Category Archives: Ambient
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 3.
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 3. Fire!-She Sleeps, She Sleeps. Back in Fenruary, Fire! released their fifth studio album She Sleeps, She Sleeps on Rune Grammofon. Just like previous albums by Fire! and the Fire! Orchestra the music on She Sleeps, She Sleeps was groundbreaking, influential and innovative. It was also captivating, progressive, genre-melting music. …
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 4.
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 4. Jóhann Jóhannsson-Ophee On Orphée, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s turned his attention to the beauty and the process of creation. Orphée features Jóhann Jóhannsson tracing a path from darkness into light. Inspiration for Orphée comes from the opéra bouffe Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld). It was written by Ludovic Halévy, …
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 6.
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 6. Qluster-Echtzei. Forty-seven years after he first co-founded Kluster, Hans-Joachim Roedelius keeps the memory of Kluster and Cluster alive with Qluster. They released their sixth album Echtzeit on Bureau B during 2016. Echtzeit marks a stylistic departure from Qluster. It’s much more ambient sounding album. Qluster combine elements of …
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 7.
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 7. Sunanna-Triangle. Triangle is Susanna’s eleventh album and first for four years. It was released on Susanna’s own SusannaSonata label, and is no ordinary album. Not by a long chalk. Instead, Triangle is a twenty-two song cerebral epic, where Susanna muses and meditates on mortality and religion. It’s a powerful album, …
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 1
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 1 For years, I’ve been writing about the Nordic Wave scene, which is, without doubt, one of the most eclectic and vibrant in Europe. During that period, I’ve witnessed the rise and rise of the Nordic Wave. There’s no sign of the bubble bursting. Quite the opposite. This latest …
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 2.
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 2. Hedvig Mollestad Trio-Evil In Oslo. In July 2016, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio released two albums. This includes the live album Evil In Oslo. It was released by Rune Grammofon and is the Hedvig Mollestad Trio’s first ever live album. Evil In Oslo is a tantalising taste of the …
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 3.
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 3. Nicklas Sørensen-Solo. Ever since 2010, Copenhagen based instrumental rock trio Papir’s star has been in the ascendancy. One of the men behind Papir’s success was guitarist Nicklas Sørensen, who released his debut album Solo on El Paraiso Records. He set out to experiment on Solo. However, on other …
KLAUS SCHULZE-THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOOG BOX SETS.
KLAUS SCHULZE-THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOOG BOX SETS. By 1994, Berlin School pioneer Klaus Schulze was a veteran of German music. He had been making music for twenty-five years. His recording career began back in October 1969, when Klaus Schulze played on Tangerine Dream’s debut album Electronic Meditation. Eight months later, Electronic Meditation was released …
CONRAD SCHNITZLER/SCHNEIDER TM-CON-STRUCT.
CONRAD SCHNITZLER/SCHNEIDER TM-CON-STRUCT. One of the most important and influential figures in German music was Conrad Schnitzler. He was a composer, concept artist and one the leading lights of Germany’s electronic music and avant-garde scenes. Conrad Schnitzler was also a musical pioneer, who created music that was innovative and often, way ahead of its time. …
MANUEL GOTTSCHING-E2-E4
MANUEL GOTTSCHING-E2-E4 It was late 1981, when Manuel Göttsching returned home after a lengthy tour with Klaus Schulze. The two pioneers of the Berlin School of electronic music had spent much of 1981 touring their latest albums. Manuel Göttsching’s most recent album was Belle Alliance. This was his fifth solo album, and the fourth to …
ASHRA-CORRELATIONS COMPLETE BOX SET.
ASHRA-CORRELATIONS COMPLETE BOX SET. When Manuel Göttsching released Inventions For Electric Guitar in 1975, this was meant to be the start of a new chapter in his career. Inventions For Electric Guitar was meant to be Manuel Göttsching’s debut solo album. Some eagle eyed record buyers weren’t so sure about that. Atop the album cover …
JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON-ORPHEE.
JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON-ORPHEE. It was whilst studying languages and literature at university in Reykjavík, that Jóhann Jóhannsson’s musical career began. He was just eighteen when he joined his first indie rock band in 1987. Over the next few years, Jóhann Jóhannsson played with several indie rock bands in Reykjavík’s vibrant and thriving music scene. Little did …
ADELBERT VON DEYEN-NORBORG AND ATMOSPHERE.
ADELBERT VON DEYEN-NORBORG AND ATMOSPHERE. After Adelbert Von Deyen released his debut album Sternzeit on Günter Körber’s Sky Records in 1978, the label became his home for the next nine years. This was the most productive period of Adelbert Von Deyen’s career. His creativity blossomed and he released eight studio albums and one live album. …
CONRAD SCHNITZLER-FILMMUSIK 1.
CONRAD SCHNITZLER-FILMMUSIK 1. Conrad Schnitzler was, without doubt, one of the most important and influential figures in German music. Having studied under Joseph Beuys, he cofounded the legendary Zodiak Free Arts Lab in Berlin with Hans-Joachim Roedelius. For next the two years, the Zodiak Free Arts Lab became one of Berlin’s cultural hubs. Artists and …
KOLLECTION 06: CLUSTER 1971-1981-COMPILED BY JOHN McENTIRE.
KOLLECTiON 06: CLUSTER 1971-1981-COMPILED BY JOHN McENTIRE. One of the most important, influential and innovative bands in the history of German music were Cluster. Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius formed Cluster in 1971. Previously they had both been members of Kluster since 1969. However, Conrad Schnitzler, the third member of Kluster, left the band in mid-1971. …
MIKI YUI-OSCILLA.
MIKI YUI-OSCILLA. There aren’t many people who successfully juggle several different careers. Instead, most people tend to specialise in one thing. Especially when it comes to art. That however, isn’t the case with Japanese artist Miki Yui. She has successfully combined and cultivated several different careers since her career began in 1998. Since then, the multitalented Miki Yui’s …
(THE MICROCOSM): THE VISIONARY MUSIC OF CONTINENTAL EUROPE, 1970-1986.
(THE MICROCOSM): THE VISIONARY MUSIC OF CONTINENTAL EUROPE, 1970-1986. As the seventies dawned, a new musical movement started to take shape across Europe. This new musical movement continued right through to the mid-eighties. By then, artists from Germany, Austria, Holland and France were part of this new musical movement. So were artists in Italy, Greece, …
THE CLUSTER STORY.
THE CLUSTER STORY. The Cluster story began in the Zodiak Free Arts Lab in West Berlin. That’s where Hans-Joachim Roedelius first met Dieter Moebius. Little did they know that they were about to embark upon a musical journey that would last five decades. During that period, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius were part of three …