7 February 2011

Harald Grosskopf - Synthesist special edition

Link: Boomkat

Finally touching down in a deluxe metallic reverse-bound jacket, this long-awaited reissue of Harald Grosskopf's influential solo debut from 1980 is finally here, complete with a 60-minute bonus CD including re-workings from James Ferraro, Oneohtrix Point Never, JD Twitch, CFCF, Stellar Om Source, Arp, Blondes and much more.

Having long been touted by connoisseurs as one of the great "lost" electronic albums of the early-80's 'Synthesist' was created as the New Age of the '80s was dawning and the titans of Krautrock had largely left their best work behind them. Harald had worked with the very best of them, playing drums on seminal albums by Klaus Schulze, the notorious Cosmic Jokers, Ashra, and Tarot before he retreated to the West German countryside with a MiniMoog and Revox Reel-to-Reel in 1979 to create his personal opus.

The album feels like a symbiosis of two eras, the proggy excesses of the '70s reigned in by percussively pulsing arpeggiations which would signal Techno on the horizon, especially on the jaw-dropping '1847 Earth' and the joyfully funky ecstasy of 'Transcendental Overdrive'.

His legacy is faithfully handled on the remixes, the best of which appear in CFCF's dreamy remake of 'B. Aldrian', JD Twitch's emphatically NRGetic mix of 'Emphasis', the wormhole experience of OPN's 'Trauma' and James Ferraro's slyly charming interpretation of 'Transcendental Overdrive Zone' under the Keyhole Voyeur alias, retitled 'Wishmaster'.

Photography by Detlef Maugsch.
Original artwork by Siegfried Kottler.
Liner note translation by Mike Burns.
Art direction by Kevin O'Neill.


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