Roedelius

CD version. The third studio album by Hans-Joachim Roedelius, originally released by Sky Records in 1981, fulfilled a dream he had long cherished. A series of chamber music pieces, with grand piano solos taking center stage in some places, archaised percussion patterns in others. Lustwandel represents a logical progression, following on from Jardin Au Fou (re-released on Bureau B in 2009). Both albums were recorded at Paragon Studios in 1979 and produced by Peter Baumann (Tangerine Dream). Electronica in the sense of synthetic sound sources or rhythm are absent from Lustwandel, in keeping with so many Roedelius solo works. This led to lively action amongst Cluster fans 30 years ago, as they divided into different camps.

Roedelius' unique musical style and irrepressible enthusiasm take his listeners down more of a sidetrack to the aural landscape of European harmonic and rhythmic tradition. There are obvious parallels to so-called serious chamber music, if not all the way along the route. His music has never been bound by contemporary aesthetic debate nor susceptible to emerging theory. As an autodidact, his techniques of composition and piano-playing are so well developed, that Roedelius has never wanted, nor needed to bother himself with any of that. It is a carefree Roedelius who saunters through both the 19th and late-20th centuries. Boundaries dissolve in his music.

Here the glow of a magic lantern, there the glare of a neon light. Herein lay the originality of Lustwandel: he availed himself of traditional forms yet expressed them in contemporaneous fashion. Roedelius and Lustwandel could easily have been assimilated into the postmodern era which arrived in the 1970s. But, as usual, he was many miles away from the hub of cultural activity, without the slightest inclination to pay any attention to new phenomena. This child of the sun walks some very different paths indeed. Printed inner sleeve with photos and an essay by Asmus Tietchens.