I have been a casual fan of Manuel Gottsching for a long time but I never really dug into his discography until the last few days with the news of his passing. I don't have time to write much about him so I'll cut & paste a few things from Pitchfork.
"Manuel Gottsching, the Ash Ra Tempel bandleader who went on to compose the electronic cornerstone album E2-E4, died last Sunday (December 4).
Göttsching made his name in the West Berlin underground scene in the late 1960s and early ’70s. He was a core member of Ash Ra Tempel, a krautrock linchpin with revolving members including Tangerine Dream’s Klaus Schulze. The loose, shapeshifting outfit released five influential albums between 1971 and 1973. Göttsching’s solo debut, 1975’s Inventions for Electric Guitar, was subtitled Ash Ra Tempel VI; from then on he mostly produced records under his own name or as Ashra, such as the 1976 classic New Age of Earth.
In 1981, after a visit to Schulze, Göttsching improvised the composition that became known as E2-E4, hoping to throw together some listening material for an imminent trip. That mysteriously perfect hourlong exercise, which combined Prophet 10 synth pulses with waves of electronic percussion and electric guitar, came to define his post-krautrock output. After composing the track, Göttsching later recalled, the billionaire and Virgin Records owner Richard Branson invited him to his houseboat and, upon hearing the track, advised Göttsching that it could make him a fortune. But Göttsching decided to release the full improvisation on his friend Schulze’s label, without overdubs, in 1984, and it appeared to have little impact.
Though E2-E4 sold poorly, it had—unbeknownst to Göttsching—made its way across the Atlantic and into Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage sets, as well as the collections of key electronic music innovators. As Pitchfork’s Mark Richardson wrote in a 2016 review, the improvisation “wound its way across the world, morphing and changing with formats and remixes, finding new contexts, a music that is constantly in the process of becoming.”
It was a nice trip through Gottsching's music making this mix. I hope he is improvising with his buddy Klaus somewhere.
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
SLOW/FORM by Tewksbury
Transforming Sorrow by Paul Asbury Seaman
In The Path Of The Eclipse
Now That's What I Call Ambient - March 2024
Infinitely Small by Htennek Niwhsa
Electronic Music of 1973
DUNE - The Storm
Quiet Days by Ann Annie
APRICITY: the warmth of sunshine in winter
Cosmic Guitar
Nightwalk by Paul Asbury Seaman
So Cold Now
Finally...Snow
Favorite Jazz Albums of 2023
2023 Rewind - Favorite Ambient Albums of the Year
Invisible Topologies
Misty Morning by Six Missing
November Moon (for sleep and meditation) by Paul Asbury Seaman
Dia de Los Muertos
Now That’s What I Call Ambient - Oct. ’23
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
Immediately Kinfolk
Turned On
Resident by Hernan Cattaneo
Markus Schulz presents Global DJ Broadcast