| Ohr | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent company | Metronome |
| Founded | 1970 |
| Founder | Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser |
| Defunct | 1973 |
| Status | Inactive |
| Genre | Psychedelic, progressive, folk, electronic |
| Country of origin | Germany |
Ohr ("Ear") was an influential German electronic/experimental record label set up by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser in 1970. [1] [2] [3]
Ohr released the debut albums of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze.
The first five Ohr releases featured sleeves by Reinhard Hippen, all with dismembered baby doll parts as a central aspect of the imagery. These were Tangerine Dream's Electronic Meditation, Bernt Witthüser's Lieder von Vampiren..., Embryo's Opal, Floh de Cologne's FliesbandbabysBeatShow, and Limbus 4's Mandalas.
Other releases included Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel, Cosmic Jokers, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh, Sergius Golowin, Amon Düül, Birth Control, Witthüser & Westrupp, and numerous others. The Ohr office in New York City was run by Neil Kempfer-Stocker.
Kaiser also set up the label Pilz for more folkish/ethnic releases – such as Popol Vuh, Wallenstein and Hoelderlin. Further to this, he also set up the Cosmic Couriers label for more space-rock type releases – Cosmic Jokers, Ash Ra Tempel, Manuel Gottsching, et al.
Brain Records was set up when two disgruntled A&R men left Ohr to start their own label, taking Guru Guru with them.
| Catalog No. | Artist | Title | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| OMM 56000 | Floh de Cologne | Fließbandbabys Beat Show | March 1970 |
| OMM 56001 | Limbus 4 | Mandalas | March 1970 |
| OMM 56002 | Bernd Witthüser | Lieder von Vampiren... | March 1970 |
| OMM 56003 | Embryo | Opal | April 1970 |
| OMM 56004 | Tangerine Dream | Electronic Meditation | June 1970 |
| OMM 56005 | Guru Guru | UFO | June 1970 |
| OMM 2/56006 | Various | Ohrenschmaus | September 1970 |
| OMM 56007 | Annexus Quam | Osmose | September 1970 |
| OMM 56008 | Amon Düül | Paradieswärts Düül | January 1971 |
| OMM 56009 | Roger Bunn | Peace of Mind | 1971 |
| OMM 56010 | Floh de Cologne | Rockoper Profitgeier (live) | January 1971 |
| OMM 56011 | Paul und Limpe Fuchs/Anima | Stürmischer Himmel | January 1971 |
| OMM 56012 | Tangerine Dream | Alpha Centauri | January 1971 |
| OMM 56013 | Ash Ra Tempel | Ash Ra Tempel | March 1971 |
| OMM 56014 | Xhol | Hau-RUK | March 1971 |
| OMM 56015 | Birth Control | Operation | March 1971 |
| OMM 56016 | Witthüser & Westrupp | Trips und Träume | March 1971 |
| OMM 556017 | Guru Guru | Hinten | July 1971 |
| OMM 2/56018 | Various | Mittens Ins Ohr (sampler) | |
| OMM 556019 | Mythos | Mythos | January 1972 |
| OMM 556020 | Ash Ra Tempel | Schwingungen | March 1972 |
| OMM 2/56021 | Tangerine Dream | Zeit | May 1972 |
| OMM 556022 | Klaus Schulze | Irrlicht | May 1972 |
| OMM 556023 | Walpurgis | Queen Of Saba | June 1972 |
| OMM 556024 | Xhol | Motherfuckers GmbH & Co. KG | 1972 |
| OMM 556025 | Birth Control | Believe In The Pill | 1972 |
| OMM 2/56027 | Various | Kosmische Musik | July 1972 |
| OMM 556028 | Annexus Quam | Beziehungen | July 1972 |
| OMM 2/56029 | Floh de Cologne | Lucky Strike Live | November 1972 |
| OMM 556030 | Arno Clauss | An Tante Gertie in Zons am Rhein | 1972 |
| OMM 556031 | Tangerine Dream | Atem | January 1973 |
| OMM 556032 | Ash Ra Tempel | Join Inn | January 1973 |
| OMM 556033 | Floh de Cologne | Geyer-Symphonie | 1973 |
| Catalog No. | Artist | Title | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| OS 57.000 | Amon Düül | Eternal Flow / Paramechanical World | 1970 |
| OS 57.001 | Floh de Cologne | St. Pauli, Du mein Loch zur Welt / Bruno-Lied | 1970 |
| OS 57.002 | Witthüser & Westrupp | Einst kommt die Nacht / Wer schwimmt dort (Flipper) | 1970 |
| OS 57.003 | Birth Control | Hope / Rollin’ | 1970 |
| OS 57.004 | Witthüser & Westrupp | Nimm einen Joint / Lasst uns auf die Reise gehen | 1971 |
| OS 57.005 | Birth Control | The Work Is Done / Flesh And Blood | 1971 |
| OS 57.006 | Tangerine Dream | Ultima Thule | 1971 |
| OS 57.007 | Birth Control | What’s Your Name / Believe In The Pill | 1972 |
| OS 57.008 | Golgatha | Dies Irae / Children’s Game | 1972 |
| OS 57.009 | Floh de Cologne | Emil in Erkenschwick / Zahlen mußt Du | 1972 |
| OS 57.011 | Arno Clauss | Karlchen oder So kann das nicht weitergeh’n / Manchen Leuten möchte ich gerne in die Fresse schlagen | |
| OS 57.012 | Floh de Cologne | Der Löwenthaler / Bayerisches Heimatlied (with Dieter Süverkrüp) | 1973 |
Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music pioneer, composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried and was briefly 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 five decades.
Krautrock is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, electronic music, and avant-garde composition among other sources. These artists moved away from the blues influences and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music, instead utilizing hypnotic rhythms, tape-music techniques, and early synthesizers. Prominent groups associated with the krautrock label included Neu!, Can, Faust, early Kraftwerk, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II, Tangerine Dream, and Harmonia.
Electronic Meditation is the first major release and first studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released in June 1970 by record label Ohr.
Zeit is the third major release and third studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. A double LP, it was released in August 1972, being the first release featuring Peter Baumann, who joined then-current members Christopher Franke and Edgar Froese. Zeit is subtitled Largo in Four Movements.
Ash Ra Tempel was a German krautrock group active from 1970 to 1976, Manuel Göttsching's first prominent musical output. Ash Ra Tempel featured revolving members. Göttsching retired the use of the Ash Ra Tempel name after he became the sole remaining member. His first solo album Inventions for Electric Guitar was the last album to bear the Ash Ra Tempel name. Göttsching later used the name Ashra for his solo output as an homage to his former group. Ashra eventually evolved into a full band and continued along with Göttsching until 1998.
Popol Vuh were a German musical collective founded by keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1969 together with Frank Fiedler, Holger Trülzsch (percussion), and Bettina Fricke. Other important members during the next two decades included Djong Yun, Renate Knaup, Conny Veit, Daniel Fichelscher, Klaus Wiese, and Robert Eliscu. The band took its name from the Mayan manuscript containing the mythology of highland Guatemala's K'iche' people.
Manuel Göttsching is a German musician and composer.
Irrlicht is the first album by Klaus Schulze. Originally released in 1972, in 2006 it was the sixteenth Schulze album reissued by Revisited Records as part of a series of Schulze album reissues. Recorded without a synthesizer, Irrlicht's set of "early organ drone experiments" is "not exactly the music for which KS got famous".
Florian Fricke was a German musician who started his professional career with electronic music using the Moog synthesizer within the krautrock group Popol Vuh. His music and that of the band however soon evolved in a completely different direction, and he almost completely abandoned synthesizers in favor of the acoustic piano.
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 album. It was originally released on LP by Ohr in Berlin, catalogue number OMM 556032. Each side of the LP comprises one long track.
Eruption was a short-lived German krautrock or experimental music super group founded by former Tangerine Dream member and then current Kluster member Conrad Schnitzler.
Craig Wuest is an American keyboardist currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. He is best known as the founder and leader of the electronic music group Earthstar during the 1970s and 1980s. Earthstar was only American band who participated in Germany's Kosmische Musik/electronic music scene while still at its height.
The Cosmic Jokers were a 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.
Cosmic Couriers was a German experimental/space-rock label set up by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser in 1973 following his association with Ohr and Pilz. A number of influential records in the Krautrock genre were released on Cosmic Couriers, including Klaus Schulze's 'Cyborg' and Ash Ra Tempel/Timothy Leary's 'Seven Up'.
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.
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.
