" received postmodern interiors, the old town became stylishly retro-rustic, and advertising agencies displaced industrial companies. Music took all of this on. Punk was finished, but its pathos drifted through pubs and shared flats. At the sam…

LP version. Inspired by punk and post punk, vibrant scenes dedicated to independent self-actualization by means of self-distributed cassettes - the cheapest and fastest medium - were developing on each side of the Cold War's confrontational line. Albeit, under quite different circumstances. While there was a DIY euphoria in the West, which would also have had ideological motives, subcultures in the East simply had no other means. Even the first act of replication meant moving into illegal territ…

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.

Vast, weightless synthesizer vistas from the German cosmic underground. Von Deyen layers Moog and Mellotron into slow-drifting cloudscapes, poised between Berlin-school sequencing and pure ambience. A private-press reverie, on CD for the first time.

Baumann's brightest solo record. 'Trans Harmonic Nights' sets crisp sequencer motifs against warm melody: the Berlin-school grammar sharpened into concise, luminous electronic pop. Tangerine Dream's pop instinct, distilled.

The Tangerine Dream man's debut solo statement. 'Romance 76' splits between pulsing electronic sequences and orchestral romanticism: lush, melodic and forward-looking. A landmark of the Berlin school stepping toward song.

Estonian electronic pioneer Sven Grünberg reaches for the cosmos. 'Hingus' fuses shimmering synthesis with Eastern spiritual leanings: meditative, melodic and quietly euphoric. A Soviet-era kosmische treasure surfaced at last.

Imaginary soundtracks from the Kluster co-founder. 'Filmmusik 1' collects vivid electronic scenes, sinister, playful and cosmic by turns, music for films that never existed, from one of Germany's boldest sonic minds.

Trostel's sequencers turn contemplative. 'Two Faces' balances driving arpeggios with slower, reflective passages: melodic, precise cosmic music in the classic German mould. Quietly compelling analogue craftsmanship.

Von Deyen's debut, an interstellar synthesizer suite of vast pads and slow sequencer pulse. Sternzeit (star time) is pure late-'70s German cosmic music, equal parts Tangerine Dream grandeur and lonely, meditative space.

Cosmic bass explorer Michael Bundt goes fully electronic. 'Electri City' rides propulsive sequences and interstellar synth sweep: Berlin-school motion with a rock heart, a lost gem of German space music returned.

'Island music': Trostel maps a private electronic paradise. Warm sequencer motifs and glowing synth melody drift in unhurried loops, solitary, serene Berlin-school reverie from a cult German synthesist.

German synth mystic Rolf Trostel at the sequencer. 'Der Prophet' unfurls stately, hypnotic electronic patterns: solemn, melodic and deeply Berlin-school. A private-press cosmic gem returned to the light.

LP version. Includes CD. The third incarnation of the legendary krautrock project Kluster/Cluster expands its audience with the contemplative, mature, and intelligent electronic music of Echtzeit. Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Onnen Bock, and Armin Metz are Qluster, founded under the name of Kluster in 1969 by Roedelius, Dieter Moebius, and Conrad Schnitzler. Kluster were responsible for two milestones of electronic music. Schnitzler quit the band two years later, leaving Roedelius and Moebius to c…

LP version. Includes CD. Three guitarists, three generations, one album. Günter Schickert, Jochen Arbeit, and Dirk Dresselhaus are all renowned Berlin guitarists. They epitomize three generations of experimental musicians; Schickert personifies the krautrock of the 1970s, Arbeit 1980s post-punk, and Dresselhaus the neo-electronica of the late 1990s and 2000s. Their artistic approaches may differ according to their diverse musical backgrounds, yet what they have in common is a fundamental in…

Michel Banabila, born 1961, is a sound artist, composer, and producer. Banabila releases music since 1983 and has produced musical scores for numerous films, documentaries, theatre plays and choreographies. This album collects 11 songs from his early years, released on tape, vinyl EPs or limited CD editions: beautiful minimal loop-based electronica, neo-classical pieces and ambient drone music. A true discovery!  Numerous threads run through the music of Michel Banabila, whose contemporary work …

Solo home electronics from Liquid Liquid's percussionist. Between 1984 and 1988 Dennis Young taped melodic, marimba-tinged synth miniatures, bright, rhythmic and disarmingly personal. A private cache of downtown-NY DIY.

Nine-CD box version. Cluster's influence on the development of electronic music cannot be overstated. The original trio of Conrad Schnitzler, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Dieter Moebius released two seminal albums as Kluster before Roedelius and Moebius replaced the "K" with a "C" and continued as a duo. They produced eight albums in their most innovative period between 1971 and 1981, two of them together with Brian Eno. Cluster anticipated much of what would later emerge in such varied style…

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 …

LP version. Includes CD. Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011), composer and concept artist, was one of the most important representatives of Germany's electronic music avant-garde. A student of Joseph Beuys, he founded Berlin's legendary Zodiak Free Arts Lab, a subculture club in 1967/68, was a member of Tangerine Dream (with Klaus Schulze and Edgar Froese) and Kluster (with Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius) and also released countless solo albums. Schneider TM (Dirk Dresselhaus) has been invo…

LP version. Includes CD. "In October 2014 an idea suddenly came to mind. Although I had spent much of my life performing, recording and producing music, my attention over the immediately preceding years had been focused on the philosophy and psychology of human nature. It was a rewarding exploration, but I missed being more creative -- suddenly I felt the urge to play music again. I built a recording studio in my basement and began writing material for the first time in a long while. In November…