Hans-Joachim Roedelius at 90: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes podcast  we celebrate the 90th Birthday of German Composer, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, born on October 26, 1934. He was a founding member of the bands Cluster and Harmonia, two groups who influenced artists like David Bowie on his Berlin Trilogy and especially Brian Eno, who went on to make music with these musicians as well. But while Roedelius began in the electronic zone, at 90, he says he’s unplugging and just playing acoustic piano. But he was part of the breakthrough to a new sound in Germany in the 1970s.

Hans-Joachim Roedelius: In the late ‘60s, everything in the field of arts, any art, was because we had after Hitler, there was a big hole, a big black hole in the culture of Germany.  So we had to, we had to find out to, to go a different way.

While most of us call him Roedelius, his friends call him Achim. The entire hour will be filled with his music and we’ll hear a feature with Roedelius that takes us through his life and career including time in a Stasi prison in East Germany.. He was not only an electronic pioneer, but a pioneer of ambient chamber music. Hear Roedelius as well as Lloyd Cole and Tim Story. If you’re not super familiar with him, wait until you hear the sounds he created in the late 60s. He turns 90 on October 26 and he’s still going.