Updated: 11/28/99

HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS is a modern day composer. A founding member of the Kraut-rock movement, Roedelius and his music has influenced many an ambient and techno musician. I was lucky enough to see Roedelius perform at a private party in Los Angeles and the experience was tremendous. We had a chance to chat -- unfortunately a tape recorder was nowhere to be found. So questions were e-mailed and, as promised, Mr. Roedelius responded.

Highwire Daze: How has your tour of the U.S. been going and what do you think of some of the places you've been?

Roedelius: The tour has been going excitingly well. People liked what I did very much. It was great to travel all those miles (approximately 20000) by car and see the beauty of the country. Of course there were some places I liked more than others such as the deserts in Arizona (Joshua Tree) and Utah, Nevada...the beautiful forests and clear waters in North Carolina, some cities such as Asheville, Philadelphia, Charleston, Providence, New York (of course) ....

HD: What was The Zodiak Free Arts Lab and how did it influence you musically?

Roedelius: It was the first independant Arts-lab in Berlin founded by freelance artists such as Konrad Schnitzler, Boris Schaak and me. We founded the first ever live-group ("Human Being" ) that used electrically generated sound material, samples,s hortwave radio, etc. I/we influenced Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Agitation Free and other groups from Berlin. It was a great place to experiment. But of course the Zodiak influenced me a lot because people from everywhere came to perform there.

HD: When you look back on your work with Cluster, what do you think of it today?

Roedelius: There was Kluster before Cluster. As member of those groups I learned my first lessons about how to create tones/sounds respectively and how to work/experiment/compose with any noise-material.

HD: Do you still keep in touch with Dieter Moebius (former member of Cluster) and what do you think of his solo work?

Roedelius: I don't keep in touch in the moment. There is not much Moebius solo-work. There are six tracks on "Zuckerzeit", there is "Blue Moon" (a soundtrack), and just recently "plotsch". I like the Zuckerzeit-tracks very much, "Blue Moon" I don't know at all and "plotsch" I know not enough to say something special about it.

HD: How did you and Mr Moebius connect with Brian Eno and what was it like collaberating with him?

Roedelius: Brian was introduced to us during a performance in Hamburg 1974 by Journalist Winfried Trenkler. We invited him to come and work with us in our place/studio near Hannover in Germany, which he did two years later. It was very interesting and exciting to be and work with him.

HD: On Aquarello, what made you decide to record an old track from your Eno/Moebius/Roedelius days?

Roedelius: It's a great piece of music

HD: What country do you currently reside in and is there any music scene there?

Roedelius: Austria. There are two music-scenes. One is the high quality classical scene concentrated in Vienna and Salzburg and the other the most interesting contemporary/electronic scene (Vienna).

HD: What kind of music and artists currently influence you? Any non-musical influences?

Roedelius: Contemporaries such as Pierre Henry, Charles Ives, Carl Orff, Strawinsky, Rimsky- Korsakoff, Sibelius, Sati and others, then Beethoven, Dvorak, Chopin, Liszt, Bach. Asian and European Philosophy,Religion, poetry such as from Rilke,writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Calvino,Ecco, Meister Ekkehart, etc.

HD: What CD or album do you now own that fans would be very surprised to find in your collection?

Roedelius: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Whale, Brian Selzer, Colm O'Donnell, Noel Hill.....

HD: How do you feel knowing that your music has been so influental to such a wide variety of musicians?

Roedelius: Honoured.

HD: When you're not creating music, what are some of the other things you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Roedelius: I am writing text and poetry,I like to cook, especially fish and fishsoup.

HD: Any plans for a new album?

Roedelius: Two records with Tim Story, an "Irish sinfonic poem", another Roedelius solo-album coming out beginning next year via Prudence, an American Sinfonie, the release of the earliest music, a live-cut of a performance of "Human Being" from 1968 in the Zodiak, a book with my poetry, a prodution which I did with Asmus Tietchens in 1978, music-dance-theatre production based on text from Borges/Calvino and Ecco and several others projects, the re-release of "like the whispering of the wind", "Wasser im Wind", "Offene Tueren" and so on.....

HD: What's the first thing you intend to do when you get home for this tour?

Roedelius: Enjoying the companionship of my family -- getting back to normal, sitting in front of the fire-place in the evenings ( winter is there already ), relaxing, working on all those mentioned yet unfinished projects...

This page has been visited times.