Tim Story, Michael Rother, Roedelius and Neu!: The Echoes Interviews

Tim Story and Hans-Joachim Roedelius

Tim Story used to be the ultimate melodicist with albums like The Perfect Flaw and Beguiled. But now he’s mutating sounds, often with German icon, Roedelius.

Tim Story is something of a legend in electronic and new age circles. He’s been recording since 1981 and was a pioneer in ambient chamber music with albums like Shadowplay.  But he also has an edgier side that has come out in his work with the avant-garde German electronic duo Cluster and especially the elder member of that group. Hans-Joachim Roedelius. He’s pretty much abandoned his signature sound.

Tim Story: I have a lot of people that say boy, I love Beguiled or I love Shadow Play, it’s one of my favorite records — and you know, are you gonna make another record like that?  And I feel bad in a way, but, but I can’t in some ways because I mean I could and I might actually still.

I talk to Tim Story and Roedelius about Tim’s shift from a melody maven to a dissonant dreamer in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

NEU! from Left Klaus Dinger, Michael Rother

Echoes looks at Neu!, the 1970s German duo that is still influencing bands like Stereolab and more today. The duo celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2022 and their album, Neu! 2 turned 50 last year.

In the early 1970s, a host of LSD-washed malcontents from Germany created a hypnotic brand of electronic music, with roots in Karlheinz Stockhausen as much as The Velvet Underground.  Kraftwerk, Faust, Cluster and Can were among the first wave, as was Neu!, Guitarist Michael Rother, electronic twiddler and drummer Klaus Dinger, and phantom third member, producer, Conny Plank, constructed a sound of relentless rhythms and metronomic drums that are still influencing music. We’ll hear guitarist Michael Rother talking about their gestation as part of Kraftwerk and we’ll hear music from Neu! 2. It’s all new with Neu! in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.