Klaus Schulze was a German electronic music pioneer, composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried and was a member of the Krautrock bands Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, and the Cosmic Jokers before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across six decades.
Krautrock is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, among other eclectic sources. Common elements included hypnotic rhythms, extended improvisation, musique concrète techniques, and early synthesizers, while the music generally moved away from the rhythm & blues roots and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music. Prominent groups associated with the krautrock label included Neu!, Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II and Harmonia.
Ash Ra Tempel was a West German krautrock group led by guitarist Manuel Göttsching that was active from 1970 to 1976. Their debut album Ash Ra Tempel was released in 1971. Following the band's demise, Göttsching released music under the name Ashra.
Manuel Göttsching was a German musician and composer.
Witthüser & Westrupp was a German singer-songwriter duo from Essen. The guitarist Bernd Witthüser (1944-2017) and the multi-instrumentalist Walter Westrupp had their roots in the folk and protest song movement, and their joint titles initially had macabre, later predominantly psychedelic elements. The band was formed in June 1969 as "W&W's pop cabaret", singing German texts in a special way. In 1970 the name changed to "Witthüser & Westrupp". Their music was attributed to the genre of psychedelic folk and later to krautrock. Their best-known album became the 1971 concept album Der Jesuspilz, in which an undefined substance becomes a symbol of the divine. The duo existed from 1969 to 1973. Later, Bernd Witthüser lived in Murci (Italy) until his death, while he was working as the street musician Bärnelli in Europe. Walter Westrupp is still living in Germany and is the frontman of the skiffle and jug band Walter h.c. Meier Pumpe.
Florian Fricke was a German musician who started his professional career with electronic music, using the Moog synthesizer, and was a founding member of the Krautrock band Popol Vuh.
Krautrocksampler: One Head's Guide to the Great Kosmische Musik - 1968 Onwards, written by the musician and writer Julian Cope, is a book describing the underground music scene in Germany from 1968 through the 1970s. The book was first published in the United Kingdom in 1995 by Head Heritage, and was later translated into German, Italian and French. The book gives a subjective and very animated account of the phenomenon of krautrock from the perspective of the author, who states: "I wrote this short history because of the way I feel about the music, that its supreme Magic & Power has lain Unrecognised for too long."
Join Inn is the fourth album by Krautrock band Ash Ra Tempel. It was recorded at Studio Dierks by Dieter Dierks during breaks in the sessions for the Walter Wegmüller album Tarot. It was originally released on LP by Ohr in Berlin, catalogue number OMM 556032. Each side of the LP comprises one long track.
Starring Rosi is the fifth and technically final album released by Ash Ra Tempel, as it is the last to feature Manuel Göttsching. It was recorded at Studio Dierks, Stommeln by Dieter Dierks. It was originally released on LP by Ohr under their 'Kosmische Musik' imprint, catalogue number KM 58.007.
The Cosmic Jokers were a West German krautrock supergroup, though they were never a proper ensemble per se; their music was created from sessions put together by label head Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser and Gille Lettman in early 1973, without the performers' knowledge. They were a primary example of space rock.
La Düsseldorf was a German band, consisting of onetime Kraftwerk drummer and Neu! multi-instrumentalist Klaus Dinger and occasional Neu! collaborators Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe. La Düsseldorf was formed after Neu! disbanded following the release of their Neu! '75 record. They released a string of successful albums during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and were considered highly influential by Brian Eno and David Bowie, with Bowie going so far as calling La Düsseldorf "the soundtrack of the eighties".
Brain was a Hamburg-based record label prominent in the 1970s releasing several important Krautrock records by bands such as Neu!, Cluster and Guru Guru. Many of its more prominent records are currently being reissued on CD by Repertoire Records.
Ohr ("Ear") was an influential German electronic/experimental record label set up by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser in 1970.
Pilz was a German record label, set up in Berlin in 1971 by German music mogul Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, who also established the label Ohr.
Walter Wegmüller was a Swiss painter and recording artist. As a recording artist, he was best known for the Krautrock album Tarot, which was released on the Cosmic Couriers label in 1973.
Ash Ra Tempel is the eponymous debut studio album by the Krautrock band Ash Ra Tempel. Engineered by Conny Plank, it was recorded in March 1971 and released in June 1971 on Ohr. It features guitarist Manuel Göttsching with drummer Klaus Schulze and bassist Hartmut Enke.
Hartmut Enke was a German musician, best known as the bass guitarist in Ash Ra Tempel.
Seven Up is the third studio album by German krautrock band Ash Ra Tempel and their only album recorded in collaboration with American psychologist/drug advocate Timothy Leary. It was first released in 1973.
The Cosmic Jokers is an album by a krautrock supergroup The Cosmic Jokers. It is a compilation of jam sessions by various Cosmic Couriers musicians, specifically Klaus Schulze, Harald Grosskopf, Manuel Göttsching, Dieter Dierks and Jürgen Dollase.
Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser is a German writer and record producer. He is best known as the founder of the Ohr, Pilz, and Cosmic Couriers record labels. These labels released many of the earliest Krautrock albums in the early 1970s, and Kaiser is often cited as a pivotal figure in the development of the genre.
