Mar 26, 2021
On today's episode I talk to musician Hans-Joachim Roedelius. A
pioneer in the field of electronic music, Hans-Joachim Roedelius is
considered one of the founders of contemporary popular electronic
music. Born in Berlin in 1934, Hans-Joachim starred as a child in a
number of UFA films, and during the war was an unwilling member of
the German Youngsters in the Hitler Youth, membership being
mandatory for all boys from the age of ten. During this time, he
also appeared in several propaganda films. He fled Berlin in 1943,
moving from one place to another before being conscripted into the
National People's Army of East Germany. Again he took flight, only
to end up in prison. WHen he got out, he trained as a male nurse,
then as a hospice orderly. Having relocated from East to West
Berlin, he went on to meander through Europe (as a thatcher,
detective, masseur, bartender, janitor and many other things),
before finally becoming a freelance artist, with avant-garde music
his prime focus. In 1968, Hans-Joachim co-founded the music commune
known as "Human Being" and co-formed Zodiak Free Arts Lab, the
center of Berlin's underground culture at the time, with conceptual
artist Conrad Schnitzler. He formed Cluster a year later, and then
Harmonia with Neu! guitarist Michael Rother. In the decades since
then, he recorded dozens upon dozens of albums, both solo and in
collaboration with everyone from Brian Eno to Tim Story (their
album Lunz 3 from 2019 is spectacular), and his latest album Drauf
Und Dran, an album of piano compositions, was released late last
year.
This is the
website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts,
follow me on Twitter.