Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel
Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen
Ash Ra Tempel - Join Inn
Ash Ra Tempel - Inventions for Electric Guitar

1971 - 1974 Germany

Reviews of "Schwingungen" and "Join Inn" were originally published in Expose on November 1, 1999. These were both edited and the remainder of the content below was originally published in Gnosis on February 9, 2001. Version below edited on September 13, 2007.

Today in internet chat rooms, the neo-Krautrock music fan know-it-all hipster can recite all the details of Can, Faust, Neu! and Kraftwerk. However the band that really had more to do with the creation of the movement goes on somewhat, but not completely, unnoticed. Ash Ra Tempel were perhaps even more pioneering in the search of experimental music forms from the heyday of the Berlin scene. They seamlessly combined electronics, psychedelia, and rock to the most extreme and radical while somehow interjecting a serene state throughout.

So it is quite possible the most authentic genius is someone who has no idea that he is one. Somebody who shys away from the spotlight and wonders aloud, "What is the big deal? I play guitar, I play keyboards, I play music and I enjoy it." Yet this person is so genuine that his style is instantly recognizable, the most pure a sound can be. This is true of so many great artists that are well-known, but is also true of those fine craftsman that are unknown. Manuel Göttsching is a textbook example of the latter. Every interview he gives shows a gracious man who tires of talking of his past, who is forward looking and wants to show what he still has to offer. But the whole picture displays the life of this great painter.

Germany. 1971. Underground. Those three terms evoke images of the Berlin Wall, intensity, angst, freedom. There was an exciting music culture happening throughout all of Germany at this time with bands like Tangerine Dream, Amon Duul, Guru Guru, and Embryo. All of them were turning their backs on the more well known commercialized style of their American and British counterparts to create something new - something uniquely German. And no band helped define this milieu in recorded music more than Ash Ra Tempel. So perhaps in reality it was three friends: Manuel, Hartmut Enke, and Klaus Schulze (fresh from a similar angst ridden album, "Electronic Meditation", with Tangerine Dream) who joined their hearts and souls to play music that interested them. What has to be understood is the environs of the day, the mindset, the intensity, the politics, the change of the Western world as we know it.

Very rarely is a moment so well captured just through music. Yet this is just what happened on Ash Ra Tempel's self-titled debut. From the start, one had to know this was going to be a special affair: A day glow orange cover of the Egyptian sun god Ra which featured a gimmick cover that folded open from the center. The opening piece 'Amboss' (Anvil), is one for the ages. Starting with dark sounds that seem like shadows, created only with primitive electronics and guitar, the piece seems on the verge of falling into a black abyss to never return. Slowly the tension builds to a deafening crescendo, and without warning, Klaus Schulze begins his definitive piledriver drumming pattern. What could be possibly more intense and more chaotic? The listener is pounded into submission. Only to be equally mutilated by Göttsching's furious jamming, certainly the most intense, psychedelic, heavy guitar ever recorded. After a few minutes of this sort of violent cosmic blues jamming, there is a sequence of free-jazz drumming and electric guitar polka-dots that just burst into another firestorm, and along comes Schulze even more furious than before with Göttsching and Enke trying to subdue the entire German nation with their blistering guitar work. The Berlin Wall must fall! It doesn't - but certainly the musicians must have. One gets exhausted just listening to it! This 19 minute opus is followed by the exquisite 25 minute 'Traummaschine' (Dream Machine). Again, the mood is somber but slowly the sound gets louder. The band manages to achieve an electronic cadence while the guitars and electronics swirl. Hand percussion enters in and Göttsching turns up the fuzz for another biting solo. There is a period of rest and again the rollercoaster begins for yet one more jam. To this day, there has never been an album of music that sustained this kind of intensity for 40 minutes. How they were able to so without a moment of wasted time is a testament to the brilliance of one of the greatest albums of all time.

What followed was no less a masterpiece, though very much different from its predecessor. "Schwingungen", Ash Ra Tempel's second effort, is a vastly underrated album even by ardent fans of the band. Perhaps it's due to the absence of Klaus Schulze or that this album never was reissued until the CD age? The controversy here surrounds John L., Ash Ra Tempel's one and only vocalizer (singer just isn't an appropriate term here). He is, to say the least, the Krautrock movement's supreme example of a paranoid schizophrenic. For those who are familiar with the LSD ramblings of Dawn on Brainticket's Cottonwood Hill, then John L. is her male equivalent. 'Darkness: Flowers Must Die' just about says it all. And does John L. say it all! While a steady rhythm section chugs along (not near the intensity Schulze brought however) - there are sax bursts, fuzz guitar flashes, tribal drums, and other phased sounds and noises creating a very edgy atmosphere. Through the chaos, John L. is screaming and anguishing (through electronic effects) about the decay of cities and the Earth. "Flowers must die, flowers must die", "Die, die, die, die ,die..." and all hell breaks loose. Here, Manuel Göttsching pulls off the most angry and concise guitar solo of his career, and at the end, if the listener is not left in a heap in the middle of the floor - well, they're just not getting involved! In keeping with Ash Ra Tempel's wild side/mellow side theme introduced on the first album, the flip 19 minute composition is an exercise in choral, tranquil electronic beauty - recalling Pink Floyd's "Saucerful Of Secrets" at their most cosmic and trippy. An album that should leave one emotionally exhausted. And this is what probably happened to John L. - a figure not to show up again in the annals of Krautrock (ed: at the time I didn't know about "Lonesome in Overdrive", an album I also consider one of the greatest and can be found in these pages).

We now introduce Manuel Göttsching's lovely girlfriend Rosi Mueller (who previously only had cameos on "Schwingungen" and "Seven Up"). Ash Ra Tempel's third studio release, "Join Inn", sees Klaus Schulze back in the saddle. On this album he provides less drums and more keyboards than on the debut. 'Freak n' Roll' opens the album in typical heavy fashion. Schulze's trademark machine gun drumming technique comes to the fore very early this time - and one would almost expect them to outdo the phenomenal 'Amboss' from the first album. But they climaxed a bit too early and had to settle for Göttsching's unique guitar rambling combined with the Enke/Schulze energetic rhythm section to make it until the finish. 'Jenseits' however, is Ash Ra Tempel's crowning spatial moment. Here, Schulze shows his brilliance with electronics, laying down a tranced locust-at-night sound while Hartmut Enke defines what a bass guitar can do for space music. Göttsching's guitar just shimmers and flows. But the highlight here has to be Rosi's seductive yet fragile and innocent voice whispering on top. I have absolutely no idea what she's talking about, which adds to the exoticism and mystery for non-German speakers. Another masterwork, completing the trio of the brilliant early Ash Ra Tempel albums (including "Ash Ra Tempel" and "Schwingungen"). Afterwards, Hartmut Enke suffered from mental issues, Klaus Schulze went on to solo fame and Göttsching was left with the Ash Ra Tempel name and his girlfriend.

After the relatively lackluster "Starring Rosi" (though still a very pleasant album), it was apparaent Manuel Göttsching needed a change. And thus began his solo career, though he maintained the full Ash Ra Tempel moniker for one more album. "Inventions for Electric Guitar" was a revolutionary album for the day and is still forward looking almost 30 years later. Creating a sound-on-sound electronic vibe using only guitars and tape loops, Manuel creates a beautiful tapestry of music that is at once intense and yet beautiful. He adds color with vicious solos while the guitar loops are bouncing in the background. Yet another brilliant work - and something entirely different. What a creative mind!

So there we have a recap of four of Ash Ra Tempel's finest albums, and all Hall of Famers. This is by no means the complete list, only the best ones from my perspective, especially for a list like this one. I have just about every Ash Ra related album there is, and many of them are splendid including "New Age of Earth", "Blackouts", "Friendship" and the 6 CD "Private Tapes" set. Manual is still around and seems on the verge of another breakthru album, as he's become quite prolific in the last couple of years, after many years of silence. One often thinks of the great jazzers like John Coltrane and Miles Davis who continued to push the envelope of music, to continue onwards with the exploration of exciting sounds. Where commercial boundaries do not exist, only one's love for imagination and creativity matters.

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