PGM 1377 'SEQUENCER AIRLINES' : jul 26-aug 2

THE ARRIVAL OF PRACTICAL ELECTRONIC SYNTHESIZERS in the late 1960s and early 1970s caused a sensation around the world, but nowhere more than Germany. Postwar German artists were restless, intent on leaving behind all forms of traditional German music, as well as the Rhythm & Blues roots and song structure of popular Anglo-American rock.

An innocent feature of early modular synthesizers called a “step sequencer” provided a tool that led to the development of an original style called “Kosmische Musik” or "Cosmic Music" in Germany, and—more playfully—“KrautRock.” The step sequencer made it easy to create hypnotic rhythm loops with up to 32 notes or steps, set a tempo, and mix them over flowing electronic drones. The effect was to “float” the listener through endless terrestrial or cosmic space: it was addictive.

Seminal groups and individuals like CAN, KLAUS SCHULZE, TANGERINE DREAM, KRAFTWERK, CLUSTER, ASH RA TEMPEL, HARMONIA and others, created an enduring style that has influenced genres from Minimalism, Ambient and Electronic Dance Music, to New Age and Techno. Today we call it the "Berlin School."

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, another timeless flight on electronic rhythms, on a program called SEQUENCER AIRLINES. Music is by ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT, STATE AZURE, STEVE HAUSCHILDT, STARTERRA, MARTIN STURTZER, SYNTH REPLICANTS, STRAY THEORIES, NILS FRAHM, and EDGAR FROESE.

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Comments

[RJ]

This program 1377 is a good one. I set the Program on Repeat and keep listening, devoted to whatever else requires my constant attention, and soon never knowing when it Replays. Precisely and perfectly "ambient." It's all "space music", to me -- as it should be!
As for the "Berlin School" comment(s), Berlin and scholarly Germany in general had been, in the mid- to late-1800s and early-1900s a leader, or at least a high-contender, in the production of The Arts; of Literature, Poetry, the Sciences and particularly for my "research", the Ancient Histories, in Scripture, and Archaeology. They were the "leading edge," or, at the sharpest point of "the curve", in learning and sharing about those topics.
Today, that's a difficult idea to contemplate. A mis-application of mid-1900s history (in itself easily muddled) leads either the ignorant or the willful to mis-represent an entire people and condemn them, past present and future.
We should vindicate them, even if Music is among the variable Means to the End. But for some reason I rarely extend myself to Commentary at all (should do more), and this also is not an HoS topic. But a teaching / learning experience, it can be.