Category Archives: Kosmische

Songs of The Day: Jean Yves Labat – Orbit, and Matrix 16

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Though lesser known than his debut (recorded under the moniker M. Frog), Jean-Yves Labat’s follow up LP, Underwater Electronic Orchestra, is a far more rewarding effort to these ears. Some Prog, some Psych and a whole lotta synth. Would have perfectly on the collectable Pôle Records roster.

Happy birthday, Klaus Schulze

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Before embarking on a synthly single minded solo career, Klaus Schulze was briefly a drummer for Tangerine Dream (see amazing video from 1969 below), and a founding member of Ash Ra Tempel, whose Krautrock classic, 1971 eponymous debut, features his drumming and synth talents, as well.




Crazy that footage of this bizarre pairing exists. Absolutely love it!




Roger Mainwood’s trippy animation to Kraftwerk’s, Autobahn

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Figured I’d post this separately from the Florian Schneider post so it wouldn’t get lost among the other videos. Well worth watching, even if you have no interest in Kraftwerk, for Mainwood’s amazing visuals. Two years later, Mainwood’s work would be seen in several segments from the animated classic, Heavy Metal.

Dangerous Minds has the story of the video, directly from Mainwood. http://dangerousminds.net/comments/1979_animated_head_trip_based_on_kraftwerks_autobahn

Vinyl Rip Download: Spell – Time Waves (1979)

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

1979 synthesizer madness from my home town of Jacksonville, Florida. Time were the duo of Jack Tamul and Joe Diehl and their sole LP was produced at the behest of The Alexander Breast Planetarium, a place where I spent many a night losing it to their phenomenal laser light shows. Well, that was a good few years after the release of the LP, but this music would be the ideal accompaniment to the psychedelic light show (I mostly remember Rock based shows, Laser Pink Floyd being the best and most popular). Featuring an array of synths and processors like the Arp 2600, Omni, Axxe and Pro DGX sequencers, a Moog, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and sequencer, ya know, the kinda thing that tech heads, much more knowledgeable than myself, would freak on, Time Waves really captures the spirit of innovation of the seventies synth age. The fact that it was produced in collaboration with The Planetarium (in Jacksonville, of all places), also speaks of a bygone era.

And the sound? Classic late 70’s, private press, New Age / Kosmische and even a track, The Pawn (posted below), that would have been a perfect cut for an Italian Giallo soundtrack!

These days, Tamul continues his work with synths and computers, http://www.tamul.com/samples.html, and Joe Diehl is writing scores and working as an audio engineer on numerous film and tv projects http://www.joedeihl.com/

Dario Argento would love this

Full 320 rip here: http://www.datafilehost.com/d/6aecf2e5

Happy Birthday, Tim Blake

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Blake was the keyboardist for classic Radio Gnome era, Gong, and briefly, for Hawkwind. His 1977 solo debut, Crystal Machine, is a masterpiece of heavy synth mindfuckery.
An exceptional re-edit from Mahagonee, of my favorite track from the debut LP

And an amazing video of Blake performing a track from his follow up LP, Blake’s New Jerusalem. Check out that synth set up!

Check out some of his pioneering work with Gong. So good!


Blake was allegedly the first person to use lasers in concert performance. That stage show woulda been trippy!
tim blake 1

tim blake 2

A great interview at Terrascope http://www.terrascope.co.uk/Features/Tim_Blake_interview.htm

David Muse, Tonal Alchemy, Vinyl Rip

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Today’s rip is from David Muse, best known as a member of the 70’s Top 40, soft pop group, Firefall. On his 1981 solo LP, Tonal Alchemy, Muse leaves the pop trappings behind, producing a synth heavy album falling somewhere between New Age, Kosmische and Balearic genres. The influences of Tangerine Dream and Vangelis can definitely be heard, but as the cover artwork might suggest, there’s a trippy American beach vibe going on, and at times he does employ the sound of the surf to bring the atmospheric motif home.

If you’re at all familiar with Light In The Attic’s, I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age Music In America 1950-1990, (and if you’re not… http://lightintheattic.net/releases/943-i-am-the-center-private-issue-new-age-music-in-america-1950-1990) then you should check this recording out. Muse uses an array of synthesizers and electronics (Oberheim 4 voice synthesizer, Ob-1 synthesizer, Roland Jupiter 8 Synthesizer, Korg Vocoder), along with Soprano Sax, Flute, Fender Rhodes, and on the below posted, Narada Muni, Sitar and Tamboura played by Jonathan Medrick, to create his unique musical environment. Muse is definitely on some third eye vibrational stuff here: “The essence evolves only when certain harmonic structures conducive to crystallizing matter and spirit are arranged in patterns of progressions.”

Full rip @320 here: http://www.datafilehost.com/d/96a83617

Here he can be seen performing one of Firefall’s radio staples