Bureau

 

Harald Grosskopf is a German drummer, musician and keyboarder who has played with various Krautrock bands for more than 50 years. Now he released his latest album Strom, on which he once again explores the possibilities of electronic music. 

Nothing really groundbreaking, but with its flair for contemporary electronic excursions, it is far above the average of other releases. Bureau convinces with a rich, driving rhythm over which he skilfully layers synthesizers. 

Synthesist

A few days ago I got the news that Harald Grosskopf's album Synthesists from 1980 was re-released as an anniversary edition. For this reason I searched my collection because I am sure I owned a vinyl copy long time ago. Sadly I couldn't find it any more. Probably it one of those record I lend an never got back. Grosskopf is one of the forgotten pioneers of Krautrock, played drums with Ash Ra Temple, worked a lot with Klaus Schulze and session musician for several untold bands of the  NDW in the early 80's. Finally he arrived in the ambient scene to release an album from time to time. His songs mostly have everything Krautrock and kosmische Musik stands for. Steady rolling drums prepare the easy synthesizer escapades by Grosskopf. Another great re-release I didn't expected.

Harald Grosskopf - Synthesist

This edition features also various cover versions of his songs. One is done by Kurt Dahlke aka Pyrolator founding member of DAF, Fehlfarben and Der Plan - all pioneers of new German music in the late 70`s.

Pyrolator - Synthesist

Another version was done by Prau Frick, a Berlin based musician and producer. I think I said it before. You can recognize a good song by it's cover versions.

Paul Frick - Synthesist