Roberto C. Détrée - Architectura Celestis (1982)

Had no idea what this was when I picked it up last week, really glad I did though since the music on this LP has been filling up the rooms of our apartment now for the whole week...

Roberto C. Détrée was born in Argentina but moved to Munich in 1967 where he founded the improvisational group Between with Peter Michael Hamel and Robert Eliscu. They released a good amount of records for Wergo during the 70's, none of which I've had a chance to hear yet. Détrée went in the studio and recorded this LP in january of 1982. The whole record consists of modal improvisations on one note, D, where he plays guitar and what he calls "self-made additional instruments".

This is not just any guitar record though; Détrée here drenches the guitar in a sea of FX, and if it is still discernible on the first side's three tracks, even if cloaked in hall reverb and full of sustain, by the time we've reached the majestic title track on the flipside it has fully given way to the shimmering harmonics and overtones that envelop it. The 20 minute Architectura Celestis is the highlight here, not too far from some of Olivier Messiaen's organ music but even more ethereal, organic and continuously shifting and shimmering. I could listen to this one for hours...Unfortunately the vinyl here craps out in places...

Architectura Celestis

Peter Mergener/Michael Weisser - Beam-Scape (1984)

Just got this yesterday for really cheap, so it's not in the best shape, but I thought I should still share it since it's so good! Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser are better known as Software, but that's pretty much all I know about them since there's not a lot of info on these guys in english on the web, I do know that they were using mostly digital equipment at the time, hence their name, and that this was their first record.

Their sound reminds me a bit of Klaus Schulze or Robert Schröder's early output, but since they were using MIDI equipment there's something more mechanical and robotic in the way their sequences play out.

Beam-Scape

Harald Grosskopf - Synthesist (1980)

After spending most of the 70's playing drums on some of the most important german records from that era, the infamous Cosmic Jokers sessions, Walter Wegmüller's Tarot, a bunch of Klaus Sculze LPs, Ashra and Wallenstein, Harald Grosskopf finally dropped this baby on Sky records in 1980. Somewhat similar in spirit to parts of Göttsching's gorgeous New Age of earth record from 1976, but definitely more upbeat and rhythm based, and on a planet of it's own, Grosskopf here plays live drums, wanky double-synth solos and arpeggiated synth sequences, so you get this odd motorik/New Age juxtaposition. Some songs, like "1847 Earth", almost predate techno. You can basically hear the tail end of the 70's morphing into the 80's...


Synthesize

Michael Hoenig - Departure from the Northern Wasteland (1978)

Classic Berlin School LP.

Although not released until 1978, this first solo outing by Hoenig was actually conceived and realized in 1976-77. Michael Hoenig by then had already done time in Agitation Free, Tangerine Dream and played with Manuel Göttsching and Klaus Schulze. The music on this LP ain't too far from what Tangerine Dream where doing at the time they recorded Ricochet, but the compositions here strike me as being a bit more refined and highly thought out. You can also hear a bit of Terry Riley here and there, mixed in with the rigidity of sequencer riffs and synth solos, although Voices of Where, my favorite track here, really gets close to Riley's all-night tape delay dreaminess for most of it's length, that's until it actually explodes into repetitive vocal loop patterns à la Reich near the end...

Blow your mind...

Neuronium - Chromium Echoes (1982)

We had this LP at the store I work at for 6 months before I decided to listen to it. I guess I wasn't too attracted by the abstract progressive-metal artwork, and my co-workers had put this in the prog section so it didn't strike me as being something I'd be interested in, but one day I decided to check it out and opened the gatefold cover which revealed an array of synthesizers and electronic percussion. I had to try it out. I was quite surprised to find out I had Neuronium all wrong, this wasn't really a prog band but more like a Kosmische Musik thing. Parts of this record remind me a bit of Fetus/Pollution-era Battiato, but in general it's closer to the work of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, if maybe less polished. Really quite nice...This is actually their 5th record and was the last one recorded as a band since Carlos Guirao left Michel Huygen to be the sole remaining member of the band once the record was completed.

Chromium Echoes

Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Selbstportrait (1979)

This is the first volume in Roedelius' Selbstportrait series and it's a fantastic compilation of secret gems recorded at Cluster's home studio in Forst between 1973-1977. Most of the material on this record is similar in spirit to some of the music that Cluster and Harmonia were recording at the time, which makes sense since most of it was apparently recorded between those two bands' recording sessions. It's definitely more rough around the edges though, which is something I like, and some of it sounds a bit unfinished; you can basically hear Roedelius developing the music as he records it, like on the track Inselmoos which contains segments that'll later end up on Luftschloss, a track from Eno/Moebius/Roedelius' After the Heat.

This music is the sound of the Sun burning you into a hazy daze...

Richard Pinhas - Iceland (1979)

Iceland, the name says it all: this is Cold New Age.

Recorded in Paris in 1979, this was Richard Pinhas' 3rd solo record. Nightmarish, sombre and heavy on synths, this is the sound of a frozen wasteland filtered through slowly pulsating neon electronics. Oh, and there's some Fripp-esque hyper-processed guitar noodling here and there, but it all fits rather nicely with the rest. I don't know what was in the air in 1979 but just like Schröder's Harmonic Ascendant, Iceland parts 2 & 3 also feature a rather fucked and delirious electronic voice communicating with the higher levels of it's consciousness. It adds a level of creepiness to the whole thing. The record finishes with the track Greenland and it's a very sweet ending; full of lush psychedelic synths, a dreamy sequencer riff that's really hypnotizing, vibes, live drums and what seems like electronic percussion, this track is immense. The whole record is immense.

Get it