MANUEL GOTTSCHING Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Michael Hoenig and Manuel Gottsching were two prominent German kosmische / film composers, with the latter particularly known for his helming of the world-famous Ash Ra Tempel project. 'Early Water' is a lesser-cited collaborative live album performed by the pair in Autumn 1976, but it wasn't released until way later in 1995 - and even then, the album remained accidentally deleted by the label Musique Intemporelle, and was thus unavailable for a period of time. A rare find and relic of the Berlin school, this is an impressively blue-mooded arpeggiator, as easy for soundtracking fantastical swimming pools as it is for home lounging.

Review: Manuel Gottsching's legendary solo material from the mid '70s onwards is finally being reissued the way it deserves; full picture-sleeves unlike those tacky bootlegs that have been knocking about over the years. Thanks to Germany's MG Art we can now appreciate this wondrous music in all its glory and, we have to say, that 2016 feels just right for this music to be resurfaced once again. This is the Ash Ra Tempel producer's first solo LP from 1975, and we can clearly hear the krautrock influence deep in the tracks. However, much like his later material, there's an element of the desolate and purely electronic, a medium with which hie experienced and flourished. The masterful "Echo Waves" opens with a fluttering landscape that could make for the ultimate opener to just bout any DJ set, and "Quasarsphere" comes through next with its gentle waves of ambient delight. All incredibly forward-thinking, of course. "Pluralis" edges closer to what we'd term 'balearic' these days, but without all the gimmicky elements and, instead, full of psychedelic wonder and zeitgeist. This is so hotly recommended...