★Bureau B
Nachtfalter
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…
Voyage
Bureau B once again dive into the Sky archive, unearthing another overlooked masterpiece long due for rediscovery. Originally released in 1985, Voyage finds Dieter Schütz venturing beyond his Berlin School roots into a realm of lo-fi immediacy and New Age naivety. Every instrument is played by Schütz himself, except for the drums on 'Above,' which are performed with syncopated zeal by Michael Fecker. While its textured synthscapes and wistful melodies may echo the aesthetics of 2010s Vaporwave, …
Ich Suche Dein Gesicht
Berlin-based project Silberstreif announces the release of their new album Ich suche dein Gesicht, available now on Bandcamp. With a name that translates to “silver lining,” Silberstreif crafts music that reflects both fragility and resilience, weaving together textures of ambient, electronic, and experimental sound.
Ich suche dein Gesicht (“I am searching for your face”) is more than an album: it is a sonic exploration of intimacy, distance, and the fleeting nature of human connection. Across…
Album I-II
The inspiration for Album l and Album II began with a performance by Japanese musician Eiko Ishibashi at Cologne's Week-End Fest in 2019. For this appearance, the renowned experimental musician and composer of the Oscar-winning film Drive My Car was joined on drums by Tatsuhisa Yamamoto and Joe Talia; both integral members of the top-level improvisational/experimental scene in Tokyo. While in town for the festival, Ishibashi met up with the members of the Cologne-Berlin based group Von Spar who …
Liederbuch
LP version. When the Welttraumforscher (world dream explorer) started their journey on July 14, 1981, it was not foreseeable that it would last so long. For over 40 years now, Christian Pfluger from Zurich has been working with drawings, texts and songs on the idiosyncratic and fascinating universe of the imaginary trio. This has resulted in numerous cassettes, LP and CD releases. Most recently, a two-part retrospective was released in the spring of 2021 on Hamburg's Bureau B (, giving an insigh…
Wir Arbeiten Fur Die Nachste Welt (1991-2012)
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…
Die Rückkehr der echten Menschheit 1981-1990
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…
War Pur War
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.
Last Wave
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…
Acht Gesänge Der Schwarzen Hunde
When in 2006 our Zonic Spezial "Voltage. Power. Resistance. Magnetic Tape Underground GDR 1979-1990" was published in cooperation with Verbrecher Verlag and the legendary label ZickZack, there was some amazement. Especially when the enclosed CDs were listened to from a Western perspective. Part of this weird Kassettentäter-Ost potpourri of swirling post-punk variety, which Bert Papenfuß, Bo Kondren, Bernd Jestram and Ronald Lippok compiled with well-founded interpretive authority, was also a pie…
Kiosque Of Arrows 2: Compiled by Tolouse Low Trax (LP)
CD version. Bureau B present a very special release: Kiosque Of Arrows 2 is Detlef Weinrich's (aka Tolouse Low Trax) first compilation for Bureau B. Echoing the spirit of the legendary samplers found on Les Disques Du Crépuscule or Made To Measure, this hybrid journal not only collates unusual pieces of music -- rare and undiscovered pearls from the experimental underground of the early 1980s through to contemporary unreleased recordings -- it also represents a reflective collage of cut-ups, obs…
Inventions
Thumbing through the back pages of German electronic music, Bureau B uncovers another hidden gem from the Sky Records archive: 'Inventions', the 1983 collaboration between Adelbert von Deyen and Dieter Schütz. Fusing expansive kosmische textures with biting rock guitars, motorik rhythms, and the growl of '80s synth-pop, the duo conjure a sonic singularity which still sounds like the future today. Compact yet cosmic, 'Inventions' distils ambient drift and experimental edge into taut, three-minute…
Magazin Frivole
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.
La Vogue
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.
Wah-Wah Whispers
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…
Sowiesoso
** 50th anniversary Limited Edition ** The fourth full-length album by legendary German electronic music duo Cluster, originally released on Sky Records in 1976. Sowiesoso follows on from their most highly-acclaimed album, Zuckerzeit (1974). Michael Rother's influence was clearly audible on the latter, Cluster having already recorded two albums with him under the name of Harmonia. 1976 saw the duo looking for new musical forms. More than any other Cluster album, Sowiesoso represents the utopian …
Grumpy Pieces
On Grumpy Pieces, Harmonious Thelonious condenses his long-evolving language of interlocking melodies, polyrhythms and minimalist electronics into a rougher, nervier form, where grooves bristle with tension and noise becomes a structural force.
Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale (Heldon V)
On Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale, Heldon compress their sound into a harsher, more pressurised zone, where sharpened synth-guitar structures pulse, splinter and recombine, holding tight form even as they threaten to rupture.
Convex
LP version. Convex is one of a series of LPs that Schnitzler released himself in the 1980s. It is one of his LPs that convey virtually no visible information. Only the title is printed in large letters on the cover of Convex, and in tiny letters that are easy to overlook, it says: "Cover Conrad und Richard." The labels on the original LP indicate that one side is called "Convex" and the other "Concav." That's all the information there is."On Convex, as on many of his other albums, Schnitzler def…
Control
LP version. "Control was created during a phase of Schnitzler's work in which his friendship with Peter Baumann (formerly of Tangerine Dream) allowed him to try out and use new electronic sound generators and peripheral technologies. He never used these innovations merely for their own sake, but always put them at the service of his artistic flair for experimentation. His signature style is clearly recognizable on Control.
The album seems to be a kind of compilation of different musical approach…