Born on this day ...

[Ruby]

Hans-Joachim Roedelius was born on this day in 1934, in Berlin, Germany. He is probably the great granddaddy of Krautrock, or one of very few of them, at any rate! Apparently he was, against his own will, made a member of the very youngest division of the Hitler youth – the Pimpfe. He might have spent the rest of his life rebelling against that imposition; at least two of the bands with which he is associated, Kluster (later Cluster) and Harmonia can in no way be said to be mainstream! And in fact, in the late sixties, he co-founded ‘Human Being’ a music commune, and was at the very hub of Berlin’s underground culture at that time, also co-forming the ‘Zodiak Free Arts Lab’. 
 
Throughout his exceedingly long career, he has dabbled extensively in a number of fields, electronica, experimental, avant-garde, industrial, ambient, etc. He is a pianist and guitarist and knows his way around a synth or two. He has collaborated with Dieter Moebius, Brian Eno and Tim Story among others, and alongside any number of joint releases, has 42 solo studio albums to his credit.
 
There’s a limit to my appetite for experimental/avant-garde music, but I quite like some of his more tuneful/melodic creations – not that I’ve touched on even the uppermost tip of this particular iceberg! These are some that stay with me …
 
Firstly, I just love this cover artwork; sunlight really does sparkle on water like that and is so incredibly joyful to see, and secondly, I think the track “Regenmacher” (Rainmaker, which should probably be playing continuously in our present drought stricken piece of the planet) is way ahead of its time (unlike our city planners ... but I digress) … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVI327Y3Xko. Won't be to everyone's taste ... 


 
“Pink, Blue and Amber”, the title track from his album of the same name - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Xvsr0dJs4
 
He plays piano on this track from Brian Eno’s Before and After Science … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nsAgYaWKgw
 
And I really like his collaboration with Tim Story, Inlandish – this is from that …