Backcatalogue available - unique chance!

Hello my friends,

after a longer time of preparations for my concert in Paris and the release of "Celestial Movements" I come back to you with some news about promotion-activities from my friends of Cosmiccagibi in France.

As you surely know, Klaus Schulze will perform together with Lisa Gerrard on september 23rd in Paris at "La Cigale". I am sure, that this will be a great and unforgetable event.

This evening will also be a great opportunity for Cosmiccagibi to promote my concert in Paris, which happens exactly 1 month and 1 day later (on october 24th) at "La Boule Noir"; a club which is indeed in the same house as "La Cigale". This happens with the very kind permission of Klaus Schulze himself!

I don't want to say too much at this moment, but Cosmiccagibi worked very hard and they will give you any kind of information about my concert you need. They will also have a big standto promote their own activities.

AND you will also have the unique chance to obtain most of my CDs from my backcatalogue including all single CDs from the "my little universe" box-set.
If this CDs are sold out, you will never get them again in this layout.

So don't miss this chance.

See you soon in Paris...

Electronic Goes Benefit

Hello,

we have the year 2009. The International Year Of Astronomy. So it is not too far away to think about electronic music live performed under stars - real or artificial.
I did this too. 20 years ago. Of course I was not the first one. Many famous collegues had given concerts in planetariums many years before.
My concert happened in Berlin at the former West-Berlin "Planetarium am Munsterdamm".
In those days (and also in my childhood), I was very interested in astronomy and space science (as well as in space music and so on). Then in 1988 the main building of the planetarium was particular destroyed by a fire. I had the idea to collect some money for the planetarium and so "Electronic Music Goes Benefit" was born. Mario Schoenwaelder and I organized the event and we performed in january 1989 three shows on two evenings. One show was recorded and later broadcasted by "SFB - Sender Freies Berlin" radio station.


My part was the approx. 60 minutes long "Ferne Ziele". A shortened studio version was later released on my solo album "Kaleidoscope".
Some info for collectors: the long and original version "Ferne Ziele 1989" is part of my album "Electronic Goes Benefit". This CD was and still is as single CD as well available as part of the "My little universe" CD-Box (released 1999).

From now on, you can listen to the full track on Last.FM.

Enjoy my music through time and space...

Dresden - august 1989

Today I will look some years back again to the year 1989.

Here are some comments written by myself for "The M.I.Rainbow Collection Vol.I":

".. in the following months Olaf Zimmermann (famous radio moderator) played my music on his radio show "Electronics" with increasing frequency. The series was accompanied by periodic "Electronics Live" festivals. Planning for the third one was underway; this time it was to be really big. Sponsored jointly by radio station DT 64 and the "Interessengemeinschaft Elektronische Musik - IGEM" ("Interest Group for Electronic Music"), it took place on the “Junge Garde" open-air stage in Dresden in East Germany. Of the four acts invited, two were the well-known East German groups Pond and Servi, and two were from West Germany, the main act Klaus Schulze and myself.

Sales and publicity were launched months in advance, and it was soon clear that the show would be a hit. In addition to the East German fans, many fans from Belgium, the Netherlands, and West Germany attended. Ultimately all 6800 seats of the Junge Garde were filled.

At this time such a festival in East Germany was somewhat of an adventure; still we had to admit that it was perfectly organized.

Finally the day arrived. I was accompanied by my current wife (eagerly taking photographs of the proceedings) and Mario Schoenwaelder. The border crossing into East Germany, the "German Democratic Republic", went very smoothly, particularly after the border guard checked things out over the telephone. The hotel and the reception were just perfect, only the weather was a bit recalcitrant: cool and cloudy.

I got to know Klaus Schulze personally for the first time. We had occasionally talked on the telephone, but the first personal contact was in Dresden. He turned out to be a very likable fellow, and we had a lot of fun.

...with Klaus Schulze photographed at the moment, where we looked into the same direction...

Set-up began early Saturday. The stage was gigantic, and we had plenty of room to spread out, which was useful considering the amount of equipment we had. Interviews were held after the rehearsals. I felt grateful and quite nervous, for I had never played before so many people. Klaus also seemed excited, as this was his first major performance in several years.

However, everything went perfectly. The audience was enthusiastic and the mood was fabulous. It was a one-of-a-kind experience.
In the evenings we sat in the hotel restaurant, talking and having fun. It was difficult to say goodbye..."

Please let me also add, that the situation had been of more historic importance, as we really could guess, but only a few months later, in november 1989, the Berlin Wall came down ...

Its time for "showdown"

The music of "Dresden 08/89" can now be listened at Last.Fm .

© Frits Couwenberg
© Sabine Kistenmacher

Thoughts

For this album, there is also another little story to tell.

Originally, it should be released at the Berlin label "Picosso-Records" in 1995. The label had made in incredibly short time incredibly lot of money with so-called "Shape" CDs. This CDs were issued by a patented process and could be manufactured in any shape you can imagine (for example the shape of a heart or a continent etc.)
In 1995 this was absolutely fashion and – as I said - the company made much money that had to be invested. So they invested it in techno and electronic music projects. Some of them sold poorly. Rooms were rented in Berlin-Grunewald (maybe the most expensive place in Berlin) for more than 5.000 euros per month cost. Well, the company was faster bankrupt than they had become rich. Somewhere in between, I was up and signed for a small record contract for "Thoughts". But the album there was never published. With effort and hardship, I got my rights and my master tape back. That was it with "Pikosso-Records".

Unfortunately, the with "Pikosso-Records" related music-publisher has still the copyrights of this album, but they never acted for me. I have already some experiences with this kind of situation…

Just a short time later I met Guenther Kopschinski and his label "Green Tree Records" at a “record release party” for an album from Frank Klare (ex Synco). The label had made a name with CDs from the Progressive Rock genre.
He (Kopschinski) was then very interested into electronic music from Berlin. After the release of this CD, he then published my whole back catalogue and the 8 CD box "My Little Universe". So positive this cooperation had begun: After two years it was stopped by a lawyer. Unpleasant experiences seems to be a living part of a musicians life.

A comment I would like to make. The foreword to this album was written by Winfrid Trenkler; the man who had made “our” music popular by broadcasting it in german public radio. After this, the contact to him broke. He had left Germany.

Some albums from the "Green Tree period" are still in popular internet auction houses to find. Who does not want to look at it, might look to Last.FM. There is "Thoughts" now available for download.