Roedelius

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm... yeah... why not? It's like the Selbstportrait albums, it's a bit lo-fi and DIY, not as polished as some of his stuff

yes it's great

cool, thanks. "lo-fi and DIY" sounds encouraging!

Roedelius guide: if it was originally released on Sky Records, or was recorded between 72-82, you want it

1978 Durch die Wüste
1979 Jardin au fou
1979 Selbstportrait I
1980 Selbstportrait II
1980 Selbstportrait III
1981 Lustwandel
1981 Wenn der Südwind weht (Selbstportrait vol 4)
1982 Offene Türen (almost Moebius / Tietchens levels of weird lo-fi pop)
1982 Flieg' Vogel flieg' (Selbstportrait vol 5)
1982 Wasser im Wind (first one with violins & saxophones, but still arranged in selbstportrait mode)

after that -

1984 Gift of the moment (selbstportrait-type songs but recorded chamber music style - some of it very pretty)
1990 Variety of moods (sax & violin increasingly dominant but ends with half hour of solo piano)
1991 Der Ohrenspiegel (very strange arrangements & editing)
1991 Piano Piano (solo piano)
1994 Sinfonia Contempora No. 1 (return to abstract sound collage -- still some sax & violin at moments, but Tietchens contributes some sounds)
1995 Selbstportrait VI - The diary of the unforgotten (this one is basically all the fragments & snippets recorded from 72-78 that didn't make vols I - III, the centerpiece is 'Homage a Forst' made from solo outtakes from Harmonia & Cluster sessions)
1996 Sinfonia Contempora No. 2: La Nordica (another abstract one, the 30 minute opening is quite strange & good)
2001 Acon (w/ Schnitzler) - takes about 20 minutes to achieve peak velocity, but a good session

the later selbstportraits are contemporary & recorded on new equipment and I can't handle them

"1984 Gift of the moment"

love this album. just listening to it the other day. kinda hits my durutti column/penguin cafe orchestra spot.

it's very Penguin Cafe, makes sense that it came out on EG records

if I had to pick 4 absolute favorites

1978 Durch die Wüste (probably the absolute best - Roedelius / Plank prog rock album)
1979 Jardin au fou (pop tunes from the Garden of Madness - walking a line between lighthearted & demented)
1980 Selbstportrait II / Selbstportrait III (super lo-fi demos from Zuckerzeit / Sowiesoso era not originally intended for release. contains versions of tunes reworked on later studio records, less produced but once you become a diehard Cluster fan these two records can easily start to seem like the center of the whole discography)

"Jardin Au Fou" = said it before, will say it again, lovely lovely lovely

Almost perfect in fact

if it's not perfect I'd love to hear something that is

What?? He's got a solo piano album called "Piano Piano"? Yikes. I'm hopping right on that thing. Seems like I might want to check out Gift Of The Moment, too.

Bought Wüste/Lustwandel/Südwind a few years ago cheap on LP and enjoy them all a lot, though I agree that Durch die Wüste is the best. I also love his collaboration with Tim Story as Lunz. Very pretty. Will def. go after Jardin Au Fou..

anyone hear this:

http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs071/1102000774575/img/93.jpg?a=1102125099325

Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Tim Story - Inlandish

okay i just listened to an mp3 of a song from it and it doesn't really thrill me actually.

yeah not really my thing either. gotta say, 75% of post-1986 roedelius leaves me feeling a little restless, even when it's lovely. what the pioneers started doing with digital in the 80's didn't sound as distinctive, 1983-1995 was the dark age of synth interface design.

They had copies of Stephen Iliffe's Roedelius book at the tour. Thumbs up for fans, looks / feels beautiful, lots of great pictures starting from his career as a child actor & lots of 70's shots, fascinating life story, long section on Cluster, compiles tons of anecdotes & interviews with collaborators & press quotes all in one place, and there's complete record review guide 1969-2003 - I don't agree with all his picks, but at least when someone reviews _everything_ you stand more of a chance of being able to triangulate your tastes against theirs

http://www.roedelius.com/index.php?menu=4&site=1

hey gosh

Roedelius' group Human Being - "Pictures from the 1969 film by Dietmar Buchmann shows scenes from Conrad Schnitzler's Zodiak Free Arts Lab"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBUa4EFDc_M

looks like R at 1:02

Human Being: Live at the Zodiak - Berlin 1968 is going on your 1001 psych list once it's out

one fairly recent I missed upthread that I like a lot - 'Nevertheless' by Roedelius & Morgan Fisher. Two very long tracks at the end & Fisher's mixing & guitar playing is in the tradition of those Made To Measure ambient Tuxedomoon solos and side 2 of Vangelis' 'L'Apocalypse Des Animaux' (Fisher is of course contemporary with those guys and still going)

jardin au fou is getting reissued on vinyl/cd in march
http://www.bureau-b.com/

cover is truly frightening
http://www.bureau-b.com/images/Roedelius%20Highres.jpg

?

he looks like a zombie!

Are the lack of Harmonia (and hence Harmonia '76) recommendations because it would be too obvious? (If so, no probs.)

Granted, I've been listening to Live 1974, Musik Von Harmonia, Deluxe, and Tracks & Traces recently. Goooooood stuff. Probably best for the Harmonia thread tho.

live '74 is excellent

I saw Mani Neumeier play last week, acid mothers dude was in hospital and couldnt play :[.

still he was rilly fun to watch anyway

I saw Jardin au fou at Dusty Groove for a nice price, but wanted to read up on it before I took the plunge. Looks like I need it *sigh*

that second Roedelius / Story CD that Scott linked upthread 'Inlandish' ended up being a lot better overall than the mp3 sample. still definitely on the glossy side of new age but some of the textures are nice & the melodic keyboard compositions are exactly the thing I wish there'd been slightly more of on the new Cluster record. though there too, that new Cluster record kind of grew on me a bit.

just jumping in to declare my undying love for jardin au fou. my vinyl copy arrived in the post today and i've played it 5 times already! can't wait to fall asleep to this tonight

how is durch die wurste? i see bureau b have reissued it

It is good.

they also just reissued Cluster's 'Curiosum', which is huge for me. they're doing the packaging so well on those reissues it makes me want to buy them again

Nepenthe also just reissued 'Offene Türen' from 1980 -- more produced out than the selbstportrait series, some of the sounds land on the cheesy side, but there's also a couple of pretty odd numbers that makes me think he was taking in the other records on Sky by Moebius/Plank & Asmus Tietchens -- definitely get 'Jardin Au Fou' / 'Durch Die Wuste' & the first three Selbstportaits first but overall this one's still pretty much in the classic period

just listened again, the second half of this is pretty great. less cosmic than just plain old strange

i've seen the curiosum reissue around town, now you've endorsed it i'm gonna buy it tomorrow. i've got every cluster record up 'til that and if it's huge for milton then it's good enuff 4 me

how many selbsportraits are there? i've only got iii (on mp3 for shame) but it's on constant rotation. in a way, when i first heard jardin au fou i was a little disappointed that it didn't sound more like selbsportrait iii

Curiosum was the one where it seems like they got back to their home studio roots after the high production on Grosses Wasser, which I like but overall it's a little stiff. Curiosum is just back to being a really strange record, everything's out of tune but it's all still very addictively catchy

first three selbstportraits were actually titled volumes 1-3, and it was all archival 70's material. then it gets confusing -- the original Sky issues of 'Wenn Der Sudwind Weht' and 'Flieg Vogel Fleige' didn't have 'Selbstportrait' anywhere on the packaging, and they sounded like new recordings, but recorded on the old farfisa equipment so they sound more like 'Selbstportraits' than albums like 'Lustwandel' & 'Offene Türen', so it was only when he put out 'Selbstportrait vol 6' in the early 90's that it seems he retroactively deemed them volumes 4 & 5

Selbstportraits 7 & 8 are recent ones recorded on new gear and I'm not into them, but 1-3 & 6 = pretty much my favorite records of his along with Jardin & Wuste. And I played #5 'Flieg Vogel Fliege' again today and man, that's kind of a must have, really needs to come out on CD

but for all those hordes of Cluster fans getting into this stuff, all you need to know is that Selbstportraits 1, 2, 3 & 6 = the 4-track recordings Roedelius made in his bedroom at Forst studio in the 70's when he wasn't recording with Harmonia & Cluster -- they're all the home demos & have plenty of timing errors and if you're one of those earless fools who thinks that the Harmonia & Eno record isn't good music then you don't need to worry about them, but if you're already more than a little into the Cluster catalog then you really, really want to find these

there's just something so sweet and charming about those selbsportrait iii melodies. even when it gets slightly darker and more absract, its never threatening. i love how people praise cluster for their experimentation but deep down its all about roedelius just wanting to compose these little timeless ditties

"if you're one of those earless fools who thinks that the Harmonia & Eno record isn't good music"

pretty sure nobody like this actually exists

how is durch die wurste?

it is so good. has some surprisingly krautrock moments on it (as opposed to pure synth stuff).

i think bureau b also reissued moebius' first solo album?

Hmm, in my opinion the best Roedelius albums are as follows:

-Musik von Harmonia (Harmonia-1974) (can't beat the drifting organ/guitar sounds and the fluffy rhythm boxes, a lot more structured than Zuckerzeit, the album that usually gets recommended, and so IMHO better.)

-Cluster and Eno (Cluster and Eno-1977) (beautiful underplayed piano and organ with Brian Eno's inventiveness to top it off)

-After the Heat (Cluster and Eno-1978) (mostly Eno dominated, but when Roedelius gets on the tape his piano work is first class. 'The Shade' is probably my favourite Roedelius piano track)

Selbstportrait I & II (Roedelius-1979/1980) Very similar albums, I own the CTR 1 CD release, I was so hooked when I bought it that I listened to nothing else for 2 months)

Lustwandel (Roedelius-1981) The best of Roedelius' work with Peter Baumann as his producer, very pretty piano tracks of the Selbstportrait school of thought.

Like the Whispering of the Wind (Roedelius-1987) Indebted to iTunes for this exceedingly rare album, definately my favourite of all his albums. Piano solo but played in a way that you've never heard before, a pity he didn't do more like this.

Romance in the Wilderness (Roedelius-1992) Electro-ambient-jazz experiments. Underplayed keyboard and achingly beautiful sax work, a beauty of an album.

Sinfonia Contempora #1 (Roedelius-1994) Collage work, I have always loved this medium. The first track is basically a condensation of whats good about Roedelius.

Neverless (Roedelius and Fisher-2008) Droney work, Morgan Fisher adds his own unique touch, pure bliss.

Fibre (Roedelius and Noh1) Like Cluster and Eno it owes its beauty to underplayed piano and almost jazzy improv. His best album since Romance in the Wilderness and one of my favourites!

I haven't heard much of the uber-rare vinyl stuff so don't hold me to account if that is wonderous too. Believe me, I'd like a copy of Selbstportrait III, Wasser im Wind and Weites Land too!

(p.s. I don't understand why everyone loves Jardin au Fou, Peter Baumann's production just doesn't suit it, it's a bit aimless to be frank.)

lmao at the cover art for the 90s cd reissue of Jardin Au Fou

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c115/yarrost/Roedelius.jpg

Like the Whispering of the Wind (Roedelius-1987) Indebted to iTunes for this exceedingly rare album, definately my favourite of all his albums. Piano solo but played in a way that you've never heard before, a pity he didn't do more like this.

I just bought this on iTunes the other day on KosmischeSynth's recommendation -- agree it's very interesting and need to listen more.

Milton, what do you think of it?

Ok, so I just pulled down Durch Die Wüste -- and was not expecting the guitar jam that opens this record. Whoah.

guitar jam at the beginning of Durch Die Wüste I always took as a direct reference to the opening jam of David Bowie's Station To Station, with inserted spacey-pastoral breaks

Like the Whispering of the Wind

I should download the mp3's, my vinyl copy is noisy to a degree that interferes which is maybe why I never quite got into it. But it is a unique record for him, most of his other solo piano records are mantric & pulsey and this one is just washes, it takes work to keep music this formless.

it takes work to keep music this formless

It sure does. I realized while I was listening to it walking home last night that there's some sort of tape delay system at work. Certain phrases he's playing that repeat for a long while as he plays new parts over them. The result, in places, sounds a little like Harold Budd.

It made me think that I'd love to read an interview with Roedelius about his working methods more generally. A lot of his non-Cluster material is just him alone in the studio (or with Baumann or Plank at the board) -- with lots of overdubbed parts. I'd be sort of interested in hearing how he builds all his stuff (whether he sits and plays loops for five minutes or uses tape edits to loop smaller parts, etc.) and how he constructs compositions out of them. All of this, of course, has been made so much easier to do in the modern studio. But when these records were made, it was brutally hard.

there's some mentions in all the liner notes of the re-releases and a lot of details in Ilife's book on Roedelius.

one of the big selling points of the 70's Cluster / Harmonia / Roedelius Selbstportrait albums is that the repetitive riffs are all hand-played, the layers keep evolving & varying because they're not loops, they're manual

Yes, that's true. Was there no tape looping at all? In the case of Like the Whispering of the Wind, it really does sound like a loop, not a manual part. But then again, these guys are loop machines.

Just ordered the book online -- it sounds fascinating.

Haven't gotten the book yet, but I've been listening quite intently to Lustwandel, Durch Die Wüste, Selbstportraits I, II and III, and Like the Whispering of the Wind. I'm really digging Selbstportrait stuff, which I've actually had for a while but only listened to intermittently.

As Milton had said some of the tracks are works-in-progress, it's worth noting that "Staunen Im Fjord" off of Selbstportraits I is an early version of "The Belldog" without the Eno vocal or synth sequence.

hey you're right! never noticed that before.

Other Selbstportrait tracks that are demos for later tracks:

vol 1 'Inselmoos' = Eno Moebius Roedelius' 'The Shade'
vol 2 'Übern Fluß' = Eno's 'By This River'
vol 6 'Homage du Forst' begins with the basic track for Harmonia's 'Watussi'

hey you're right! never noticed that before.

Other Selbstportrait tracks that are demos for later tracks:

vol 2 'Übern Fluß' = Eno's 'By This River'
--Milton Parker

"Allen Jahre Wieder" on vol. 1 is also a great demo of "Legende" on Lustwandel with that great rising melodic cadence.

The Roedelius book is pretty good though I'm not too keen on the odd reviews of his records at the end.
I love Roedelius' music. Having chatted with him once last year I can also attest to his being one of the straight-up nicest, most unpretentious artists I've met.

whoops i had too many tabs open - rip on the wrong one :(

Don't do that!!!

u dick

Two new albums in the last couple of months.

Qluster: Tasten (Spotify) - minimal piano stuff. The press materials position this as "don't forget who was doing this sort of stuff long before Nils Frahm!!!" and it sorta sounds that way too.

Roedelius Muraglia: Ubi Bene (Spotify) - Like Qluster and Roedelius Schneider, he's once again collaborating with another younger guy. I appreciate that Roedelius sees the value in staying connected to the newer generation of artists. I much prefer this to the Qluster album. It's more varied, moving between electro, ambient, and piano pieces. It sounds somewhat like people Roedelius has influenced rather than the man himself - kinda Mouse on Mars-y in spots, which I'm pretty OK with.

thanks for letting me know about Ubi Bene. it's pleasant. I like how easily Achim has taken to iOS apps. favorite ones of the recent crop are Lauschen and Lazy Arc with Tim. the last two tracks on the latter are really something.

I don't love all of Ubi Bene - first few tracks are great but some of the latter, quieter stuff is pleasant at best, maybe a little hokey. But - "Summer Breeze, Turning" is a gorgeous guitar number.

This man is a treasure - and one of the sweetest personally influential artists I've had the pleasure to meet and talk with. I'm glad he's not tinkering away in some sort of obscurity. Look forward to listening to these new ones!

@dark_shark: Brian Eno: For Achim, September 3-6, 2015, Berlin #HansJoachimRoedelius https://t.co/be3fgR5P2f http://t.co/BL2ni2uMCf

Roedelius' third album since July - this time it's Mueller Roedelius, Imagori.

I highly recommend checking out this fantastic interview with Roedelius looking back on his life & music.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?exchange=266

Let's see: child movie star, Hitler Youth, deserter from the East German army, in prison for two years, personal masseur to celebrities (including Henry Miller??!?!), jilted Florian Schneider's sister... fairly uneventful life really.

godDAMNit now that's a chapter of fan fic I now have to change...

New Qluster: Echtzeit

Been digging deeper into Roedelius' back catalog. I've picked up "Flieg Vogel Fliege", "Wenn Der Sudwind Weht" and now "Selbsportrait II". I love the simplicity, the melodies and the abstractness of it all. I can't remember which other album I checked out but it had a bit too much that brought to mind traditional German music. Plenty more to dig into!

Yeah, I've been going through a phase myself! Just finished his biography, which was awful, but nevertheless provided a decent discographical map, especially wrt to the latter-day stuff. I just downloaded both Weites Land and A Friendly Game. Haven't listened to the former yet but the latter sounds like an especially weird ECM release or something. I dig it!

Psyched to see him with Horse Lords in Bawlmer next month.

Whoa Roedelius and Horse Lords! Weird combo but so appealing. That'll be a great show. What kind of stuff does he perform live? Does he have a band?

Saw this link on Facebook, earlier today.

https://www.gofundme.com/hjr2017

yeah i can't wait for that show, Wume are great too

Omg Wume are playing too?! They are A+++

Two new Roedelius albums in 2017 so far:

Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Arnold Kasar: Einfluss - Roedelius on piano while Kasar adds some electronic atmospherics. It's ok on first listen but I don't really feel like I need much more of Roedelius' piano work.

Roedelius/Hauswolff: Nordlicht - minimal drone. Can't think of the last time he made something in this vein!

saw him tonight! he seems in good spirits, his wife read a poem (that he wrote) in german. he read a poem (written 25 years ago acc to him) in english. his set was half computer, half piano. very enjoyable. i think he is just doing whatever because he is 82 (he mentioned his age as "almost 83"). <3 <3 <3

it sounds like you had a better experience than i did when i saw him a few years ago:

saw him last night in l.a. @ the echo. good enough show, but the echo is such a bullshit, unprofessionally run venue. at the echoplex downstairs they had a bass-heavy electro band who started about halfway through his set and basically ruined it. he played on in reasonably good spirits for another twenty minutes before he was done, but it pretty much sucked.

― omar little, Friday, October 28, 2011 7:24 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

At the DC show, my friend commented that he thought they could have done a better job booking him at better clubs. Sounds like you agree.

― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, October 28, 2011 8:39 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah the echo was a bad choice. the crowd was great and cool for the most part, but between the bass interrupting his set (he stopped and said "what is zis? fuck! i don't even want to play!" - albeit in a very charming fashion) and the sound of the hand dryers in the women's bathroom right next to the stage intruding on his music periodically, it was kind of disrespectful to his aesthetic. like i said, the joint is run poorly ime, but this was sort of a last straw for me.

― omar little, Saturday, October 29, 2011 4:34 AM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah tbh the venue was perfect -- usually they book jazz shows and i have never had a problem there with sound.
last night it was so quiet i could hear the man next to me breathing (through his nose, it was distracting) and no one coughed or sneezed or let their phone go off.

he also took a video of the audience after his set - idk if he posts them somewhere or what

I'm looking forward to seeing him in Montreal soon. He posts somewhat frequently on his Facebook page. I haven't seen anything like that video.

Bummed he isn't playing Boston on this tour.

Just threw in Triptych in Blue, one of his collabs from 2016 w Andrew Heath and Christopher Chaplin. All electronic, pretty nice.

saw him the other night in sf.. same thing as above, bad venue. the acoustic piano bit was beautiful.

New album with Tim Story, Lunz 3. It's nice.

87 tomorrow. Happy birthday, you great man.

Played an impromptu kraut/kosmische set in a record store last week and totally forgot to bring Roedelius. Entschuldigung und herzlichen Geburtstag, HJR!

LOL 87. What a man, what a life story! HBHJR!

After a full immersion in his Sky records, I need to explore further. There's some good pointers in this thread and I usually look at rateyourmusic.com to see what's rated higher.

was just listening to this thing yesterday — https://roedelius-official.bandcamp.com/album/tape-archive-essence-1973-1978
so great ... those versions of "by this river" are sublime.

HBD legend. I've been getting deep into Selbstportrait III lately; the two long tracks on side 2 inhabit a rarified zone-out space that I want to live inside. And the shorter tracks on side 1 are just delightful (though "Fieber" is about as sinister as he gets)

And he just keeps going. New album came out last week.

3 nights at Cafe Oto in July

Huzzah!