{"id":28199,"date":"2024-09-27T05:30:37","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T09:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28199"},"modified":"2024-09-18T10:50:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T14:50:33","slug":"what-was-old-is-neu-again-part-3-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/27\/what-was-old-is-neu-again-part-3-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"What Was Old is Neu! Again (Part 3 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

In Perfect Harmonia (continued)<\/b>
\nA subsequent performance would yield more positive results. \u201cWe once played in Hamburg,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThat was 1974, and there was a small crowd; maybe 50 to 70 people in that venue.\u201d In the first row of the audence were three men, all dressed in black. \u201cOne was a German journalist, our fan,\u201d Rother says, laughing again. \u201cWe had one<\/i>! Another was Brian Eno.\u201d That was the first meeting between the former Roxy Music member and the German musicians. Longtime admirers of each others\u2019 work, they quickly became close friends as well.<\/p>\n

1975\u2019s Deluxe<\/i> replaced the drum machines with Guru Guru mainstay Mani Neumeier on real drums. Plank co-produced the album with Harmonia. Rother emphasizes just how important Plank\u2019s role was. \u201cConny had the ability of hearing the elements when they were maybe not even completely born, like the first notes on the guitar,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything was happening quite fast, but even then he was certainly ahead of us. He knew what was coming together. He saw it happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Neu! courtesy Groenland Records<\/p><\/div>\n

The songs on Deluxe<\/i> moved in the direction of Rother\u2019s more pop-oriented aesthetic. The breathtaking \u201cMonza (Rauf Und Runter)\u201d suggests what \u2013 in a perfect world \u2013 that ill-fated fusion of Neu! and Cluster might have sounded like. But tensions between Rother\u2019s rocking, tuneful approach and his ex-Cluster band mates eventually led to disagreements among the trio. The members of Harmonia went their own ways after releasing just two albums.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy summer \u201876, Roedelius and Moebius no longer believed in the project,\u201d Rother says. But before Harmonia\u2019s final dissolution, the group briefly reunited, this time teaming up with Brian Eno. Though the results of that studio collaboration would go unreleased for more than two decades (eventually finding release as Tracks and Traces<\/i>), the late-period Harmonia hinted at possibilities yet unexplored.<\/p>\n

For his part, Eno would build upon those possibilities soon enough. His mid-\u201970s trilogy of (in the loosest sense of the term) pop albums \u2013 1974\u2019s Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy<\/i>, Another Green World<\/i> from 1975 and Before and After Science<\/i> (1977) all display the influence of Harmonia, filtered through Eno\u2019s own unique sensibility.<\/p>\n

Looking back, Roedelius says that Harmonia wasn\u2019t particularly successful on a commercial level. \u201cI\u2019m not sure about whether it really [encouraged] the label to continue working with us,\u201d he says. \u201cBut they wanted to do it, and it worked out for a period of two years.\u201d With some sadness, Rother concurs. \u201cWe recorded two albums that were commercial failures, disasters,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Roedelius says that by the end of that time, he was ready to move on to something else. \u201cMy aim was always out of the moment,\u201d he explains. Live performance in a conventional rock-band manner held no interest for the experimentally-inclined musician. \u201cTo rehearse always the same tracks, that was not my thing,\u201d he insists. \u201cAlways doing the same thing? That\u2019s not my aim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet Roedelius \u2013 who has released more than 100 albums across more than a half-century \u2013 acknowledges that the work he did with Harmonia has made an impression. \u201cOh, yes,\u201d he concedes. \u201cIt was new and it was fresh, and it was with rhythm. It was sort of German popular music for the first in that time. There should be some influence, I think.\u201d In fact it\u2019s difficult to imagine such groundbreaking albums as Brian Eno\u2019s Another Green World<\/i> existing were it not for earlier tracks like Harmonia\u2019s \u201cAhoi.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Neu! and Then<\/b>
\nRother says that he was ready to continue with Harmonia, but with Moebius and Roedelius opting out, he returned to his on-again-off-again musical collaboration with Dinger, reactivating Neu! and making what is perhaps the group\u2019s most accessible outing, the proto-punk Neu! \u201875<\/i>. One of that album\u2019s standout tracks, \u201cHero\u201d would exert a major influence on British singer John Lydon when (as Johnny Rotten) he fronted a new group, Sex Pistols.<\/p>\n

In the years after Harmonia and Neu!, Rother launched a solo career. Though much of his work wouldn\u2019t be released outside of Europe until reissues in the CD era, his first three solo albums \u2013 1977\u2019s Flammende Herzen<\/i>, 1978\u2019s Sterntaler<\/i> and Katzenmusik<\/i> from 1979 \u2013 were all significant sellers in West Germany. Displaying a more melodic spin on the Neu! concept, those albums combined effective use of keyboards with Rother\u2019s always-compelling guitar work. Drumming from motorik<\/i> pioneer Jaki Liebzeit helped connect it sonically with Neu!\u2019s early work.<\/p>\n

Rother admits that the comparatively mainstream success of his early solo records caught him somewhat by surprise. \u201cIt was suddenly like a rocket,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember getting these phone calls from the label, Sky Records, every two weeks: \u2018I have to re-press another 3,000!\u2019\u201d He looks back on those days as \u201can incredibly happy time. The basic idea of my music hadn\u2019t changed at all, but my musical ideas were suddenly accepted!\u201d<\/p>\n

Underscoring the artistic esprit de corps<\/i> he shares with former collaborator Roedelius, Rother emphasizes that such mainstream success was never a goal. \u201cThere was no evaluation of commercial potential or [anything] like that,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was this: \u2018I feel it. I like it. It touches me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And Rother has continued to be surprised by the long lasting, far-reaching influence of his work with Neu! and Harmonia. He recalls first learning about Stereolab and Sonic Youth, two groups who proudly count his work as an inspiration. \u201cSomebody told me, \u2018There\u2019s this band who has a track called \u201cTwo Cool Rock Chicks Listening to Neu!\u201d\u2019,\u201d he says with a burst of laughter. \u201cI thought, \u2018That\u2019s funny!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Today Rother remains busy with a wide array of projects, both in the recording studio and on the concert stage. In recent years he has mounted touring tributes to Neu! (Dinger passed away in 2008) and Harmonia, while continuing to make new music of his own. A frequent collaborator these days is Italian singer and electronic musician (and Rother\u2019s life partner) Vittoria Maccabruni. The couple are among the artists featured on the second disc of the new, expanded reissue of Musik von Harmonia<\/i>. Their rework of Harmonia music features throbbing synthesizer and an icy Maccabruni vocal reminiscent of Velvet Underground-era Nico. Seven other artists contribute their own remixes and\/or reworks, helping connect the music Harmonia made a half century ago with the present day.<\/p>\n

Asked how he feels with the knowledge that an entire new generation now has the opportunity to hear and learn about Neu! and Harmonia, Rother is candid. \u201cIt sounds like boasting, but I knew we were ambitious,\u201d he says. \u201cI stopped copying the Anglo-American music tradition [because] I knew I couldn\u2019t continue that path anymore.\u201d He characterizes his work in the early \u201870s as \u201cassembling little bricks of musical ideas, hoping that someday a house would develop.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if someone back then had told him that people would be discussing and listening to that music in 2024? Michael Rother smiles broadly and replies, \u201cI probably would have just started laughing!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two\u2026 In Perfect Harmonia (continued) A subsequent performance would yield more positive results. \u201cWe once played in Hamburg,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThat was 1974, and there was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,43,64],"tags":[559,968,5514,5515,4223,5513,4225],"class_list":["post-28199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-krautrock","category-reissue","tag-cluster","tag-hans-joachim-roedelius","tag-harmonia","tag-kluster","tag-kraftwerk","tag-michael-rother","tag-neu","cat-41-id","cat-43-id","cat-64-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28199"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28213,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28199\/revisions\/28213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}