The musician alemán Hans-Joachim Roedelius, 88, is a great institution in the electronic music.
He has an extensive and solid career as a soloist, which makes him an actor and witness to the evolution of electronic music, specifically, electronic music. kosmische music and krautrock.
In fact, Rodelius released his latest album in February 2022, 4 hands, which is number 120 of his career, between his own recordings and collaborations, something simply extraordinary.
He is considered one of the founding fathers of krautrock, musical current and form of experimental rock that emerged in the late 1960s in West Germany.
Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius created Cluster, a multi-instrumental and electronic duo. Source: Roedelius Website
When he became a musician and composer, Roedelius never considered becoming a forerunner of any trend because he only wanted to express his love for music. nature and thus find their own tone and musical language.
The story of this musician, in addition to being extraordinary, is synonymous with the German XNUMXth century since he was born in Berlin just one year after Hitler greeted the crowds as Chancellor of Germany.
His father was a dentist whose clients worked at the UFA film studio, where he was cast as a child prodigy in the Goebbels factory propaganda films.
Even Hans-Joachim Roedelius was recruited (by force) by the Hitler Youth to repel the Soviet siege. He deserted from the GDR military service and escaped to the FRG, which meant serving a sentence of just over two years before crossing the West Berlin border in 1960, shortly before the Wall was raised, and never return.
He worked as a physical therapist, massage therapist, butler, postman, chauffeur, and even as a detective. It wasn't until 1968 that he began to create experimental music without knowing how to play an instrument.
In his first concert, Roedelius only used an alarm clock and a flute.. With Schnitzler and Dieter Moebius he formed the band Kluster and their debut album was Germany's first protest album, klopfzeichen.
Not long after, he carried out his participation with the collective of musicians The Zodiak Free Arts Lab, with whom he was able to fully enter the world of the arts with other people who had the same interests.
Zodiak can be defined as the founding space of the krautrock in Berlin, where the band Tangerine Dream officiated their first recitals, and the Kluster group evolved towards instrumental music and changed its name to Cluster, now only with Moebius because countercultural music was not enough to eat.
In 1970 Roedelius decided to establish himself in an artistic commune of self-taught musicians located on a farm in the rural hinterland of Lower Saxony, in Forst.
It was at this point that he met Michael Rother, from NEU!, with whom Roedelius and Moebius created Harmonia, an essential band of the krautrock. It is worth mentioning that Brian Eno recorded with both Cluster and Harmonia.
It was thanks to Eno that Roedelius met and participated in low, David Bowie, considered his most experimental album.
Over the years this musician went from experimentation and electronics to ambient to finally lean towards melody and acoustic piano, with forays into poetry.
Hans-Joachim Roedelius is not only a legend in electronic music, but an artist who manages to execute sound paintings of extraordinary beauty.
