HANS JOACHIM ROEDELIUS

It's surprising how much can be said about the music of Hans-Joachim Roedelius, considering how little there sometimes is to the music itself. As one half of the legendary Berlin-based electronic duo known as CLUSTER, Roedelius helped to break down a lot of musical barriers. But in his own, ongoing solo career he subscribes to the old, established artistic notion that less is definitely more, and this 1981 album (beautifully produced by kindred spirit and ex-Tangerine Dreamer PETER BAUMANN) proves the point with an elegant economy of effort.

It's certainly the best introduction for newcomers to the vast library of his solo work, revealing yet another colorful side to the multi-faceted gemstone of German electronic music. While his erstwhile Cluster compatriot Dieter Mobius was busy with his energized, electro-dub deconstructions alongside ace producer Conny Plank, Roedelius was working to refine his already simple keyboard technique, here playing (for the most part) little more than a solo acoustic or electric piano, sometimes with sparse percussive accompaniment (likewise acoustic and / or electric).

But unlike the amniotic New Age ambience of his endless "Selbstportrait" series, there's more of an edge to this collection, with a level of melodic invention in some tracks surpassing many of his later albums in their entirety. You'll notice a striking resemblance to the intimate musical palette of Erik Satie (imagine the 19th century French pianist employing a mellotron in his "Trés Gymnopédies"), although at least one of the tracks, the stark medieval dirge of "Wilkommen", wouldn't sound out of place on an early GRYPHON recording.

Depending on how you choose to hear him, Roedelius is either a Krautrock minimalist, a neo-classical miniaturist, or just a dedicated keyboard doodler scribbling away quietly in the corners of his own little musical canvas. At a time (the early 1980s) when mainstream musical culture was fast becoming defined by arena-rock bombast and New Wave clichés, such introspective grace was (and still is) like a small breath of fresh air.

It's a shame more people on the archives are not familiar with Roedelius' solo work. Lustwandel is IMO one of, if not, his best solo albums ever released. He uses a combination of acoustic piano, which I find quite wonderful, with various vintage synthesizers. The acoustic piano elements may be one reason why I prefer this to some of his other material.

If you are familliar at all with and appreciate the later Cluster material or the Begegnungen compilations (especially the Roedelius tracks), then you will probably enjoy this. To me, Roedelius was always the less avant garde of the two Cluster musicians, and both the Moebius solo albums (bar the Blue Moon Soundtrack) and Roedelius solo works reflect this idea. Some may say that Lustwandel is new age (although this would be considered more experimental), and they probably aren't very off in saying it. The difference between this and say, a later Vangelis or Yanni album, is that this is highly evocative and engaging, where some of the other more famous names in the genre produce vapid and lifeless material (that's not the case for all Vangelis albums, however).

The title track and "Legende" are probably my favorite pieces on the album, and to be honest there is no really bad track here. On "Wilkommen," Roedelius incorporates some Middle Eastern elements which seem a bit out of place, but it's definitely interesting. Like I said in the beginning of the review, I tend to prefer the acoustic tracks, but the electronic ones are very enjoyable nonetheless. This is a pretty mellow and soft effort in the vain of Sowiesoso. If you like Cluster, you'll probably like this; that is unless you only like the edgier, more experimental albums. I really enjoy it, and like I said this may be my favorite Roedelius solo effort so far, and IMO it's an excellent starting point, four stars.

Published after "Jardin au fou" and "Durch die wuste", "selbstportrait" is actually the first effort released by Roedelius (Cluster) in solo. All the compositions have been written by the musician during late 70's Cluster sessions. The music in itself is an other exploration in electronic, pre-ambient "picture" music but really orientated to the most "mainstream" side of it. Consequently the album gets very refined moments and some boring, passable sequences. For fans of Cluster and the first German abstract electronic wave, the best composition is certainly "Girlande": a fresh, melodic organ manifestation with some Asian accents. The opening tune with its superposed synth, piano lines, floating throw the air provides a nice ambience. The only problem I see is the sound of the analog material used in it, the combination sounds "dated". The worst side of this album is the absolute "misplaced" romantic synth chord exercises on "Inselmoos". Behind "Prinzregent" perpetual electronic loops we can distinguish a nice, mysterious organ line. The inconvenient is the lack of diversity in the choice of electronic material which gives to the object a rather "weak", "linear" dimension. A rather monotonous album but a nice accompaniment for some winter days spent in solitude. Not fare from "Sowiesoso" by Cluster, but slightly less accomplished.