July 1, 2024

Skylight Webzine

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New album ROEDELIUS – ‘Selbstportrait Wahre Liebe’ and compilation ‘Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978’ (out April 10th)

5 min read

Roedelius is back!  On April 10th two albums will be released at Bureau B:Roedelius’ new album ‘Selbstporträt Wahre Liebe’ and the compilation ‘Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978’ In the late 1970s Roedelius began to increase his activities as a solo artist, building up an extensive and multifaceted body of work over the ensuing decades. Across this timeline, the Self-Portrait albums represent an intensely personal and noteworthy corpus in their own right.

In 2014, label founder Gunther Buskies approached Roedelius to suggest that he record a new instalment for the Self-Portrait series, using the same instruments which dominated his productions in the late 1970s: a Farfisa organ, drum machine, tape-delay and a Rhodes. Together with Onnen and Wolf Bock, the album ‘Wahre Liebe’ (True Love) was created.

Roedelius – Selbstporträt Wahre Liebe (album preview) Roedelius explains the process: “The ‘Wahre Liebe’ album was commissioned by Gunther Buskies, who wanted to know if the elderly Roedelius, armed with vintage tools, was capable of “beaming back” to his youthful years, reaching into the sonic past of the Self-Portrait series to deliver similarly persuasive results. What better proof could there be that true love, age-old love never dies?” 


 For the first time ever the Roedelius audio sketchbook had been digitalised and available to the public in 2014 on a limited (500 units only) 3-LP box set called „Roedelius Tape Archive 1973-1978″. The recordings offer us a deep insight into the creative process of his music. Fleeting notes, slivers of ideas, so to speak, moments of inspiration. Finger exercises, experiments in harmony, studies in rhythm are also preserved on these magnetic tapes.  

Roedelius – “Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978” (album preview) Since the box set has been sold out for a long time, we decided to release the essence of those 3 LPs on a 1 LP compilation: ‘Roedelius Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978′ More info about the two albums can be found below as well as on our website. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to get a streaming/download link of the album.
 Cheers,Steffi 


Roedelius – “Selbstporträt Wahre Liebe”CD/Vinyl/digitalVÖ: 10. April 2020 The first part of Hans-Joachim Roedelius’ Selbstportrait (Self-Portrait) series was originally released under the title ‘Sanfte Musik’ on Sky Records in 1979. Now, some forty years later, a new instalment has arrived in the form of an album entitled ‘Wahre Liebe’. One of the initiators of the Berlin Zodiak Free Arts Lab in 1967, Roedelius went on to co-found Kluster/Cluster and Harmonia, unleashing a new and free form of music which, with the benefit of hindsight, can be considered a milestone in the historical context of Kosmische Musik and Krautrock. In the late 1970s Roedelius began to increase his activities as a solo artist, building up an extensive and multifaceted body of work over the ensuing decades. Across this timeline, the Self-Portrait albums represent an intensely personal and noteworthy corpus in their own right. As the artist himself notes: “With his self-portraits, this Roedelius has earned the ardent admiration of many listeners around the world, “playing” his way into their hearts whilst continuing to evolve – even though his attention has shifted “solely” to the piano, his freshest, strongest and truest love, truer than true love itself. The same spirit seems to be present in all of Roedelius’ works, from vintage equipment productions to the pianoforte.” Over the past ten years, the Hamburg-based label Bureau B has reissued numerous Hans-Joachim Roedelius albums, both solo and collaborative efforts, introducing him to a new generation of potential devotees. In 2014, label founder Gunther Buskies approached Roedelius to suggest that he record a new instalment for the Self-Portrait series, using the same instruments which dominated his productions in the late 1970s: a Farfisa organ, drum machine, tape-delay and a Rhodes. Together with Onnen and Wolf Bock, the album ‘Wahre Liebe’ (True Love) was created. Roedelius explains the process: “The ‘Wahre Liebe’ album was commissioned by Gunther Buskies, who wanted to know if the elderly Roedelius, armed with vintage tools, was capable of “beaming back” to his youthful years, reaching into the sonic past of the Self-Portrait series to deliver similarly persuasive results. What better proof could there be that true love, age-old love never dies?” Sure enough, this album successfully and seamlessly connects with its antecedents. Miniatures, improvisations, atmospheric images and dreamlike introspections of an individualist are articulated in that innate Roedelius language which is at once brittle and as light as a whisper, a pastel ribbon weaving its way softly through the full range of sonic topographies. Hans-Joachim Roedelius is pleased with the outcome: “Roedelius has been granted the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with his own self in order to achieve that of which he is ultimately capable, namely his calling: to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, to create authentic art, be it music or words, or anything and everything else which fascinates him.” 

Tracklisting: 
1. Spiel im Wind
2. Wahre Liebe
3. Geruhsam
4. Mitgewalzert
5. Winterlicht
6. Im Kreisel
7. Nahwärme
8. Ebenfalls
9. Gerne
10. Vormals
11. Gleichklang
12. Aus weiter Ferne


Roedelius – “Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978″CD/Vinyl/digitalVÖ: 10. April 2020 During the legendary Forst years Roedelius had a private workspace with a Farfisa organ, a Revox-A77 tape machine, an echo device and a synthesizer which he borrowed from the Cluster studio next door now and again. Here he experimented, practised, allowed his imagination to flow, at any hour of the day or night, whenever he was not in the studio with Dieter Moebius and/or Michael Rother at work on new Cluster or Harmonia material. Roedelius always let the tape run, in order to analyze the ideas thus captured more effectively on repeated listening. The recordings offer us a deep insight into the creative process of his music. Fleeting notes, slivers of ideas, so to speak, moments of inspiration. Finger exercises, experiments in harmony, studies in rhythm are also preserved on these magnetic tapes. For the first time ever this Roedelius audio sketchbook had been digitalised and available to the public in 2014 on a limited (500 units only) 3-LP box set called „Roedelius Tape Archive 1973-1978″. The recordings offer us a deep insight into the creative process of his music. Fleeting notes, slivers of ideas, so to speak, moments of inspiration. Finger exercises, experiments in harmony, studies in rhythm are also preserved on these magnetic tapes. Since the box set has been sold out for a long time, we decided to release the essence of those 3 LPs on a 1 LP compilation: “Roedelius Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978”  

Tracklisting: 
LP 
A1) Band 030 1 Nächtens in Forst (Bordun mit Tongeneratoren) 
A2) Band 051 1 Springende Inspiration (harmonische Skizze) 
A3) Band 068 1 Lied am Morgen (nicht verwendetes Stück) 
A4) Band 073 4 Am Röckchen (nicht verwendetes Stück) 
A5) Band 049 1 Unterwegs (nicht verwendetes Stück) 
A6) Band 073 3 Skizze 4 von ‚By This River’  

B1) Band 009 1 Rokkokko (nicht verwendetes Stück) 
B2) Band 041 1 Langmarschieren (Skizze mit Echo) 
B3) Band 068 3 Bock auf Rock (nicht verwendetes Stück)
 B4) Band 073 1 Skizze 3 von ‚By This River