Release Music Orchestra

Borne out of the great Tomorrow's Gift via a complex transition that included the bands Release Group (also featuring Uli Trepte), Kickbit Information and Dennis, Release Music Orchestra (known as RMO for short) took a logical step from the Tomorrow's Gift masterpiece GOODBYE FUTURE being the same talented keyboards, bass and drums trio, supplemented by talented winds player Norbert Jacobsen. Documenting their first concert tour LIFE revealed an even closer association with the Canterbury type sound than later Tomorrow's Gift, with those Egg and Soft Machine complexities and avant-garde attitude, mixed into a lively fusion, with lots of Krautrock magic and their own unique style. A purely inventive instrumental music that is much more than jazz-rock! But, having said that, the following album GARUDA did step more towards jazz-rock, yet was still eclectic and exceptionally inventive, notably because of the prestigious guests, and the curious inclusion of solo interludes: "Zwischenspiel", by each musician. Margit Haberland, an experimental vocalist, was even more prominent on the slick fusion styled GET THE BALL, an album that was more like a hybrid of East European jazz-rock styles and dreamy German progressive styles. Latterly, without Margit, further releases paled somewhat, yet they were still much in demand at festivals, playing a fine jazz-rock fronted by Manne Rürup's unique keyboard style. He has since moved on to working as a film music composer. Other former RMO members formed Es.

Norbert Jacobsen (clarinet, piano, vocals), Bernd Kiefer (bass, vocals), Zabba Lindner (drums, xylophone), Manne Rürup (keyboards, vocals)

LIFE (4+6/74)
LP Brain 1056 (1974)

GARUDA (2/75)
LP Brain 1072 (1975)

GET THE BALL
LP Brain 1083 (1976)

featured on: BRAIN FESTIVAL ESSEN
featured on: UMSONST UND DRAUSSEN VLOTHO 1977

BEYOND THE LIMIT (9/77)
LP Brain 60.115 (1978)

featured on: BRAIN FESTIVAL ESSEN II

NEWS (2/79)
LP Brain 60.194 (1979)

Rhythmus-Arp-Ensemble

These were one of the earliest European ensembles working in the field of systemic music, in the realms of Philip Glass or Steve Reich. For the era, they were quite creative and prequelled the likes of Soft Verdict and Regular Music, and were also a good deal more avant-garde than most. Very little is known about them, and their sole LP is very obscure.

Loretta Zien (vocals), Simone Weiss (violin), Christiane Zanger (cello), Jochen Arp (flute, clarinets, soprano sax), Bill Zien (marimba, vibes), Michael Wehr (keyboards), Klaus Arp (keyboards)

RHYTHMUS-ARP-ENSEMBLE (1975-76)
LP private release 66.22815-01 (1976)

Richard Wahnfried

A pseudonym/project-name for various different Klaus Schulze group albums. On the first three releases, the only other constant was Michael Shrieve. TIME ACTOR was really Arthur Brown's show, further developing his work with Klaus on a more composed level. TONWELLE combined Ashra with Schulze's own TRANCEFER style. MEGATONE sounded more like a jam session. The odd album out though, was the fourth Richard Wahnfried MIDITATION, which is mostly based on old recordings of Klaus Schulze and Steve Joliffe. More recently, as just Wahnfried, Klaus has used this guise to present his venture into techno music.

Arthur Brown (vocals), Vincent Crane (keyboards), Klaus Schulze (synthesizers, pianett, clavinet, vocoder, Mellotron), Michael Shrieve (rhythmical advice), Wolfgang Tiepold (cello)

TIME ACTOR (1979)
LP IC 58.031 (1979)

TONWELLE (1981)
LP IC KS 80.006 (1981)

PLAYS MEGATONE (1984)
LP InTeam ID 20.006 (1984), Thunderbolt THBL 031 (UK, 1986)

MIDITATION (1981+1985)
LP InTeam ID 20.009 (1986)

Wolfgang Riechmann

A little known, but important key figure in Düsseldorf music history, the multi-instrumentalist and synthesist, Wolfgang Riechmann originated from the obscure Spirit Of Sound, and later joined Streetmark, changing their sound considerably. After this, he recorded one solo album, the corny titled WUNDERBAR, which sounded like a synthi hybrid of bouncy Kraftwerk and La Düsseldorf, with some more atmospheric touches. Shortly after the LP's release (in August 1978) Wolfgang was stabbed during a pub brawl and died.

Wolfgang Riechmann (vocals, violin, guitar, electric piano, bass, synthesizers, sequencer), + Hans Schweiß (drums)

WUNDERBAR (11/77-1/78)
LP Sky 017 (1978)

Rigoni/Schoenherz

A surprising one-off project from a collection of unlikely Austrian musicians, featuring Richard Schoenherz (former pop musician and latter-day new-age jazzer) in a fully fledged symphonic rock opus featuring both The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and The Vienna Academy Chamber Choir, that ranges from relaxed ballads through to hard-rock.

Richard Schoenherz (keyboards, vocals), Manuel Rigoni (drums, percussion), + Kurt Hauenstein (bass, vocals), Harry Stojka (guitars), Achim Buchstab (vocals), Johan Daansen (guitars), Peter Wolf (synthesizer)

VICTOR
2LP Bacillus BRO 8501 (1975)

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1075