The history of electronic avant-garde is cannot be imagined without him: Hans-Joachim Roedelius, born 1934, is one of the pioneers of experimental music. With cluster und Harmonia he has contributed to a krautrock reference being made to every repetitive, trancelike piece floating between electronic music and rock. His collaboration with Dieter Moebius is as legendary as the one with Brian Eno, who is a huge fan of cluster and wanted to work with Roedelius. The wonderful thing about great artists is that they never stop being interested in new things. This applies to Roedelius: the 81-year-old has an immense output. One of his most recent projects brought him together with Christoph H. Mueller, 30 years younger, who became famous through electronic neo-tango, the Gotan Project. Their joint album “Imagori” has few danceable songs: Roedelius mainly contributes suggestive piano parts, reduced melody lines that accompany the listener deep into the melancholic mood of the album for which Mueller’s heavy beats create a foundation: it sometimes calls to mind a very minimalistic version of trip hop. In one piece, Brian Eno has a guest performance and explains the principles of musical recordings on a meta-level so to say. But the Mueller/ Roedelius duo also works well without meta-levels.
