Irmin Schmidt | |
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 Irmin Schmidt (2022) | |
| Born | 29 May 1937 Berlin, Germany |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | Hildegard Schmidt (m. 1963) |
| Website | irminschmidt |
Irmin Schmidt (born 29 May 1937) [1] is a German keyboardist and composer, best known as a founding member of the band Can and composer of numerous film scores.
Irmin Schmidt was born on 29 May 1937 in Berlin, Germany, to Kurt and Margot Schmidt. Schmidt's father was an architect and engineer, and both his parents played piano. His board school teacher in modern history has been "Schulungsleiter" (teacher of ideology) in the Reichsarbeitsdienst during the rule of the Third Reich. Schmidt wrote wrote about it in his school newspaper, and the teacher was fired. [2]
Schmidt began his studies in music at the conservatorium in Dortmund, and expanded his education in conducting at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, studying under Heinz Dressel. Additionally, he took a piano lessons from Detlef Kraus and studied composition under the Hungarian avant-garde composer György Ligeti. Schmidt started work mainly as a conductor and performed in concerts with the Bochum Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, and the Dortmund Ensemble for New Music, which he founded in 1962. During this time, Schmidt conducted the West German premiere of John Cage's "Atlas Eclipticalis" with Bochum Symphony Orchestra and performed Cage's piano piece "Winter Music". [3]
Schmidt attended the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria to further develop his conducting skills under István Kertész. In 1964-1965, Schmidt attended up for the Cologne Courses for New Music at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne, taught by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Henri Pousseur, and Earle Brown, the course which was also attended by his future band-mates, Holger Schüring and David C. Johnson. [4] [5] By 1966 Schmidt got a position as Kapellmeister at the Theater Aachen, hired as docent for musical theatre and chanson, and worked at the Schauspielschule Bochum (drama school) teaching vocal technique. [6]
In January 1966, Schmidt made his first-time travel to the United States, flying to New York City to compete in the "Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition". He got into the city's flourishing underground arts scene: watched Andy Warhol's movies, and spent time with several young progenitors of avant-garde and minimalist music, including La Monte Young, Dick Higgins, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. Schmidt played piano in a session with Terry Riley. [7]
Schmidt's spouse Hildegard introduced him to Russian-American composer Serge Tcherepnin, and Irmin played the saxophone part at the 1966 premiere of Tcherepnin's Morning After Piece. [8]
In 1967, Irmin performed several Fluxus-style diagrammatic scores, and published them as Album für Mogli, pet name for his spouse Hildegard. Album für Mogli has been organized as a set of thirteen-sheet manuscript, supposed to be stacked in any order by any number of musicians. The score's composition "Hexapussy" premiered in Frankfurt, played on metallic sound-sculptures created by the Baschet Brothers. Other titles included" "Oiml(g): Nightmares", "Gagaku", "Für Jackson MacLow", "Erinnerung", "Dieter's Lullaby", "Nada", "Prinzipien", and other. "Hexapussy" remained as an only survived recording, appearing on the soundtrack composed by Can for 1969 film Agilok & Blubbo. [9]
On a number of occasions, Irmin was asked to give talks or perform avant-garde music at gallery openings organized by Albert Schulze-Vellinghausen . Schulze-Vellinghausen, in turn, acquainted Schmidt with interior designer and up-in-coming gallerist Hans Mayer. [10]
In the autumn of 1967, Irmin wrote a letter to his friend composer, Holger Czukay, inviting him to Cologne and suggesting they should form a band. [11] In 1968, in the midst of the West German student movement, Schmidt co-formed the Inner Space band (later known as Can) with Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit, and David C. Johnson. Schmidt took part in the band's recording sessions playing keyboard until the group's disbandment in 1979. He participated in the band's reunions in 1986, 1991, and 1999. He later commented on their relation to the political movement of 1968, saying the band weren't involved in the movement, "physically or even theoretically, but was a reflection of the ongoing tumult that rejected any overt political affiliations". [11]
Early in 1968, Irmin received a commission to provide music for 1969 film Agilok & Blubbo at the recommendation of Hans Wewerka who the worked as the film's producer and previously published Irmin's Album für Mogli score. Around May, Irmin had made a loose sketch of the soundtrack, aided by David C. Johnson, and eventually decided to invite his new band on the project, which became the band's first released recording. [12] When searching for a base for the new group, Irmin had "put the word out among his art world friends", and German literary scholar Hans Mayer responded, redirecting him to the art collector and their joined acquaintance, Christoph Vohwinkel . Vohwinkel recently leased a historic castle, Schloss Nörvenich, on the outskirts of Cologne and planned to repurpose it as an artistic commune. He invited the band to stay at the castle rent-free for a year. [13]
Schmidt has scored more than forty films and television programs, including Knife in the Head (1978) and Palermo Shooting (2008). He has recorded a few solo albums and written an opera, Gormenghast , based on Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy . Gormenghast premiered at the Opernhaus Wuppertal in 1998. Excerpts from the work were released on Spoon Records in 1999. [14]
As of 2008, Schmidt lived in Southern France. His interests outside music include cooking. [15] In 2015, he received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Chevalier). [16]
In 2018, Schmidt and British writer and editor Rob Young published a book on Can entitled All Gates Open: The Story of Can . [17]
Following the death of Can's second lead vocalist Damo Suzuki in February 2024, Schmidt is one of the last surviving members of the band's classic lineups, alongside original vocalist Malcolm Mooney.
Irmin Schmidt began a relationship with Hildegard Reittenberger after performing at the East German music festival in 1957. The couple got married six years later in 1963. [18] They have a daughter, Sandra, born in April 1970. [19] [20] Sandra married Jono Podmore in 2001. The couple has a daughter Lara Podmore. [21]
Hildegard became Can's manager in 1972, after they fired their previous manager, Abi Ofarim. [19] In 1979, she established record label, Spoon Records, taking hold of the rights for Can discography. [22]
Can were a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne in 1968 by Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). They featured several vocalists, including the American Malcolm Mooney (1968–70) and the Japanese Damo Suzuki (1970–73). They have been hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene.
Holger Schüring, known professionally as Holger Czukay, was a German musician best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop and the avant-garde", Czukay was also notable for having created early important examples of ambient music, for having explored "world music" well before the term was coined, and for having been a pioneer of sampling.
Jaki Liebezeit was a German drummer, best known as a founding member of experimental rock band Can. He was called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral".
Michael Karoli was a German guitarist, violinist, and sound-mixer. He was a founding member of the krautrock band Can.
Malcolm "Desse" Mooney is an American singer, poet, and artist, best known as the original vocalist for German krautrock band Can.
Tago Mago is the second studio album by the German krautrock band Can, originally released as a double LP in August 1971 on United Artists Records. It was the band's first full studio album to feature vocalist Damo Suzuki after the departure of Malcolm Mooney the year prior, though Suzuki had been featured on most tracks on the 1970 compilation album Soundtracks. The was recorded at the Can Studio in the Schloss Nörvenich, a medieval castle near Cologne.
Ege Bamyası is the third studio album by German krautrock band Can, released on 29 November 1972 by United Artists Records. The album contains the single "Spoon", which charted in the Top 10 in Germany after being used as the theme song to the German television mini-series Das Messer (1971). The success of the single allowed Can to establish their own studio, Inner Space Studio, in Weilerswist, where they recorded the rest of the album. In 2004, Spoon Records remastered Ege Bamyası and reissued it as a hybrid Super Audio CD.
David C. Johnson was an American composer, flautist, and performer of live electronic music.
Rite Time is the eleventh and final studio album by the German krautrock band Can, released in later Summer 1989 by Mercury Records. The album features the vocals of the band's original singer, Malcolm Mooney, who had left the group in 1970 after their debut album Monster Movie. Upon the album's initial release, "In the Distance Lies the Future" only appeared on the CD version, but it was included on the 2014 vinyl reissue.
Manfred Schoof is a German jazz trumpeter.
"Spoon" is a song by krautrock group Can, recorded in 1971. It was originally released as a single with the song "Shikako Maru Ten" on the B-side. "Spoon" also appeared as the final track to the band's album Ege Bamyasi later that year.
Spoon Records is an independent record label founded and managed by the spouse of keyboard player Irmin Schmidt, Hildegard Schmidt, since 1979. The label, and its sister publishing operation Messer Music, are headquartered in the Luberon district of France, mostly releasing and reissuing music made by the krautrock band Can and its members. Hildegard and Irmin Schmidt's daughter Sandra Podmore has been directors of Spoon Records since 2008.
Can Live Music is a double live album by the band Can, released in 1999 and recorded in the UK and West Germany between 1972 and 1977. It was originally included in the now out-of-print Can box set, Can Box.
Kumo is a British musician and composer, the pseudonym of Jono Podmore who was born in 1965.
The Grey Area is a Mute Records division founded in 1990 to restore and reissue the catalogue of artists who influenced Daniel Miller, head of Mute Records, and to reissue previous recordings of Mute artists. In 1983, Mute had to partner with Industrial Records for the reissue of Throbbing Gristle albums. This division was created following the partnerships signed with Can and Cabaret Voltaire.
The Lost Tapes is a compilation album of studio outtakes and live recordings by the German experimental rock band Can, which was originally released as an LP in 2012 by Spoon Records in conjunction with Mute Records. The compilation was curated by Irmin Schmidt and Daniel Miller, compiled by Irmin Schmidt and Jono Podmore, and edited by Jono Podmore.
René Lee Tinner is a Swiss recording engineer and producer who has produced over 200 studio records and numerous live performances.
Gormenghast is an opera in three acts composed by Irmin Schmidt to an English-language libretto by Duncan Fallowell, based on Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy. It premiered at the Opernhaus Wuppertal on 15 November 1998.
Agilok & Blubbo is the soundtrack album featured in the 1969 German film of the same name. The songs on this album are the earliest recordings of the German experimental rock band The Inner Space, who would soon become known under the name Can. Years after the film had fallen into obscurity, its soundtrack was eventually licensed from Hans Wewerka's archives and released in Spain in 2009.
All Gates Open: The Story of Can is a book about the German experimental rock band Can, written by British writer and editor Rob Young and Can founding member Irmin Schmidt. It was published in May 2018 in the United Kingdom by Faber and Faber in two editions, a trade edition in hardback, and a handbound and autographed limited edition.
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