Pete Namlook, Klaus Schulze

In 1994, Klaus Schulze was able to look back on a long, successful and highly influential career, but he was also able to embrace the new. He was in the midst of his 'digital phase', fascinated by sampling technology, and had a clear idea of where he could go with the technology, which resulted in albums like Beyond Recall; the Royal Festival Hall recordings; The Dome Event and even to an extent his opera Totentag.

By contrast Peter Kuhlman a.k.a Pete Namlook had just started. In 1992 he had founded the seminal Fax label, which was both a vehicle for his own recordings and a chance to collaborate and release recordings from like-minded musicians from around the world including Robert Görl of DAF, Geir Jenssen of Biosphere fame, the ever-eclectic Bill Laswell, Ritchie Hawtin, Lorenzo Montanà, Gabriel Le Mar, Dr. Atmo and David Moufang to name just a few.

Dark Side Of The Moog grew more or less unplanned to a sprawling, stately-sized series of eleven volumes recorded between 1994 and 2008, only ending with the early, tragic death of Pete on November 8th 2012. Retrospectively, the approach to and exchange of music and ideas, the growing together and cross-pollination of emotion and logic, makes for a rewarding and fascinating listening experience that still holds its own today.

For Namlook, the curiosity of Klaus Schulze and their collaboration on a level playing field of mutual respect was inspiring: and so a legendary series of recordings was born.