Published
Mon, Dec 14, 2015, 19:07
- Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook's collaborative project will be revisited with three box sets, the first of which lands in late January.
An expansive reissue project is in the works for The Dark Side Of The Moog, the collaboration between influential German artists Klaus Schulze and Peter Kuhlmann.
Kuhlmann, the artist best known as Pete Namlook who passed away in 2012, was very prolific on his own and alongside many others, including Biosphere, Richie Hawtin and Move D. His work with Schulze as The Dark Side Of The Moog began in 1993—by then, Schulze was well-established as a leading figure within Berlin's ambient scene, while Kuhlmann himself was a relative newcomer who had started his now-seminal Fax label in Frankfurt just a year earlier.
There were no set plans for a series at first, and they rarely met in person, but the connection between Schulze and Kuhlmann would lead to 11 sequentially-named albums for Fax, released from 1994 through 2008. Shape-shifting US bassist and producer (and another Kuhlmann collaborator) Bill Laswell was called in to contribute to IV through VII. The names of the collaboration and its records, like Wish You Were There and Obscured by Klaus, were all twists on Pink Floyd titles, though Schulze has said, "It's no homage to Pink Floyd and direct references don't exist... The name of the project came to my mind because the Moog synthesizer was the connecting instrument of our work."
Nowadays many of these albums are rare and expensive, and that includes a run of reissues and a 2002 compilation from the Fax subsidiary Ambient World. Breathing new life into the series in 2016 is Made In Germany Music, which has revealed plans for three limited-edition, five-disc box sets that feature the original LPs alongside "bonus material and new liner notes." The first one, as you might expect, includes the first four albums, together with that compilation, The Evolution Of The Dark Side Of The Moog. It looks to arrive near the end of January. Full details for the next two sets have yet to be announced.
Tracklist
CD1: Wish You Were There
01. Part I
02. Part II
03. Part III
04. Part IV
05. Part V
06. Part VI
07. Part VII
08. Part VIII
09. Part IX
10. Part X
CD2: A Saucerful Of Ambience
01. Part I
02. Part II
03. Part III
04. Part IV
05. Part V
06. Part VI
07. Part VII
08. Part VIII
09. Part IX
10. Part X
11. Part XI
12. Part XII
CD3: Phantom Heart Brother
01. Part I
02. Part II
03. Part III
04. Part IV
05. Part V
06. Part VI
CD4: Three Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn
01. Part I
02. Part II
03. Part III
04. Part IV
05. Part V
06. Part VI
07. Part VII
08. Part VIII
09. Part IX
CD5: The Evolution Of The Dark Side Of The Moog
01. Intro feat. Robert A. Moog
02. Wish You Were There (Excerpt)
03. A Saucerful Of Ambience (Excerpt)
04. Phantom Heart Brother Part III
05. Phantom Heart Brother Part IV
06. Three Pipers At The Gates Of D. Part VII
07. Three Pipers At The Gates Of D. Part VIII
08. Psychedelic Brunch
09. Obscured By Klaus
10. Careful With The AKS, Peter Part II
11. Careful With The AKS, Peter Part VI
Made In Germany Music will release The Dark Side Of The Moog Vol. 1-4 on January 29th, 2016.