There’s a rare chance to catch kosmische / electronic music pioneer, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, alongside friend and frequent collaborator Arnold Kasar, live, next Monday, April 8th, at London’s Jazz Cafe. I mentioned this gig at the end of my review of Roedelius & Kasar’s latest album, Zensibility, but now, as a prompt, a reminder I thought I’d run through a few of my favourites from Hans-Joachim’s vast back catalogue. I’m no expert, but Richard Fearless, who’ll be providing DJ support on the night, most definitely is. I’ll try to tackle this chronologically…

Harmonia / Musik Von Harmonia / 1974

I pulled Harmonia’s 1974 debut, Musik Von Harmonia, out of an annotated list that Andrew Weatherall posted on The Rotters Golf Club website, in the early 2000s. I think the album had just been reissued on CD. The article included other CD-only gems such as John Cale’s Le Vent De La Nuit, and also another Roedelius release, 1979’s Jardin Au Fou. Harmonia were Hans-Joachim, together with Dieter Moebius, and Michael Rother. Roedelius and Moebius had been working as Kluster, and then Cluster. Rother had visited the pair, hoping to recruit them as touring backing for his other band, Neu!

Fairly crudely recorded in Cluster’s studio, in the rural West German village of Forst, during the summer and autumn of 1973, the album explores machine-generated “motorik”, the beat birthed by drummer Klaus Dinger, Rother’s partner in Neu! While “beatless”, well, devoid of drums, the clipped, filtered synth signals do still raise rhythms. On Watussi, for example, they also cary multiple melodies, not with conventional chords, but experimental noise. A busy bleeping counterpoint. Rother’s guitar gymnastically bends the blues into pretty psychedelic shapes. His raga on Dino is not a million miles from Neu!’s Hallogallo.

Jardin Au Fou was Roedelius on his own. Le Jardin and Schöne Welt are tracks from it that I’ve played a lot. The latter translates as “Beautiful World” and its chimes tease at, toy with, what could have once been a traditional jig, performed at the court of some king or queen, in Medieval times of yore. The former is incredibly warm, summoning bucolic scenes of a family garden in summer. Bathed in birdsong, its piano melody reminds me a little of the duet in the movie Betty Blue. Modular machines mirroring its classical motifs. I see butterflies, bees, buzzing about, busy pollinating. I see a wild, and untamed, but safe and secure place, where children play, and grandparents watch. Imaginary castles conjured in the high grass.

Cluster / Sowiesoso / 1976

On Sowiesoso, Cluster were assisted by Conny Plank, the legendary innovative engineer / producer. The album contains the track Zum Wohl, which for me is the absolute pinnacle of “pastoral kosmische”. Its electronic, but feels organic. Its simultaneously simple and complex. Its bucolic circuitry singing, sweetly, like courting birds. Sending me off to somewhere idyllic. It puts me at peace no matter my prior mood. Tipped off, I think, by Swiss DJ / producer, Lexx, its something that I continually reference. A true landmark.

Roedelius / Flieg’ Vogel Fliege / 1982

Flieg’ Vogel Fliege is an album that I found in the second-hand store, Reckless, in London’s Soho. I purchased it solely on spec, because I knew the name, and I liked the cover (designed by Roedelius’ daughter, Rosa). The overlapping programmed patterns of Meilensteine evolve in an almost sentient way. Choruses of fairground Wurlitzers politely pump away on Salzpflaumen. The icy Sci-Fi synths on Auf Auf Und Davon are early Tangerine Dream-like touches that sound like signals from zero gravity, somewhere outside our orbit. Taken together these tracks kind of freakily foreshadow the ambience of Larry Heard’s 1996 album, Alien. Oh, Du Grüne Neune floats on fluttering, feather-like frequencies, and also features a fantastic flight of Robert Fripp-esque “infinite” guitar. The ten minute epic, Wanderung, is a river of resonance. Rippling, ringing sequences, and trickling water tones creating beatless textures of serene shimmering oscillations and drones.

Hans Joachim Roedelius / Bastionen Der Liebe / 1989

Im Revier Des Tigers, from Bastionen Der Liebe, recalls the soundtracks of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Joe Hisaishi. Crafted from gently cascading, story-telling keys, and cinematic, rather than classical, strings. On this album, I also have a soft spot for Hans-Joachim’s singing. Tickled by its pure amateurish honesty. On Order Du Coeur I envisage him smiling, crooning to his muse. Cute, corny, but unembarrassed, unconcerned by what others might think. Accompanied by trumpet and saxophone. This is something that I would certainly have played if ever called upon to spin at the Cafe del Mar, in its late `80s / early `90s heyday. I’m not sure that folks would be open minded enough now.

Roedelius / Selbstportrait VI / 1995

Selbstportrait VI contains cuts recorded in Forst, between 1973 and 1978, which remained unreleased until 1995. The Diary Of The Unforgotten is a cool, chiming, minimalist, counterpoint construction. The repetitive electronics caressed by bowed cello. The thin, fragile theremin-like melody of Schöner Abend, though, again paints pictures of a garden in high summer. The Orb would have it interrupted with lawn mowers and cricket match commentary. There’s no sense of melancholy. No feeling of nostalgia. Just love. Here and now.

Harmonia & Eno `76 / Tracks And Traces / 1997

Tracks And Traces dates back to 1976, when Brian Eno stayed with Harmonia, in Forst. He put out an album with Cluster, called After The Heat in `78, but these sessions didn’t surface until `97. Some of the tunes, such as Welcome, echo Eno’s early solo work. However, it’s less “ambient” stuff like Atmosphere and Vamos Companeros that I find most interesting. The former is dark, dusted, downtempo. Great Giallo-esque gear, with spooky John Carpenter keys, and groove like Carl Craig’s Suspiria. The latter rattles and shakes like a spectral, dubbed out take on Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express. Rattling across a stark industrial landscape, accompanied by angular metallic shards of Keith Levine-like guitar shredding. Both ride on rhythms formed from phase fluctuations. Any drums that there are get filtered to fuck.

Hans Joachim Roedelius / Drauf Und Dran / 1981

Kind of coming full circle, Lustwandel, from 1981’s Drauf Und Dran, is something else that I pinched from a Weatherall play-list. Beginning purely piano led, it slowly unfurls into a romantic, cinematic chamber orchestra piece. It’s the last record here, because the vinyl pressing / reissue was part of a Record Store Day 2021 drop.

Roedelius & Kasar play London’s Jazz Cafe on Monday, April  8th. Support comes from Richards Fearless and Norris. You can purchase tickets direct from The Jazz Cafe.