Berlin School of electronic music
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| Berlin School | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Krautrock Psychedelic rock Electronic art music Minimalism |
| Cultural origins | Early 1970s, West Berlin |
| Typical instruments | Synthesizer - Sequencer - Mellotron - Guitar |
| Mainstream popularity | some initial interest in Europe, later underground |
| Derivative forms | Ambient Electronica New Age Trance |
The Berlin School of electronic music, or just Berlin School, was a development of electronic music in the 1970s, shaped by Berlin-based artists like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Ashra.
Vintage Berlin School tracks typically ran about twenty or thirty minutes, filling one side of a vinyl LP. The genre was so thoroughly identified with the long form that a general shift to shorter pieces in the 1980s seemed to herald the death of the movement. After the coming of the compact disc "retro" artists were no longer limited by the need to flip over a vinyl record. Some newer works run continuously as a single track for almost 80 minutes.
An outgrowth of Krautrock, Berlin School was so named because most of its early practitioners were based out of West Berlin, Germany. The genre's identification with space music made it distinct from the more percussive and rhythm-oriented Düsseldorf School which included Can, Cluster, Kraftwerk, and Neu!.
Berlin School was and still is a relatively self-contained style that has not had nearly the impact on music in general that Kraftwerk has had on synth pop and techno, but ambient, electronica, New Age, and trance are partially rooted in Berlin School. The genre is sometimes considered a sub-branch of New Age or ambient, though it predates the widespread usage of both terms.
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[edit] Classic Period
The classic era of Berlin School commenced with the release of Phaedra by Tangerine Dream in 1974, their first on Virgin Records In 1975, they followed up with a studio album, Rubycon, and a live album, Ricochet.
Moondawn by Klaus Schulze in 1976 is often regarded[weasel words] as his first real entry in this genre. Tangerine Dream delivered a studio work, Stratosfear, and the soundtrack to the film Sorcerer.
In 1977, Ashra (Manuel Göttsching) released New Age of Earth, along with Michael Hoenig's Departure from the Northern Wasteland. Tangerine Dream toured the United States and released a double live album, Encore, with three sides of Berlin School and a side of proto-Ambient.
[edit] Latter-Day Berlin School
Ambient musician Steve Roach briefly experimented with the genre on his first albums.[citation needed] Other early 80s artists include Michael Garrison and multiple Sky Records musicians.
During the 1990s, several current mainstay groups were formed, including Radio Massacre International and Redshift (fronted by Mark Shreeve, who had worked in the genre in the early 80s as well). Many of them had a "retro" or back-to-basics approach, seen for example in Redshift's usage of vintage Moog synthesizers. An interview with Mark Shreeve by Paul Graham of Trancine in April 2004 indicated that Redshift make use of a Minimoog and 2 Moog 8*3 sequencers.* [1]
Klaus Schulze still continues work in and around the genre, and while Tangerine Dream have moved on, they continue to send an occasional nod in that direction, such as the album Mota Atma from 2003.
Notable latter day artists of Berlin School include:
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
Various contributors, All Music Guide to Electronica, Backbeat Books, San Francisco, 2001.
[edit] External links
- Encyclopedia of Electronic Music
- Berlin School posts at Synthtopia
