Turkish psychedelia Cite 1g BET BUC Lasteam By Uae (| ICES Cea ed in algwwening of hiesynthe, seguencers and drum machine. The tus play on his Walkman ow mn olectronie gear or ha a decad 20 setting morta, he plage his feels ie sprinkling it that famous Géttsching fay dust on the music at some point Sequencers are primed ind pusing. Al that's le to do ie choose a ‘tuple of chords onthe polysyath, Press record, Lat itgo. Lett flow. Ltt pay. 158 minctosand 20 ceconds liter. £2-Eale complate produce something and you don tae. Maybe years ater, aon LO NG Onits 30th annivereary, E2~£4 remain, jn its ‘oan unassuming way, one ofthe most revolutionary and important albus ever made. It evings botwe duration ot this never fos like aconfrortation or a challenge. Nether fit tedious, the apparent tesla face ofthe mui invites the listener to Jock beneath an diacover the getalteeming boom, aswol at recalibratig their sanstivty to dynanics and muscaltranstoration as the pace progresses Gontly but insstonti, it forcesyau to engsge with ion ts own terms, That's not clain that £2-E4 was unprecedented. Brian Eno was doing something ‘Sila tothe way we hear things wth his Ambient releases, and course we cango back tough Eliane Radigue and a Mente Young for easier sound and duration Butn comparison Géttsching's aitum lawarm, approachable and often startlingly ‘melodic. Perhaps most importantly of alin terms Three decades ago, Ash Ra Tempel grandmaster Manuel Géttsching made his opening move with the pioneering electro-minimalism of £2-E4 and reset the pace for anew age of repetitive dance beats and rock meditations. By Keith Moliné. Photography by Kai von Rabenau of understancing why itsinfiuence has proved 39 lnturing. youcan dance it Before becoming one ofthe select fam “godfather: Techno along with various pees fron the so-caled ‘Berlin Schoo! of elect liane whe emerged Inthe 70s, Manuel Gettsching was theultimate Kosmische guitar hero, responsible fr sone ofthe Areatest momants of Garman experinental rock Df that decade. Hac he retired after he ist Ash Ra Tempel album (recorded with Hartmut Enke and Klaus Schulze), hialegondarystatuawoud side aszured, He took the idea ofthe power trie and ‘though initia insgired by ther exanple, gradually the British and American combos, Ore reason fo the adventurovenats ofthe group and many of ts peers was ther openness to experinentalmusicand art "Ash Re hhesays.~There was a stdio in Bain un by theSnisscomposer homes Kesser aber many German ups and musicians would meet Rwas hind emearsa sti ana News ct techer or wo oars He aight os base elenents of composing {ulinproveoton alscisteved tobeat suse the 60 on teri an was interested how {ney nace emusic, Pow he gos sound. AE the begining Iwas intweste in althose but {utansta he Clapton ck alr, Peter Green are end of course | wasals fascinated bythe cancers Cream JmiMenai concerts wen they started ta inprovie, ely long ingroisation. That teas basialy the style we took on Ash Ra Teal. We cok the bisa then nly the begining, anda tha end wethrenitamiy andoni wed the inprorsntion!™ ‘Certainly nuchof the music Gttsching created inthis ea ms about ascutéos rockmuti eis before it ceases to be rock Or evenmusi, (Yethis. uit playig, even when itis ployed as stesthty 85 on£2-£4 le undenatyintormed by bes Sys) ‘moc important connection te wsy the musi voles nezeraingto sown sow loge, BU iproisatorandhalusnatory As Ra Tenpolat thoi best showcased Gitachng the colctive improviser: ata wok wth electronic represents the same iology app to machinws. “That's very important. tray he cones. “Realy slaying sith xaveres oops, improvising withthe, that's very important oral my mie. especialy E2-F41 foundeut vr soon that if you use sequence you have tay itn younave change retes change ‘ounes yo realyhaveto ply asan trumet." ‘any f the rare éttching favour to ‘ty abuns, the receied wisdom Eng that he Tost I erential nthe id udu out fo amore commercial viable Hew Age nesta Inthis context E2-Etie aly te son ses ekg one tat monetary saw him recover ts artiste gry ight Baffle chalonga he sin that ie intern work sale nite he heights of is exter imticner hose of E2-F4, but cate canbe made that is oid serves tobe eassesed ony sceloh the rotontha te abum mas oak acer, ‘otto ofthe be. The uphaaals in Ah Ra Temps the chaos ha inelvement mith viainary esmiche hus Rf Urch Kaiser and th Timothy Learyentoroge he beahdon of etc lose fren Kartut Ere, ligo someway to explaining why he arte working sta ay seus changed cordingly (intriauingy. a decumantary charting the torouent eens of ha Sever Up rasan mitiLaary is big plan by GStachng's wi fin crector Nona ek.) ‘Mae postvey this nit-70s prod wae when temic ote New Yor inmate care to Be attention. "was hfiveced by Ter Rleyand Steve fei” he recat ley could play sequences on the pian for hous was realy fascinated by that ‘When! stud inthe Bein sto wth Thomas esse lewned woutthe contemporary avant garde campoters ike Perec | Istana to Stockhausen and get tut did't find any rel access to this 32 | Dien | Manan ittetng Imusic, twas too much brain and not enough body For me music has a male an stmosphere sometow. You on’ thave to understand, ust steno thas togive you sonethiag.talvays miss this in that very scademi, mathematical sje. have great respect for than, but was very happy when liter inthe 70s Reich and Php Gaus appearee, and they had a combination of both, twas an italletual music you ‘wanted. Youcoule iste to tin the background it you lke and you dent have to understand or now ‘anything about music. But f you wanted to go deeper Into the music there was something more. That wes an ‘aesthetic that Iked. So that's what Itriedto dawmith rnyown music” ‘Gottsching's frst forays intasystes based music cantradon echo effects and guitar, allowing him to ‘reata music that seunded synthesized, sequenced and looped despit making no use of synth ‘sequencers or loops Nevertheless, 1975's inventions For EiacricGuitoranticioats te electron tontures ‘hat were 3000 fo dominate hi work, andits pulsing 6th-noteostinatos prafigure the mesmeri grooves OfE2-E4. Nismove towards snth-dominated approach seens not just bea, but inevitable. “On Invantions For Eerie Gator wed ts gt nore interesting sounds out ofa guitar. Sone of the sounds ere so diffcultt make that could never do IRonstage. came from clssieal uta playing, but | alsohaéa taste fortechncal things, My fathor was an seginesr and an inant. a0 was aluaysinterested in ‘lactronlc sounds and other sounds aslehie fhe tranaitin wa an aaty one jt found ltnaturl,” he insists "And I found ost tha startedta conpossin a diferent way when! played ejboard It inpires you ta differant way.dfferant Inelodio, diffrent chords.” The albuns he made at tis time ~ Now Age Of Earth and Blackouts ~ were released under the name Aahra,and were his most inelodicand accessible recordsyet. As withthe ate 0s work of eaetronie contemporaries Kinus Schulze and Tangerine Drean, these decidedly mainstream lferings hdbeen out offevou for yours - decades, ‘van ~ before the rehabiltation of some oftheir stylistic ropes by be curent op ofanalgue fetishists, ypnagogcexalorers and poat Noise sequencer demons. Even the garish abum erwork has sartedto look strangely nodern. In any case, there ‘a some foe compositions onthe albums, which ‘document Gattschieg's ever increasing fusncy in his ‘ew ion. ad which giethe ito ary suggestion that £2-£4 was an anprocedented departure for him. ‘Bet be warned: subsequent Astra altues might prove ‘mor resistant to ay simlar attempt at redemption. et only was bis confidence growing nthe studi, Detalsohe was starting t giveoccasional ive ‘sctronc performances, often accompanying large {ashionevents. Indeed, from the very start of his career Gattscing's recorded workinvarious styles ‘scharacterised bythe sense that you are Fearing & performance unfldin liner fashion. “Thisis forme the essence of making music ~ o pla," he asserts.“ mas vor) ansous about the production nthe stuio “First oscillator, second oscillator, changing envelopes. start with one instrument, then 90 to the second, ‘then the third... always interacting’eft first Ash Ra Tonpel slbum n 1974. wanted Bp as much as poasble te oor ive osnoara BU £2-£4 didn't come outof the blue, twas several evra ealogue syrthesizers,crum machies, neg instrumen December evenng in 1981, he was ready."n 108 es working ona new sol album, and ny plan was to dineressed al ny equipment and | wanted to make a someting else 9H inst splece ard that pi startet withthe Nevertheless the portance of what he'd unbroken nour-ong piece? Where did ll this leave his solo abum? Gattaching confessesto a feeling of mild irtation abo ease with which he's ight tone of bravado ti his descrptionof itsgenesia might suggest, he's hati didn't always work out this made somany sessions that wer terrible and ‘doesn't work, Sometimes works beautifully, There's apy to admit well idum eventual came outin 1984, toinitaly muted acting the fact that the futuristic tle actualy ref opening meve Inches ‘After the three year gap between its recording adits ‘release, twas further fie years before the piece Lnlkeliet of club anthems. In 1982, the relaxed lepe (Chicago House and Detroit Techo towards the and of uke this writer, many wit havefirst been exposed 10 2-E4via the 1989 House annem “Suet Lato by te Italian outfit ofthe same came, which relied almost enceyon a sample from Gottsching's orignal composition, ard subsequent renicesby Derick Nay ‘andar Craig That pulsing two-chord figure wasone cof Techno'ssionatur calls to the floor, Even inthe Techno versus House warsof the early 90s, £2-E4 Alisplayedita alnost Zlig-ike ability t bar in wth ‘any style twas lush enough Craig and May's Detroit Techno ie sculpting. Ove for nspirtion by nuner Of Gottscving himsel, though harecognises that the works rebirth asa Technaprimay tex sone of ta iain reasons fr its longevity. "at first it wasn'ta ig hit, he sy nit was relented ‘onasmaillabet and the1 asked what's favourite plane, in Every answer was F2-E4\Ash Ra Tempel and after Keith Moliné surveys Manuel Géttsching on record Aah Ra Tempel lt-ttied 3972 debut albumis serendurng Kosnache classe. Over two ide-bog tracks, thotro ~Gattsching on guitar, Hartmut Enke ents, Kaus Sehulzeon drums ~ not only manage to mci sounding li the Cream-inepired power trie they set ut tobe, but rare sound ikehuman beings at al, Swathod in massive reverb, Gattsching’ tissandogutar spi out ectoplarmicaly over the unin tribal attac of the most fico rhythm fectons tines on the more energised" Amboss” the cholera infor a moment and an eather, Sksior approach canbe glimpsed, but "Trummaschioe” teats the istrunante af they're components ina lec of msiqueconcrta, Buringtheminto one huge the drenched wall of sensual sound. Fer the secand Ash fa Tempel album Sehwingungen, recorded it 2972 ith Wolfgang Mier on drums tn featuring the si-ried veal sulation of John \Lottsching nag some compositions sketched out beforehant.Nothat you'd know: sounds almost a freaeem a its prodeceasor, though the group ~ and theysound more ikea greup here than ahoverg Cloud of cosmic gas ~ don't quite scale the sane hots of crazed ivertion The tite track's inal sector, “Lebe",centres on a hym-like tequence thatstronly recals the coda to Pink Floyd's “A Seucaful Of Secrets”. and Gittsching’s guitars an \nderably Gilmour-esque cosmic bes heen te 1673's Seven Up, ecordesin Switzerland with paychedelc urut-n-exle Toth Leary and Bran Barret witha host of musical and countercutural any fends, s probably mor interesting asa historical document than a iatenng experince. "Space is chactic sue of garage ffs and faintly orenc val posturing, redeomed somewhat by industralstrancth echo effects. “Time” stare as a lees focused take on “Traummaschine” before setting intoa sparser tale cn the “Lisbo" chord sequence. hin (eo 973) marke tho retur of Schaze, ted prs the muzi back to he improviational_ clorators of the debut (though Gattaching'® fartser Ros adds occasional manclogues,) There are ‘wo side-eng tracks: “Freak N Rol i relentless ighenergy power jm, but wth instrumental roles shay deineated,resutingin a dscipine ara engaging cosmicjazz workout with blueoyinteduses Thebeautiu, beatiess “Jenseits” pits guitar lissando opainstSchule's synth in the customary pool ecto, seundinghoth ancient and futurist String Rosi (1974) usually seen atan coy, an enjoyable father inconsequential set tinaback instruments componitons featuring fost biancted menologies. With Schulze and Enke ‘gone t's essential afresh departure (aided by Harald Grosskopt and Ditor Dirks) bearing ite resemtlanceto earier albu. Stil, points the way towards the unabashed nelodcism of his subsequent work, and itstone ef sunny Calforianais one that he has often, perhapsunfortunatly,dafaulte to, Invontions For Elctrle Gator (4975) the frst album to be credited ta Gottsching alone (though it too ‘on ts utterly hideous mugshot sleeve). Using ultareffects, mutitracting and tage maripulaion ‘over tree long tracks, he creates a compeling soundscape that s gorgeous) lush as wet as, pulsating and expansive, While other players have ‘exploited echo to create hypnctc rhythm = John arty, Stove Hilage (th latter of whom was pat of an exsemtie that performed Inventions in concert in lapanlastyear)~fowhave nade such extonsve ‘oF ereative uso ofits possibilities Nevertheloss, the feoling remains wher lintoring tothe album that Géttschng is reaching towards effects that ssoctronice could provide more effoctivly Inthe ate 70s, working solo but oporatingas the shortened Ashra,Cbttsching immersed Nit synths an inwitable moe inthe ltt of Inventions 1976's New age OF Earth (was thereever amore damaging choice of atbun title?) and the flowieg {per'sSlockouts proffer a form of highly melodic ‘vectronic minimalism, clearly Iadebted to Glass, Reich fd Riley as much as hie Bertin contemporaries Edgar Froeseand Schulze. Certainly both albunshave thelr fair share of sickly moments, bit there are passages of aret inacination andibeauly here too, such 38, New Age's pattorn based "Sunrain™ and “Lotus from Blockoutz With aslogue sequencer workauts ‘having come back inte fashion though the eorts ‘of a multtude of cilwavehipsters intresting ‘tohear the kindof muse today without the nverted ‘commas. Foloving these abume Ashe became a tons ‘ide group with longterm cohorts Lutz Ubrich and Harald Gosskeof, recording a series of albumin he late 70s snd BOs which, while sporadically interesting, (Correlations, Belle Aliance and Walk’ The Desert have ther moments; Topica! Host doesn't). Of greater note are the mary hours of unearthed Private Tapes series ranging rem eary ART ve concerts to solo pieces tht document Gottschng's Lransition from psych guitar maven to synthesizer ‘dream-weaver) A coupe other albuns rlaasad in ‘the 90s that luminate ths ey priodin his musical ‘evolution are the 1975 soundtrack album to Philippe Saurol's fim Le Berceau De Cristal recorded with ute Uitrich but rather disingenuous} recited to Ash Ra Tempel, anc the 1978 collabration with Wichaal Hoenig, Eorly Water. Lastly Gattsching's Oreom And Dorie, eca%ded in 1977, clos in syle tothe mare cortompiative moments of Bochouts. ‘btsching's post E2-E4 releases have been speradicto say the leat. with no new erigina sole pair of entertaining celeases centredarourd his ‘eunion with Klaus Sehulee fr a London concert under thename Ash a Tempel, ose a ine document ofthe ‘event Gin oad At The Royel Festival Mal and te ether a studi album, Friendship, wore released in 2000. In both eaves, Gteching's most overt centributions cone in the fors af aseria of estat guitar root, tnd spacey echo textures amid Schulze mio-wide synth pade and epi rhythms. His 2005 albums Die Aide (mostly cored in 97) ard Concert For Murmo respectvaly: the forner shows ads electrenc touch, classicalcompsition and nstrunentation, but nether fuly comincesas musi tat can make sense outside its rigna context. On thetherhand, the various ive retoolings of his earlier wrk that appear onboth sole documents (Live At ME Fujian, of course, E2-E4 Lie In Jopan) aod en albums with te resurected Ashes (Scuce Hollondaise and @shra 142) are extremely ‘trong often stretching oct from the criginas wit) a seete ofr edvontate,C)