Tuesday 20 December 2011

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Hello all. Just a quick update regarding the progress with the book. I'm pleased to say that I'm already well over 50 pages in to the fourth draft, which is great considering I only started it a few weeks ago. I'm managing to whizz through another batch of improvements this time around and my words are really starting to look like a book, which is very exciting. With a bit of luck at some point in this forthcoming year you'll hopefully be able to get your hands on a copy. We shall see....

I'll be back soon but for now it just remains for me to say thank you for following the blog and special thanks to those of you who have offered me support with the project thus far. I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Sunday 27 November 2011

M.G. - Top 10

As mentioned in my previous post, Robert, one of the friends I have established contact with since starting this blog has sent me his Manuel Gottsching top 10 for a bit of fun. Having spoken to Robert again he has given me permission to post his choices, along with his comments and here they are. Enjoy!

1. Midnight on Mars (from the Manuel Gottsching album Blackouts)

"Possibly the best MG.ART piece ever. Just sublime." 9.5/10

2. Sunrain (from the Manuel Gottsching album Live at Mt. Fuji and the DVD Postcards from Japan)

"A really difficult choice between this performance and the one recorded in Wroclaw. Sunrain makes it in twice - just wonderful uplifting music, beautifully composed, structured and played. The same pieces, but each so individual, mark Gottsching as a modern composer in the true sense of the word." 9.25/10

3. Gin Rose - Eine Pikant Variante (from the Ash Ra Tempel album Gin Rose at the Royal Festival Hall)

"No matter how many times I listen to this I hear more and more. Little pieces of Schwingungen if you listen carefully. In some respects, it seems, at times, as if Gottsching is allowing Schulze the limelight but if you listen to MG's contribution it is superb. It never fails to divert me, draw me in, lift me, haunt me, inspire me, - what a magnificent performance. Truly a masterpiece. Absolutely timeless. Apart from Gottsching and Schulze who are just brilliant, Tom Dams has done a beautiful job with the production. Oh, that I had been there in London in 2000!" 9/10

4. Sunrain (from the Ashra album @shra Vol. 2)

"Classic performance - beautifully played by the band and mixed by Steve Baltes." 8.5/10

5. Pikante (from the Ash Ra Tempel album Friendship)

"Hard to pick a favourite from the three tracks on this album, but I suppose it would have to be Pikante which features some beautiful guitar by Gottsching, accompanied by the wonderful 'machines' of Klaus Schulze. Again hats off to Tom Dams for the production." 8/10

6. Bois de Soleil (from the Manuel Gottsching/Ash Ra Tempel/Ashra collection The Private Tapes Vol. 1)

"Exquisite, dreamy guitar. Beautiful, almost ethereal playing. In one sense perfect Gottsching." 8/10

7. Ocean of Tenderness (from the Manuel Gottsching album New Age of Earth)

"This has to be one of the most chilled pieces of ambient music ever produced. The gentle, hypnotic, pulsing - the beautiful keyboard playing, almost classical in composition at times, the wonderful atmospherics of its time, the light, distant guitar in the closing minutes - must make this one of Gottsching's finest." 7.75/10

8. Music from the Manuel Gottsching album Concert for Murnau

"I listen to a lot of classical music and MG proves he could be a Philip Glass. Der Abend and Die Beichte are particularly delicate, contemplative pieces with a subtle, dark edge to them. Leitmotiv has a beautiful, maudlin quality about its cello playing, as good as many of the established composers of the 18th and 19th centuries, while Saint and Sinner is a wistful bridge between classical and electronica." 7.5/10

9. Nightdust (from the Manuel Gottsching album New Age of Earth)

"Deep, moody sounds from a synthesiser." 7/10

10. Donna Wetter (from the Ashra album Making of, now available in The Complete Correlations box set)

"As MG states in the sleeve notes 'despite the garage-like sound, these tapes reflect much of the energy and lust of playing that possessed us in May of 1978.' Pulsating beat, overlaid with beautifully played guitar - pure skill, composition and inventiveness. Far ahead of its time. Brilliant playing, superb music. That's it." 7/10

Many thanks to Robert for his efforts. Do you have your own top 10 to share? If so, please feel free to send it my way and I'll post it here on the blog.

In other news yesterday I had a writing session and managed to fly through another draft of both the prologue and the first part of the book. I'm already far prouder of this than my previous effort and with each successive run-through it takes less and less time to come up with a result. So, things are looking very positive. More soon.....

Sunday 20 November 2011

The next move

After a lengthy break from writing, during which I've been contemplating which sections of the book require improvement I was unable to resist revisiting my section about the E2-E4 album today. Having read the recent article about the recording in The Wire magazine I learnt one or two little fragments of information that I felt may add to my account of the making of the record and in tweaking a few bits and pieces I ended up giving the whole of the chapter a bit of an overhaul. I now think that I'm almost there with this part, which is great. Next weekend, time permitting I intend to return to the start of the draft and begin the next raft of improvements.

In other news off the back of this blog I've struck up correspondence with a few fellow Manuel Gottsching fans and was going to e-mail one friend today when he beat me to it and sent me a list of his top 10 M.G. records for a bit of fun. It's always really nice to receive messages like that and great to be able to discuss the music in this way, which leads me on to what I was going to say next: if you have been moved by the music or feel that you have something to add to the book do get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Travelling music

As most readers of this blog will probably know Manuel Gottsching graces the cover of this month's copy of The Wire magazine and the issue includes a fairly lengthy piece about the classic E2-E4 album. One of Manuel's quotes from the article really struck a chord with me. "I once was asked what's your favourite album when you're in bed, when you're on a plane, when you're in your car," he says. "I thought about it and every answer for me was E2-E4. It fits in every situation."

For me E2-E4 is a particularly versatile piece of music because if you decide to tune into it there are dense, multiple layers of sound to examine. If, on the other hand, you elect to zone out and not focus on what unfolds as the recording progresses the effect is extremely meditative. Last weekend I travelled to Manchester and on both the outbound and return journey my first choice of listening was E2-E4. I've listened to the album dozens of times when in transit: on trains, on planes and also travelling to and from work and this is perhaps because there is something about the piece that conveys motion. When one considers that Manuel Gottsching originally recorded E2-E4 to play on his Walkman during a flight to Hamburg the following day I would say mission accomplished.

In other news: there are ongoing developments with the book but I can't say what they are yet. Watch this space.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Postcards from Berlin

Whilst I'm busy tidying up my work before I move on to a fourth draft I thought I'd share some photographs from my trip to Berlin in February of 2010. During this visit I met Manuel and a certain special guest, who you will see making an appearance a bit further down the page. Back soon....










Sunday 18 September 2011

Pas de Trois

Well today there was cause for a little celebration as I finally reached the end of the third draft of the book but not before a bit of tidying up. On the way to my destination I gave the whole work in progress another quick sweep, changing little details here and there and, as I suspected, there was still a section that I wasn't altogether happy with. This was the review for the Making of album that now forms part of the Complete Correlations boxed set. It is all well and good sitting, listening to three hours of music and recording every detail on paper but boy, is it dull to read later on. Something that I've definitely learnt whilst working on this book is that trying to say what you're saying concisely and doing away with excess information is very important. The trick is to know what to keep and what to delete but to do that it is sometimes necessary to have lots on the page in the first place. Anyway: the section is now trimmed and altered to my satisfaction...at least for now.

It is now time for a brief pause before I begin the fourth draft. I'm going to take a short break, really examine my work in detail and then start the next raft of improvements. I take comfort in the fact that each successive draft takes significantly less time to complete than the previous one. I'll be back in a little while for the next chapter......

Thursday 8 September 2011

Happy Birthday, Manuel Göttsching!

Wishing a happy birthday to Manuel Göttsching, born 9th September 1952.

Sunday 4 September 2011

A breakthrough

Well, today I've had rather a fantastic breakthrough on the journey towards completion of the book. After writing about Ashra's live appearance and award at last year's German Schallwelle Preis for electronic music I moved on to what I think will be the final section. This describes my memories of 2010, including staying at Berlin's UFA Fabrik in February, seeing Manuel Gottsching live in Paris in June and once again in Glasgow at Christmas. I also wrote what will probably be the last few paragraphs, which was a very strange feeling. I now need to do some tidying up here and there but I'm fairly close to being able to say that the third draft is complete.

Monday 15 August 2011

Take Me to Your Reader

Hi all. I'm just checking in for a quick update. After spending several weekends getting stuck in and having also had the last week off work I've been able to move forward at a rate of knots with the book-in-progress. I've managed to update and improve sections about Ashra's live dates of 1997, the Die Mulde album, the Ash Ra Tempel reunion of 2000 and I've now managed to get as far as the Concert for Murnau of 2003. As you can see things are moving forward at a fair pace! Having said that every time I look through my document again I see little things I'd like to add, take away or rewrite so it may be a short while before I can confidently say that I've finished the third draft. Watch this space, though. Be there soon.....

Monday 8 August 2011

Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011)

This weekend I received the sad news that Conrad Schnitzler, a giant in the world of electronic music has passed away.

Briefly a member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster, Con was also seemingly omnipresent as a generation of German recording artists searched to discover their musical identities. Along with legendary producer Conny Plank it is Conrad Schnitzler whose name seems to appear time and time again in articles and accounts relating to the development of radical, innovative new sounds in German music during the early Seventies. From the founding of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, a Berlin music venue in which avant-garde musicians could cut their teeth to his free-form live experimental project Eruption, through to being able to offer advice and inspiration to fledgling musicians, Conrad Schnitzler always seemed to be there.

And then there is Con the solo musician. Schnitzler once described his own work as "cold hard electronic sound," and therein lies a large part of what makes his output so fascinating. As a solo artist he was incredibly prolific, releasing hundreds of albums and his style was utterly idiosyncratic. Try as they might nobody could possibly hope to imitate sounds that were so totally unique. The curious uninitiated may want to try the Peter Baumann produced Con (1978), later reissued as Ballet Statique as a point of entry in to his discography. The opening track, Electric Garden is balanced somewhere between evoking a dark Blade Runner-esque cityscape and delivering exactly what the title suggests. A subtle, yet ominous drone comes and goes, electronic noises buzz like mechanical flies and rhythmic sounds, some of which suggest water dripping echo and spiral as the music gradually builds up, becoming denser. This is a garden with a twist, though. It is as if all of the insects and plant life are constructed from metal with any moving parts assisted by hinges and screws. This may be cold and hard, as Schnitzler suggested, but there is also a glacial beauty at play. The wonderful Cassette Concert Series, reissued in five CD volumes also comes highly recommended. Track titles such as Voltage Dance Steps, Solar Cells, Symphonia Mecanica and Contrapuntal Interstellar Radars might provide an idea of what to expect.

Con, we salute you for your influence and for delivering music that nobody else could. May you rest in peace.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Six pack

A week or so ago a large parcel from Germany arrived for me at work. Could it be.....? Yes!! My initial suspicions were correct. The package was from MG.Art and contained the new remastered editions of the first five Ash Ra Tempel CDs, along with Manuel Gottsching's Inventions for Electric Guitar CD. I've been having enormous fun listening to these whenever I've been able to find a window of time here and there. It really is a thrill to hear albums that one has studied so closely dusted down and given a new lease of life. My favourites of the bunch so far have proved to be the first, self-titled Ash Ra Tempel album, Join Inn and Inventions for Electric Guitar. The remastering job on the first two of these really highlights the excellent interaction between the band and it is a joy to hear Inventions with upgraded sound quality deserved of a masterpiece. Given time my favourites from these reissues may change and I look forward to exploring further when I can.....
In addition to the sound quality of these offerings I've also enjoyed some of the attention to detail with the packaging. The spines of the CDs look attractive on the shelf, the CDs themselves have images on the upper sides and whilst the first three CDs replicate the gatefold LP art in their booklets, the last three each include some nice images from the period when the albums were recorded. Here's hoping to more reissues and perhaps some archival releases from MG.Art in the not too distant future.

In other news last weekend I was working on a section of the book about Ashra's appearance at the UK Electronica Festival in 1985, followed by the Tropical Heat and Walkin' the Desert albums. I am now 100 pages into amending a 137 page document, so the end of this draft is closer than it may seem. Over the last few months the sections of the book that I've been writing (covering Manuel's archival studio and concert recordings, his work for film, theatre and collaborations, followed by reviews of Harald Grosskopf's Synthesist and Lutz Ulbrich's Luul albums) has all been created from scratch, so the pace of writing has slowed down somewhat.

Much of the rest of the draft from this point onwards will be amending what is already written so I now anticipate being able to move forward with greater speed. I sent my short sections about the Synthesist and Luul albums to Harald and Lutz respectively for possible feedback and they both seemed happy with the results. Lutz Ulbrich sent me a message to say that my review was "well written" and that he was "flattered." I can't really ask for any more than that. A day well spent, I hope! More soon.

Monday 20 June 2011

So weit, so gut.

Hi all. I'm just checking in to let you know how things are progressing with my writing. This weekend I was working on a section of the book about the early eighties and, having discussed Manuel Gottsching's projects during this period I have moved on to Harald Grosskopf and his 1980 album Synthesist. Writing this book I've found time and time again that albums I've started off liking a great deal I've ended up loving. There's something about studying a record in great detail that really allows one to appreciate the art behind it. We live in busy times and as a result of this sensory overload is almost inevitable. I remember a time when I only had ten CDs in my collection and knew each one intimately. Now they're always popping through the door because I'm eternally curious. There's an awful lot of sound out there to explore but writing this book has made me contemplate slowing down and trying to appreciate music more before ordering that next record. I'm not sure whether this will ever happen, though....

This weekend also provided me with a reminder of what writing about music is like in the early stages. For quite a while now I've been rewriting sections of the book but over the last few days I've almost been starting from scratch. I've been lucky enough to have plenty of interview quotes from Mr. Grosskopf (big thanks, Harald), which I pasted into roughly the right part of my Word document. I then get my general thoughts about the album down. This week I've been listening to Synthesist fairly intensely on the way to and from work and in the backyard after work with a glass of wine whilst the cats roam around (and jump on me).

When it comes to the actual writing, though, a scatter shot approach seems to work best for me. I put the music on and as each track plays I record any thoughts I've been storing up or may have at that point on the page with no regard for whether the English is good: a series of descriptive words, anything the sounds may evoke etc. Then of course we've got the context and the details for the album. What happened in the run up to the recording process? Where was it recorded and who produced it? Is there a concept behind the sleeve? Are there any associated stories?

...and then.....and then it's all there on the page, like a forbidding heap of scrap waiting to be sorted into something that is hopefully worth looking at. At this point I start scratching my head, getting up and going to make cups of coffee, checking my e-mails and browsing on the Web to see which records I'm going to buy next but the point inevitably comes when the task is unavoidable. No more excuses. I have to sit and get the job done, so I do and sometimes I'm happy with the results. I'm fairly pleased with my short section about Synthesist and now I don't just like the album. I love it. I'd call that a good weekend. Next stop: Lutz Ulbrich's 1981 album Luul. See you soon.......

Sunday 29 May 2011

Museum Piece IV

Gentleman....surely we can talk sensibly about this. Watch, as a 1971 TV debate featuring Ohr Records co-owner Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser goes horribly wrong. See the clip here.

Friday 27 May 2011

News from the vault

Hi all. It has been a couple of weeks so time for a quick update. Having finished the chapter about E2-E4 I'm now busy working on a section about Manuel's archive of unreleased recordings: those made for fashion shows, theatre, screen and also live performances. The part of the book that I'm writing about will also include collaborations and some of the more obscure recordings in the Gottsching discography. After this I will be moving on to Ashra's Tropical Heat album and their performance in Sheffield as part of the UK Electronica Festival, 1985. Anyway: work is mad busy at the moment so must dash. Back soon! Incidentally: I very much doubt that Manuel Gottsching's vault looks anything like the one pictured above.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Answers on a postcard.....

Hi Berliners, and other blog followers too. I have a question for you: do you know anything about the location of the photograph for the above album sleeve, the Virgin Records release of New Age of Earth? Despite my best research the only information I have so far is that the picture was taken somewhere in Berlin but no one is even one hundred percent sure about this. At first I wondered whether the photo had been taken using a model..... Perhaps someone can shed some light on this? If you think you can help please do get in touch.

In other news I have finally managed to track down and watch the 1976 film Le Berceau de Cristal. As there is hardly any dialogue the Ash Ra Tempel soundtrack is much more integral to the overall mood than I could ever have imagined.

...and finally: this weekend I am all set to have another pass at the E2-E4 section of the book and I'm very much looking forward to it. Back soon.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Re-Make/Re-Model

Having spent the last 10 days off work I've had a really good opportunity to get stuck in and make some progress with my writing. Whilst the holiday has been very productive it hasn't quite worked out as I expected. A printout of the third draft persuaded me that the early sections of the book-in-progress needed considerable streamlining. I've been concerned about providing extraneous detail that will end up sending the poor reader to sleep, so I have been busy trimming back or rewriting, and to very positive effect, I think.

Fortunately the weather has been excellent so I've settled into a routine of making the necessary amendments to the paper draft during sunny days in the backyard and then changing my Word document to match with relatively short bursts at the computer. Using this method I've managed to cover a lot of ground and now I'm much happier with the first 60 pages of the work-in-progress.

This break has provided a really nice balance, the days of hard work followed by some pleasant catch-up sessions with good friends during the evenings. An eclectic playlist on my MP3 player has accompanied my days in the sun, from Manuel Gottsching (who else), a lot of music on Pete Namlook's Fax label, ex-Tangerine Dream man Johannes Schmoelling's Zoo of Tranquility through to Underworld, Supertramp and Roxy Music! Variety is the spice of life, or so they say.
Today's re-writing session found me editing a section about the Correlations album and whilst the break didn't pan out as I originally planned, the earlier sections of the book would definitely have required more attention sooner or later. This afternoon, as I sat with a big pile of paper in my hands, I thought about how much work still lies ahead but the bulk of the writing is done now. All I require is the patience to sit and re-make/re-model what I already have.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Marathon

Hi readers. The picture above may not look like much, and indeed it may not actually be much but on top of the pad you'll see a printout of the third draft in progess. I decided to print it off so I could read my work thus far and make any necessary amendments. In addition to a series of minor alterations this has prompted me to rewrite three very short sections in order to make them more concise. Sometimes less is more and there is undoubtedly a fine line between providing readers with plenty of interesting information and boring them stupid. A short section about Timothy Leary and two parts about Ash Ra Tempel's live recordings are currently being pruned back.
After work I've been enjoying taking my printout into the backyard and reading in the sun, whilst the cats explore to their heart's content. I now have the pleasure of 12 days away from work and in this time I'm hoping to get stuck in and really push things forward. When I've finished my alterations I'll be picking up where I left off with the years of The Berlin School, looking at the New Age of Earth, Early Water, Dream & Desire and Blackouts albums.

A friend of mine once said that writing a book is not a sprint, but a marathon and he was right. This project has been a learning curve for me and it has most certainly involved running that extra mile, even when I've felt exhausted. It has been about pushing on, even when I've wondered whether everybody else will run out of patience before I'm finished. A famous rock drummer/lyricist once wrote a line that resonates with me about dragging the dream into existence...

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Mineralogy: Studying Le Berceau de Cristal

Last weekend found me almost completing a section of the book about Manuel Gottsching's first musical collaborations with then former Agitation Free and future Ashra member Lutz Ulbrich. This includes their soundtrack work for the Philippe Garrel directed 1976 film Le Berceau de Cristal. The dark, brooding music for the film, which starred Nico, Dominique Sandra and Anita Pallenberg, was recorded the previous year and finally released on the Spalax label in 1993. Having spent quite a while carefully listening to the album I'm curious to hear the music alongside the pictures but to the best of my knowledge Le Berceau remains out-of-print. Has anybody seem it? If so do get in touch and let me know.....
Next stop New Age of Earth.....

Saturday 2 April 2011

Museum Piece III

The EKO Computerhythm, an early Italian drum machine was operated by using perforated cards. Manuel Gottsching incorporated this on many recordings made during the latter half of the seventies and also for the E2-E4 album. A few clips of this magnificent machine in action have appeared on YouTube. For a demo see here.

Thursday 24 March 2011

That term

It was always going to come into the book at some point and I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I didn't make some reference, even in passing, to that term. What? I hear you say. I'm referring to "krautrock", the tag so often given to the generation of German musicians whose work came to prominence in the late sixties and early seventies. Last weekend I wrote a section and, with a little help from my friends, have managed to pinpoint what I believe to be the very first use of the phrase. Perhaps understandably many of the musicians whose works are given the label aren't very keen on it and I will be going into a bit more detail about this in the book. Manuel Gottsching's music took a fairly radical new direction in 1974, absorbing the influence of the minimalists and from what I understand he doesn't regard his music from that point onwards as belonging to the so-called "krautrock" genre.

This is a fair point, given the style of the Inventions for Electric Guitar album. With it's hypnotic, cyclical patterns of sound it is in most respects fairly far removed from those early Ash Ra Tempel albums or anything by The Cosmic Jokers for that matter. From 1974 onwards Gottsching never really revisited those very early years musically, preferring instead to pursue fresh areas of exploration with many of his projects. This discussion leads very nicely to the point at which I will be picking up my pen again this weekend. I am well on my way towards completing a section about the Inventions album.

....and this, in turn leads on to my next topic: Did any of you manage to hear the wonderful Sitzkissen-Konzert, broadcast on Byte FM last weekend? This vintage show from 15th November 1975 featured the Ash Ra Tempel line-up of Manuel, along with Lutz Ulbrich. The opening section was reminiscent of the Inventions for Electric Guitar album and showed just how well the duo meshed together, their guitars weaving around each other to great effect. On listening to the show it struck me how brave they were to attempt to play live in this intricate style when even the smallest of mistakes would be exposed. The fact that the audience were prepared to listen so quietly and patiently to this introspective music without cheering, shouting or talking over the top of it also points towards a different time.

With it's dramatic organ sounds the second part of the concert was stylistically comparable with L'Hiver Doux from Le Berceau de Cristal, recorded during the same year. The performance concluded with a third piece, the style of its gently flowing sequencer line later re-explored for Hausaufgabe (1978, featured on The Private Tapes) and Tempus Fungi (also 1978, from The Making of...).

The Sitzkissen-Konzert was excellent and I hope that Manuel will at some point decide to give it the CD release it richly deserves.

Sunday 6 March 2011

Sehr kosmisch

I've just finished writing a section of the book about Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser and the Cosmic Jokers. With recollections of the period at Ohr Records and its spin-off labels supplied by Harald Grosskopf and Stephan Kaske of Mythos there are some fascinating insights into the rise and fall of Kaiser's cosmic music empire.

Reviews for the Cosmic Jokers albums have been particularly hard to write, possibly because the music made by the band is so difficult to pin down. The style of the album reviews throughout the book in progress have tended to mirror the type of music that I've been writing about. With this in mind it is hardly surprising that the notes for the Cosmic Jokers albums are...well....sehr kosmisch, really. I'm rather hoping that alongside the pop art album sleeves by Peter Geitner they capture just a little of the kitsch, the colour and the wonder of the unique music made by this fantastic but short-lived band but that's for you to decide.

To write about music so out there without seeming even more out there has been challenging but also a lot of fun. More soon....

Friday 4 March 2011

One wedding and a little Nightdust

Hello readers. Firstly I want to apologise for being largely absent from this blog for so long. As previously mentioned I've been busy getting married and the organisational process for this has taken up the majority of my spare time for the last 3 or 4 months. Here I am with my lovely wife, Vicky, on what was a wonderful day.
Our honeymoon was in Dahab, near Sharm El Sheik. On arriving in Egypt the first thing that struck me was the forbidding, hilly landscape of the Sinai Desert. I fully expected to see flat expanses of sand but many of the vistas look like photographs from Mars.
I think I had caught the sun a bit when the photo below was taken. This was shortly after a camel ride and shortly before the Sun went down on an evening that we spent stargazing out in the desert. With no light pollution it was simply amazing.

The holiday also consisted of snorkeling around corals (thankfully a shark free experience, although I was admittedly a little nervous) and a visit to Saint Catherine's Monastery where Moses is said to have seen the burning bush.
The picture below was taken outside the monastery.
Tomorrow I intend to continue where I left off with the book and I will be writing again with high hopes for the forthcoming year. This really is the last lap and by the end of the year, all being well, I should be a long way towards completion of the project. After all of this time I can't wait to share it with you.
...and so, whilst anticipating the forthcoming reissued Ash Ra Tempel CDs, I pick up pen and when I return I promise that there will be less about me and more about the book. Back shortly...

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Museum Piece II

I've just received this wonderful colour shot of Manuel at the Theatre de L'Ouest, Paris, France, courtesy of the ever helpful Andy King. Andy is a massive Tangerine Dream fan and is always finding archival Ash Ra Tempel articles and photographs, which he very kindly passes in my direction.

The photograph was taken on 15th February, 1973 and featured alongside an article in Maxipop magazine on February 27th of the same year.

Saturday 22 January 2011

More from Glasgow

With the process of planning my wedding in full swing much to my frustration it is nigh on impossible to find the time to sit down and write right now....but readers I want to take the opportunity to thank you for your support and for following the blog. I can assure you that the project is very much alive, I'm raring to go again and after my honeymoon in early March I will be picking up with the third draft where I left off circa late 1973. In the meantime I hope you enjoy some more photographs from Manuel's show in Glasgow on December 11th 2010. Back soon!