★Bureau B
One Hour
In 1994 the seminal electronic duo cluster (dieter moebius & hans-joachim roedelius) continued what they had begun in 1990 with "apropos cluster", their comeback album. the more mature "one hour" condenses essential passages from two lengthy sessions into 60 minutes. we hear sprawling soundscapes, clear acoustic sketches, musical extravaganzas, in short: highly impressionistic electronica.
Synthesist
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…
Flieg Vogel Fliege
"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…
Apropos Cluster
“Apropos Cluster” was released in Coralville, Iowa, in deepest provincial America. Youthful enthusiast Russ Curry (sic) set up the Curious Music label on his own initiative to release this very album. Emboldened by the spirit of the independent movement, he paid for manufacturing himself and took care of CD distribution, as well as doing his best to ensure that a few copies made their way to Europe. In common with so many independent label operations, Russ Curry lacked the financial clout to mar…
Japlan
Der Plan were invited to Tokyo in 1984 to play six concerts for Seibu, a Japanese department store chain. Seibu were staging a “German Week”. But how did they come to choose Der Plan, of all bands? Why not an Oktoberfest combo or the Scorpions? Moritz Reichelt explains: “German New Wave was really popular in Japan. They knew more about it than people here at home. Catalogues and magazines detailed every obscure record and depicted the covers. This particular department store chain was linked …
Die letzte Rache
Der Plan (Moritz R, Frank Fenstermacher, Pyrolator) were instrumental in ushering in the German New Wave (NDW) and are considered free spirits of synthesizer pop: electronic music created with minimal means, sometimes experimental, playful or even bordering on dilettantism, but always with a sense of humour.
Retrospectively, it makes perfect sense that Der Plan created a soundtrack. For one thing, visuals were almost as important to Der Plan as their music. And if every self-respecting pop b…
Nachtstucke
LP version. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Nachtstücke owed its publication to former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann, who was asked by the French label Barclay/EGG to produce three albums focusing specifically on German electronic music. He was working with Hans-Joachim Roedelius at the time, who had been given a few Tietchens tracks on cassette. When Baumann heard Roedelius play them in the studio during a break in proceedings, they sparked his interest and he met up with Tietchens some time …
Der Funfte Himmel
LP version. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Between 1981 and 1983 Asmus Tietchens released four albums on the Sky Records label, fusing rhythmic set pieces and off-kilter sounds into gaudy escapades of saccharine artificiality. The "pseudo-pop" epithet reflected their frequently ironic air. All four records have been reissued by Bureau B in their original form. What remained may be found on this collection. Der fünfte Himmel ("The Fifth Sky") retrieves those pieces which were denied a place on the or…
In die Nacht
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…
Litia
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…
Silber
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…
Gold
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 sequencers.…
Kinder in der wildnis
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, …
Congratulacion
LP version on 180 gram vinyl." Conrad Schnitzler is as unpredictable as he is true to himself. If this sounds paradoxical, he reconfirmed the assertion in 1987 with an album which posed many questions and offered few answers -- his music more extraordinary than ever. The indefatigable Schnitzler still leaves anyone listening to Congratulacion today rather baffled. Those well-acquainted with his music might search in vain for familiar landmarks. Instead, new and unexpected features can be heard, …
Pyrolator's Wunderland
LP version, on 180 gram vinyl. Bureau B reissues Pyrolator's Wunderland, originally released on Ata Tak in 1984. Quote 1: "I have always strived for the opposite of whatever is hip at the time." (Pyrolator in June 2013) Quote 2: "Wunderland is so beautiful -- the first time I heard this record, I cried." (Andreas Dorau). New York City, 1983. Andreas Dorau has a gig at Danceteria and Pyrolator accompanies him as sound engineer. Back then, it really looked as if Ata Tak could make a go of it in th…
Pyrolator's Traumland
LP version, on 180 gram vinyl. Bureau B reissues Pyrolator's Wunderland, originally released on Ata Tak in 1984. Quote 1: "I have always strived for the opposite of whatever is hip at the time." (Pyrolator in June 2013) Quote 2: "Wunderland is so beautiful -- the first time I heard this record, I cried." (Andreas Dorau). New York City, 1983. Andreas Dorau has a gig at Danceteria and Pyrolator accompanies him as sound engineer. Back then, it really looked as if Ata Tak could make a go of it in th…
Another other places
"17 years after Other Places, a sophomore album from these innovative musicians. Dieter Moebius (Kluster, Cluster, Harmonia), Mani Neumeier (Guru Guru) and Jürgen Engler (Male, Die Krupps) got back together to carry on exactly where they left off in the 1990s. The long break has done no harm to their latest music, on the contrary -- as is clearly audible -- it has taken them to another level. The way they react to each other as they improvise, the powerful, subtle rhythms and the use of digital…
Spat-Europa
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…
Biotop
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
Fur mich
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 to cre…