BERND KISTENMACHER

3.5 stars. I'm really on the fence with this one. Germany's own Bernd Kistenmacher comes off as a disciple of Klaus Shulze, releasing this his debut in 1986. His music has been referred to as "spherical kosmische synthscapes". Spacey is the word. He would go on to release close to 20 albums over the years, and collaborate with Harald Grosskopf in the process. The man is legit. We get a 53 minute album here with three long tracks.

This is all electronics by the way. Including sequencers but they are either light, or mixed down. The production gets mentioned a lot by reviewers. It could have been a lot better. In fact the reason I'm still balancing myself on the fence with this one is that 25 minute opener called "Rucksturz" where it just didn't sound right to me after 2 spins. But after that I'm used to it. Still, that's half the album right there that I'm not "all in" on.

I've seen four different cover arts for this one and I prefer the original one that is not shown on the site here. I do like the spacey sounds of electronics over sequencers and this leans toward the spacey. I much prefer that second track "Quitting Time" over the opener. At 14 1/2 minutes this one changes slightly throughout. He keeps it interesting, including that more than slight change before 12 minutes. Soon it's back to spacey with the synths crying out like a guitar.

"La Tendresse" is the 13 minute closer, and it opens with spacey winds that are fairly brisk. They stop as we get some interesting sounds after 2 1/2 minutes. It's more aqua sounding after that, lets put it that way. Then it almost sounds like a fire crackling at one point as this plays out. Like I said some interesting sounds on this record but at the same time this is very uniform sounding. Sounds like mellotron later but none is credited.

All titles were composed, performed and arranged by Bernd between April and July 1986. In the liner notes of the 2012 re-issue Kistenmacher suggests that this his first album was more than just a musical beginning, it helped him get through life. He calls this album a shore of an ocean, which asked him to embark on a great journey.

Bernd Kistenmacher, not so known electronic musician from Germany, deserves more recognition: his music would certainly appeal to the fans of Berlin School of electronic music.

Kistenmacher offered his debut album, 'Head Visions', to a number of music labels in 1986. He was rejected because ''his music is too 'seventies oriented' and nobody will listen to it today''. At the same time he was selling copies to fans all over globe just by the word of mouth. He established his own private label, 'Musique Intemporelle'.

The 1986 was the year when The Greats of electronic music had not yet hit the rock bottom of their creative landscapes (as, say, 3 to 5 years later), but they were certainly not in their creative apex neither: Schulze was noodling with pot-pourri of electronica and pseudo classical music, Tangerine Dream were experimenting with digital equipment and electric guitars, and Kraftwerk were, of course, doing techno pop. Paradoxically, Kistenmacher debut with obsolete music came like a breeze of a fresh air.

'Head Visions' comes with three lengthy pieces (plus one bonus track that fits fine).

Fans of old Tangerine Dream will immediately recognise Kistenmacher's influences: first track, side-long 'Ruckstürz' is lovely, meditative, floating tapestry of analogue chords which blends into a pulsating sequence with additional layers of portamento melodies.

'Quitting Time', a second track, is truly fabulous piece: totally hypnotic, precise, and haunting. After twelve minutes or so, the song cools down by repeating the sequence backwards.

'La Tendresse' is keeping the quality level - this time there are no sequenced patterns, only atmospheric harmonies, resembling nature calls (fans of TD will immediately draw a parallel with opening dissonances on 'Force Majeure'). This one wraps album nicely, but there's a bonus track on a 1992 release (recorded live in 1990, I guess it's an excerpt since it starts and ends with fade in/out) that continues in the same style, and thankfully keeps the quality on the same level: the high pitched sequence that melts into counterpoint tones balancing between melodies and chords, making a waiving pad, while there's a bass guitar-resembling pattern in the background, very sparse, with some electronic percussion that resembles maracas and sound natural and logical. Despite the sound wallowing in intersected melodies, it's airy rather than dramatic, and dreamy rather than tense.

Bernd Kistenmacher, a youngster who looked like he was a member of a hair metal band in the 80's, did a tremendous work here. I'm more than willing to check the rest of his output. Highly recommended to the fans of 70's electronic music.

Head Visions is the debut LP of german composer Bernd Kistenmacher. His music is in the direct conitinuation of 70's Berlin space electronic music. Each track features floating, serene, aquatic & epic ambiences based on vintage synthesizers. This first album is really achieved, reaching a high state of maturity, pre-figuring the release of a few little classics. The opening theme is a dreamy-like and melodic composition using extended synth chords, minimal spaced out patterns based on sequencers. This is very closed to Klaus Schulze's late 70's efforts, very calm and lienar, providing powerfully flowing electronic waves that create a charming trip throw the unknown. Quitting Time is a realy hallucinatory, vibrant electronic epic featuring eerie ambiences and moving, repetitive electronic rhythms & hypno loops. Once again it reveals real references to Schulze's majestic abstract soundscapes. La tendresse is my favourite track on this one, a cosmic-proto new agy piece, always bringing to the fore tranquill-spacious synth lines punctuated by conrete noises & effects. The album reissue features a live extract released in 1990 for programmed percussions and epically meditative synthscapes. A pleasant listening that can ravish every fan of 70's kosmische music.

If people are not familiar with Bernd Kistenmacher's music I must say that is very reminiscent of Klaus Schulze mid period and in particular with the new musical direction taken at the beginning of the 80's with albums such as trancefer. Consequently the synthesized ambiences are gorgeously epic and accessible at the same time. You won't find any experimental arrengements or dark, moody drone sequences. The atmosphere is very light, soft and evocative, including a lot of melodic fragments, hypno-rythmical patterns, helicopter-like drums, numerical synth vibes. All the songs are flowing and moving but we can immediately recognise the typical 80's functional-easy listening-space music behind it. Time to time it features really common-like, mainstream melodies for a nice nocturnal electronic romance (Quitness & Ecstasy). The cover definitely reminds me Moondawn from K. Schulze, but the comparison stops here. Kaleidoscope contains a warm serie of sci-fi kosmische melodic electronic suites. A valuable listening but nothing really challenging for the genre. From the same artist, Wake up at the sun is a much more amazing & convincing release neglecting the entertaining pop-ish aspects of Kaleidoscope. Recommended for fans of Rolf Trostel, Robert Schroeder and Klaus Schulze at their most academic moments.