Krautrock - The beginning of the „Berlin School“ 1969

I already uploaded an excerpt from this 1969 documentary showing Tangerine Dream recording in the so called „Electronic Beat Studio“. The Beat-Studio was located in the basement of a West Berlin school, funded by the city government to give young West-Berlin musicians an opportunity to learn modern recording technics.It's first head was Swiss composer Thomas Kessler. Agitation Free, Ashra Temple, Tangerine Dream and many more recorded here. I was asked to make the whole documentary available. So here it is…

[@Hainbach]

Thank you for sharing this Wolfgang! Wonderful and worth it to be shown.

[@jespervalgreen6461]

And thank you Hainbach for bringing this to our attention.

[@demnos2879]

Thomas Kessler is a true visionary in this video. He spends time and effort to record sounds, to manipulate them with loops and electronic effects and then considers his work free to use for others. This concept predates the discussion on sampling and internet licensing models like Creative Commons by decades. Even Edgar seems to struggle with this approach in the discussion shown here. Also interesting that Edgar addresses Thomas Kessler with „Sie“ (the formal „you“) which shows that here we have a clear teacher-student relationship. Fascinating rare clip of this early incantation of the band.

[@christianfliegendruck625]

Edgar Froese befragt immernoch die Eigentumsverhältnisse, Thomas Kessler ist da frivol, ehm visionär. oder mit Cage: "lassen wir die Realität vom Band abfühlen."

[@companynothrills]

Tausend Dank!! Wirklich ein Zeitdokument von unschätzbarem Wert!

[@achtungmark]

Thanks enormously for sharing this fascinating video, I was quite struck by just how far out the musique concrete in juxtaposition with the live band sessions was, something Faust too would later on a much deeper level on albums like The Faust Tapes and Clear. Thomas Kessler really was doing something quite visionary at the time and came across as being very open to both sharing and allowing his work to recontextualised in a 'rock' setting. It was also very interesting to see Tangerine Dream in an very early incarnation seeming quite blown away by what the new musical possibilities being offered by tape and the studio were. This period in German musical history, for me, was one of those rare moments where there was an opening up of musical possibility due to technology, societal change and a rare belief in building something new, vital, and life-changing. It's quite wonderful to watch Edgar and Thomas grappling with what they were on the edge of.

[@0cer0]

It feels as if the young Edgar Froese had to be literally pushed towards electronic music. The creative potential of electronic sound production had not yet been seen in its full breadth and depth, and so it seems to me that his insistence on a separation of sound worlds was motivated by a concern for his own creative and semantic freedom. And indeed, in the recording at the end it is as if the electronic sound disturbs and slows down the flow of the musical thought - there was a lot to discover, still.

[@jamesowens7176]

Literally the “Berlin School”! Cool to see Edgar Froese so young and already experimenting. I recognize Steve Jolliffe on the flute as well, but I don’t know the drummer, or anybody else in the video.

[@freeartslab]

Who is who in this session? Steve Joliffe plays the flute. I asked Sven Åke Johansson who himself had played sessions with TD. His answer: Fred Braceful who later played later with Exmagma. SÅJ also sent me more photographs of a TD concert with the same line up. I wonder what happened to the recordings… Who else is in the video? Thomas Kessler, the head of the studio, discussing with TD. No idea who else...

[@AndyKing1963]

@@freeartslab brilliant video, many thanks. Any chance you could share some of the photographs of the same lineup in a future video? (with Sven Åke Johansson permission of course).

[@freeartslab]

@@AndyKing1963 actually there are only two or three photographs - no professional work. You don't see much. Just enough to identify the drummer.

[@AndyKing1963]

@@freeartslab Good, bad or ugly, it's always useful for research. Thanks for the reply

[@nx01craig]

A couple of websites about Tangerine Dream list a drummer named Al Akhbar on drums in 1969 as well as Lanse Hapshash who is listed as a member of the group from 1967 to 1969. One site said Klaus Schulze replaced Al Akhbar in 1969. I was unable to find any photos of Al or Lanse, so I don't know if this could be one of them, but I know for sure the drummer in this video is not Klaus Schulze.

[@gingerovertone2929]

Fascinating stuff even though I don't understand German. I have 2 of those Akai take up reels featured in the montage!

[@mattbrown-mb]

Auto-translate works on this clip :)

[@croiners4166]

Fantastic to see, thank you❤

[@miklosromaninvsky3436]

What a wunderbar times for a krautrockfan. Old new gems appears somewhere seems to me: this footage of early TD and Gilles Zeitschiff 2 will release next month just say!

[@moriji]

This is amazing!

[@carstenkoloc5226]

Edgar Froeses … are you experience… Ich mag es sehr.

[@pieromanocchio6531]

Thank you mr.Seidel!

[@hard7kraft]

Thanks a lot for sharing this gem.

[@Lichfeldian--Suttonian]

A very young Edgar Froese and Steve Jollife.

[@scottloiselle248]

Wow, so very cool, thank you for posting this! Is that Steve Jolliffe on the flute? If so, I'll say that the first time I heard Cyclone (with his vocals) I wasn't too sure about it but I quickly grew to like it a lot. It's very different from the other usual suspects (Phaedra, Poland, Rubycon, Tangram, Stratosfear, Hyperborea, etc.) but equally interesting. Really amazing footage, thank you again.

[@TR25W]

I had seen snippets before. Many thanks for sharing!

[@udomatthiasdrums5322]

still love it!!

[@The_s_d]

Great documentation. This was also the beginning of sampling

[@martindiehl155]

Hmm, not really. The beginnings of sampling date back to the early 50s. The first sampled instrument you could buy was the Mellotron Mark 1 in the early 60s.

[@sultansepehr9626]

Thank you so much

[@VirtualModular]

Thanks, this is fascinating. Decades later, I'm still trying to fuse guitar with electronic sounds, which is discussed at one point (auto-translated subtitles say the 'hot medium' of beat music against the 'cold medium' of technically controllable electronics, which I found quite funny). Also, Edgar Froese and the drummer look absolutely blitzed. 😂

[@hippiehopper]

Donnerwetter, wo hast du das denn her? Ganz wunderbar! Und Edgar siezt Thomas Kessler!

[@marcelolusquini774]

Fantástico

[@emdotambient]

Amazing video ... I only wish I hadn't flunked my German language class (twice) in college! :/

[@freeartslab]

I just tried the subtitles - autotranslate english. Not very user friendly and sometimes not so accurate, but it helps

[@richsackett3423]

Klangkakophonie? Yes please.

[@hardysky6062]

Edgar Froese Pionier der Elektronik Musik!

[@dreamspeeddsp-musik932]

Headcleaner Moment