Along with Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel was one of the first bands to convert the trippier side of late-'60s psychedelia into the kosmische rock of the '70s. Most Ash Ra titles were solely the work of Manuel Göttsching, plus any other additional players who happened to be around during the recording of his ten albums. Göttsching trained in classical guitar and studied improvisational music plus electronics at school. In 1970, he formed Ash Ra Tempel with Klaus Schulze (fresh from a brief stint in Tangerine Dream) and Hartmut Enke. After a self-titled album in 1971, Schulze left for a solo career; Göttsching continued on with a variety of bandmembers and guests, including Timothy Leary on 1973's Seven Up (and Schulze again, for Join Inn).
By 1975, Göttsching had released his first solo album (Inventions for Electric Guitar) and though Ashra returned the following year, the next two records by the "group" were Göttsching-only albums, the brilliant New Age of Earth in 1976 and Blackouts one year later. For the 1980s, most Ashra LPs were band-setting albums (with the assistance of guitarist Lutz Ulbrich and drummer Harald Grosskopf) while Göttsching solo records (like the landmark E2-E4) were, truly, solo records. He also reunited with Schulze to work on Alphaville's 1989 LP, The Breathtaking Blue.
ASH RA TEMEL was founded by Enke, Göttsching and as third Schulze came, who left already after 1 year. Then ART was Enke and Göttsching. And when Enke left music for good it was Manuel who remained. That's why some of his solo albums were released under the name of ART.
When Manuel signed with VIRGIN he started to perform with new musicians and shortened the name of the band to ASHRA, also to make a distinction between the two different styles of ART and ASHRA. To play with his band ASHRA Manuel invited first Lutz Ulrich (Lüül), later Harald Grosskopf joined them, 1997 Steve Baltes came for the Japan concert, Herzberg and Berlin. 2000 was the last performance of the band.
Recorded: live on March 16, 2003 at the Beta Lounge in San Francisco
In 1967, San Francisco’s Fifty Foot Hose were certainly one of the
innovators of a sound that took Psychedelia to new heights and was
captured on the band’s one record, Cauldron. They are a totally
unique hybrid—on one hand pulsating bay area acid rock, on the other,
fractured electronic freakery, becoming one whole cohesive being. The
sci-fi-ish video game-like artwork hinted at the sounds within, as did
the Limelight label’s pedigree for truly progressive sounds. Band
leader, Cork Marcheschi, used homemade electronic devices to create
crude and experimental soundscapes and instrumental compositions that
were sprinkled throughout the album.
Often starting shows with a swelling rumble that exploded into the
first song, they soon developed a rabid following on the SF scene,
though there was the occasional totally wrong gig, like when a
very-pregnant Nancy had to perform at a Catholic Girls’ school! Still,
the group wowed the crowds, performing with greats like Chuck Berry and
Fairport Convention.
DER JUNKER UND DER KOMMUNIST von ilona Ziok, mit Manuel Göttschings Musik am kommenden Samstag, den 18.7. um 22.30 auf PHOENIX. Hier mehr Infos, Musikausschnitte und ein Trailer: www.junkerundkommunist.de/de, enjoy!
I'm happy to announce that I do the visuals for the WOODEN SHJIPS Show, 9. Juni, West Germany, Berlin Picture from Pauze Festival, Wooden Shjips Show, Utrecht, 14. Nov. 2008. Visuals: Kosmik Klaus and his Solar Sea Slide Show
OUT on June 05, 2009 - "One listen to this musical outfit from Southern Russia known as Vespero was all it took to make me begin thinking about the great things that must be happening in Russia…" - by Ryan Sparks, Sea Of Tranquility.
RAIG is proud to announce Vespero "Surpassing All Kings" (R041, CD), the second studio album by psychedelic/progressive/space rock band from Astrakhan.
6EQUJ5 is a collaboration project between Circo Bazooko and Giorgio “Jure” Zuliani and Liviano Mos from Jennifer Gentle. The recording is an improvised live session recorded from one single jam between the group. It was all done in Trieste, Italy where the guys are all from. The CD contains 26 tracks all recorded and then mixed at MOS Records at Matonia Studios Ltd. while produced by Not Any. 6EQUJ5 requests that you read the insert to truly understand the quality of their recording…or lack of. Any way you look at it…it all comes out to be a very great sounding self released CD, that they hope you will enjoy.