★Bureau B

LP version. Things come full circle. In 1976 Thomas Fehlmannarrives in Hamburg to study art at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts. In 1979 he attends a guest lecture by Conrad Schnitzler, who demonstrates how the "extended definition of art" established by Joseph Beuys can be applied to music. This proves to be a crucial element in Fehlmann's decision to become a musician. And now, in 2015, over 35 years later, Fehlmann has compiled the fifth installment in Bureau B's Kollektion series, arrangi…

LP version. Latecomers to the krautrock party, Circles created a manifesto of frenzied inertia in the late 1980s, swimming in the same gene pool as Cluster and Popol Vuh. Ambient music for the end of time does not get any more authentic than this. The Structures album is a time capsule unlocked, containing previously unreleased recordings from 1985 to 1989. Music that blends the extremes of end-times foreboding and drifting lightness to beguiling effect. Music that succeeds in sounding more cont…

Jürgen Karg began his music career in the 1960s as a bassist for German jazz legend Wolfgang Dauner. It was not until the 1970s that he switched his attention to electronic music, launching himself wholeheartedly into exploring the genre and building up an extensive collection of synthesizers over a five-year period. His efforts culminated in the 1977 Elektronische Mythen LP, a mighty opus of experimental music that reveals new aspects every time it is played. This is its first reissue. The tech…

Jürgen Karg began his music career in the 1960s as a bassist for German jazz legend Wolfgang Dauner. It was not until the 1970s that he switched his attention to electronic music, launching himself wholeheartedly into exploring the genre and building up an extensive collection of synthesizers over a five-year period. His efforts culminated in the 1977 Elektronische Mythen LP, a mighty opus of experimental music that reveals new aspects every time it is played. This is its first reissue. The tech…

Bureau B reissues the eleventh solo album by German keyboardist Hans-Joachim Roedelius, originally released in 1986 on the small Norwegian label Cicada. 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. More precisely, he must have become aware of the grand piano during the recording sessions for Jardin Au Fou (1979) andLustwandel (1981) in Peter Baumann…

Chemist by day, synth explorer by night. Rüdiger Lorenz's 'Southland' glides on sunlit sequencer patterns and melodic warmth, homemade Berlin-school music of great charm, a cult private-press favourite reborn.

After Curiosum (BB 038CD/LP, 1981), the last Cluster album to be released on Sky, Roedelius and Moebius turned their attention to solo work. It was not until the early 1990s that Cluster returned to the electronic music stage with Apropos Cluster (BB 171CD/LP, 1990) and One Hour (BB 172CD/LP, 1994). The duo also took to the road for live shows in Germany and Europe, followed by tours across the USA and Japan. Some of these concerts were recorded in digital quality and offer compelling evidence o…

On Sähkömies, Jimi Tenor fuses lo‑fi drum‑machine electronics with smoky, Sun Ra‑indebted jazz, announcing himself as techno’s first cabaret surrealist. Recorded alone in a New York apartment and released on Sähkö/Puu in 1994, the album’s eight roughcast tracks turn bedroom gear, cheap synths and tenor sax into a playful, futuristic minimal‑acid songbook.

Conrad Schnitzler's green album (aka Grün), originally released in 1981 on Edition Block. "Schnitzler's tracks in the 1970s were lengthy and shared a musical pattern which varied only minimally. Hence the green album has just one track on each side and any changes in melodic structure are subtle in nature. Both pieces are very much typical of Schnitzler in style, but less so tonally. An analog rhythm machine ploughs almost brutally through the astoundingly delicate electronic veil of 'Der…

Conrad Schnitzler's yellow album (aka Gelb), originally released in 1981 on Edition Block. "The chronology of Schnitzler's solo releases in the 1970s -- and even more so in the '80s -- resembles a book with seven seals. Schnitzler regularly issued his music on analogue cassette or LP, often on his own as 'private releases', without any help from a label or professional distributor. The yellow album, for example, was issued on vinyl in 1981 by René Block in Berlin on his art gallery label …

To provide an overview of the various musical styles in which Bureau B specializes, the label launches a new compilation series entitled Kollektion. Each release in this series will be curated by a musician perfectly suited to the task. The first kick-off release will be: Kollektion 01: Sky Records, compiled by Tim Gane. The erstwhile Stereolab mastermind delves through the archives of the legendary German Krautrock label. More projects to follow: Kollektion 02: Roedelius -- Electronic Music --…

To provide an overview of the various musical styles in which bureau b specializes, the label will launch a new compilation entitled kollektion. Each release in this series will be curated by a musician perfectly suited to the task. The first kick-off release will be: Kollektion 01: Sky Records. Compiled by tim gane. The erstwhile stereolab mastermind delves through the archives of the legendary german krautrock label. The record company was founded in the year 1975 and went on to become one of …

LP edition, split into two volumes sold separately. To provide an overview of the various musical styles in which Bureau B specializes, the label launches a new compilation series entitled Kollektion. Each release in this series will be curated by a musician perfectly suited to the task. The first kick-off release will be: Kollektion 01: Sky Records, compiled by Tim Gane. The erstwhile Stereolab mastermind delves through the archives of the legendary German Krautrock label. About Sky Records…

One take, one hour, no overdubs. Moebius and Roedelius let a single improvisation unfurl in real time, gently evolving electronic tides, meditative and unforced. Late-period Cluster at its most patient and hypnotic.

"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…

"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…

Repressed; LP version. "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 recently for Wallenstein. Their label-boss Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser was fond of facilitating jam sessions for musicians on his Ohr und Pilz label, often supplying his 'cosmic couriers' with LSD (unbeknown to them, on occasion). In one such session, the drug inspired something of an epiph…

"Having arrived in austria following a protracted lean period, Roedelius finally had the chance to work in a studio which was not only well equipped, but was also run by a kindred spirit sound engineer. The favourable working conditions, a myriad of new impressions and, by no means least, his personal happiness, saw roedelius and his music flourish. this is discernable on "Flieg vogel fliege", even if only some of the music was created in his new adopted home. if complete insouciance, the accep…

A cornerstone of German cosmic music. Ashra and Klaus Schulze drummer Harald Grosskopf steps out solo, wedding propulsive live drums to shimmering sequencer bliss. 'Synthesist' is euphoric Berlin-school pop: melodic, driving, timeless.

Moebius and Roedelius reconvene decades on, and the old telepathy holds. 'Apropos Cluster' drifts through supple electronic sketches, playful, warm and abstract at once, proof the duo's improvised chemistry never dimmed.

An unlikely trio: Cluster's Moebius, Guru Guru's Mani Neumeier and Die Krupps' Jürgen Engler. 'Another Other Place' grinds electronics, percussion and industrial edge into taut, exploratory grooves, three generations of German sound in dialogue.

More from the inexhaustible archive of Berlin's electronic anarchist. Schnitzler stacks pulsing sequences and caustic tone-colours into restless, self-contained machines of sound: uncompromising, hypnotic and utterly his own.

'Nocturnes' from Germany's great electronic miniaturist. Tietchens assembles short, enigmatic synthetic pieces, cool, disciplined and quietly unsettling, poised between pop structure and pure abstraction. Essential early Tietchens.

Tietchens at his most seductive. 'The fifth heaven' pairs the Hamburg sound-chemist's rigorous electronics with an unexpected melodic sweetness. Shifting synthetic textures, precise and strange: abstract music that still charms.

Bureau B reissues Asmus Tietchens' third solo album on Sky Records, originally released in 1982. It stands to reason that any musical journey undertaken by a skeptic like Asmus Tietchens is destined to head into the night (In die Nacht) rather than into the day. In die Nacht, the third album in the so-called time signal ("Zeitzeichen") phase, continuing in the same vein as Biotop (BB 141CD/LP) and Spät-Europa (BB 142CD/LP), while laying down its own stylistic markers, no doubt attributable to th…

LP version, on 180 gram vinyl. Released in 1983, the Litia album concluded Asmus Tietchens' études phase and bid a farewell to rhythmic synths -- well, almost. All the signs of "pseudo pop" as heard on Biotop, Spät-Europa, and In die Nacht resurfaced: squeaky sounds and protracted, rattling rhythms grouped into abstract forms through their accentuated artificiality. Sporadic noisiness is as much a part of it as is a winking gesture, which should not detract from the basic sobriety of the work, h…

A collection from Conrad Schnitzler's archive, recorded between 1974 and 1975, originally released on LP only in 2009. Contains the complete original material (three more tracks than the 2009 release) on CD for the first time (with original running order). Just when you think you have grasped Conrad Schnitzler's master plan, every time you kid yourself into predicting what you are about to hear, the next record comes along to prove you wrong. Motorik is writ large throughout. Even the less rhyth…

LP version. Bureau B presents a song collection from Conrad Schnitzler's archive, recorded between 1976 and 1978, originally released by the small German label Marginal Talent in 2003. In the comprehensive canon of Schnitzler releases, the music on the Gold album stands out a mile in every respect. Judged on the sound alone, there is little to suggest that the material was recorded as long ago as the 1976 to 1978 period. There is more at play here than two tape recorders, analog synthesizers and…

The fact that this album appeared at all in 1983 owes less to Günter Schickert and more to Steven and Alan Freeman, who sought him out for their Krautrock encyclopedia The Crack in the Cosmic Egg. On learning that Schickert had heaps of recordings in his archive, the Freeman brothers proposed compiling an album. Schickert agreed and handed over material which the English YHR label had released in cassette form. Kinder in der Wildnis is a more heterogeneous album than either of its predecessors, …

Harald Grosskopf is best known as drummer in the band Ashra and for Klaus Schulze ("Moondawn") and as an electronic musician. Following "Synthesist" (1980, see below), "Oceanheart" was his second solo album. It may sound like a child of the 1980s, but in a compositional sense it is related to the Berliner Schule / Berlin School of the 70's. The reissue comes with a new artwork and was mastered from the original tapes.

Faust for all. The Krautrock legends lay down the musical foundations for everyone else to make something of their own. "j US t" -- pronounced "Just Us" -- is the new album from legendary Hamburg band, Faust. Founding members Jean-Hervé Peron and Zappi Diermaier have laid down 12 musical foundations, inviting the whole world to use them as a base on which to build their own music. The tracks presented by Peron and Diermaier are clearly, intrinsically typical of Faust in their own right, ye…

MILESTONE! Bureau B releases a limited 3LP box set to celebrate Hans-Joachim Roedelius' 80th birthday. During the legendary Forst years, Roedelius had a private workspace with a Farfisa organ, a Revox-A77 tape machine, an echo device and a synthesizer which he borrowed from the Cluster studio next door, now and again. Here he experimented, practiced, and allowed his imagination to flow at any hour of the day or night, whenever he was not in the studio with Dieter Moebius and/or Michael Rot…

LP version. Comes on 180 gram vinyl. While Asmus Tietchens planned to head off "into the future" ("In die Zukunft") with Biotop (1981), Spät-Europa witnesses his arrival. Released on Sky Records in 1982, the second album in the "Zeitzeichen" phase not only continued in the style of its predecessor, it managed to refine it a little more precisely. Spät-Europa also conveys a banefully distorted pseudo-pop soundscape of disjointed rhythms and oblique melodies, defined by nervous pulses, cool alacri…

scenes from the lab of German electronic music composer Asmus Tietchens are just a few skewed demonstrations of his distant mastery of highbrow composition guised in synth-pop's veneer

The ex-Kraftwerk composer opens his notebook. 'Off the Record' reworks decades of unused sketches into pristine electro-pop: hooks honed to a gleam, machine-precise yet warmly melodic. Düsseldorf craftsmanship, quietly personal.

LP version. Tired of quarreling endlessly with his imperious brother Klaus, Thomas Dinger quit the production of Viva, the second La Düsseldorf album, and promptly set off for the south of France. Frustrated and far away from home, his mind turned to the possibility of a solo album. An album devoted to his own musical ideas, free from domineering voices telling him what to do. Presenting his own vision in the context of a La Düsseldorf LP would have been difficult at the best of times. "I wanted…

"Conrad Schnitzler is undoubtedly one of the founding fathers of German electronica. And his son, Gregor Schnitzler, matched the father's extraordinary level of creative output. They appear to have settled any musical differences amicably. After all, how else could they have 'shared' an LP released by Conrad Schnitzler himself? One half of Conrad & Sohn features music by Conrad Schnitzler, the other, his son Gregor. Two mini-albums on one disc, so to speak. An ideal opportunity to compare them. …

LP version. Conrad Schnitzler (1937–2011), composer and concept artist, is 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 (together with Klaus Schulze and Edgar Froese) and Kluster (with Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius) and also released countless solo albums. "Contempora" is a sort of collection of sk…

'Open doors'. Roedelius invites the listener into gentle, exploratory keyboard pieces, half-composed and half-dreamed. Warm, unhurried and melodically generous, the Cluster co-founder in intimate, searching mood.

Dieter Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia) and Asmus Tietchens share an outtake of their album Moebius & Tietchens with us for this Record Store Day exclusive 12". Joe Watson (Stereolab) aka Junior Electronics recorded a new song and reworked the Moebius & Tietchens song "Herrlichkeit" by adding vocal overdubs.