Ashra - Blackouts (1977)

Third solo album by Manuel Göttsching, and second that he did under the abbreviated Ash Ra Tempel name "Ashra", before they became a proper band again at the end of the 70s.  Blackouts was a further refinement of the echo guitar plus electronics sound of New Age Of Earth, with Göttsching heading for shorter, melodic tracks other than the 17-minute Lotus suite at the end.  Opening with the catchy '77 Slightly Delayed, the tempo comes down next for Midnight On Mars with its intro's interesting resemblance to Marquee Moon by Television, and so on to make for a very strong and varied album.  The funky Shuttlecocks is definitely my favourite thing here.

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pw: sgtg

Manuel Göttsching at SGTG:

Inventions For Electric Guitar

Le Berceau De Cristal

E2-E4

Manuel Göttsching - E2-E4 (1984)

Couldn't not post this at some point, despite having always thought it was too obvious a choice - it's just too good.  Around this time of year, when I start getting out and about more, nothing makes an hour's walk go by more beautifully than two Prophet 10 chords, a couple of Minimoogs, an ARP Odyssey and EMS, EKO etc and one hell of a (24-minute) guitar solo.  All in the hands of Ash Ra Tempel/Ashra's Manuel Göttsching, who came off a tour in December 1981 and casually flipped the switches on his home setup to record for an hour, with only the intention to make something for his own listening whilst traveling on future tours.

The track was eventually released on one of Klaus Schulze's labels in 1984, flipping the carefully-mastered 58-minute LP just as Göttsching picks up his guitar.  To even have to flip E2-E4 once is enough to break the spell unfortunately, and it would have to wait for its first CD pressing six years later to be presented in the uninterrupted digital format in belongs in.  In the meantime, E2-E4's influence had already begun to spread, notably in the dance track Sueño Latino, and shortly afterwards in mixes by Carl Craig and by Basic Channel.  Its afterlife as a proto-techno milestone was assured.

The original track, however, remains as fresh and immediate today as the moment it was recorded.  Much of that is due to the informal, single-pass recording session, especially in the guitar part: for me, the occasional untidy note and the moments where you can hear Göttsching pulling back and riffing for a bit while he plans his next move (in keeping with the chess theme, I suppose) are part of the charm - if he'd gone back and overdubbed a single note, it would've lost something.  The purely electronic half is a thing of wonder too, with all the minute-by-minute developments skillfully leading up to the glorious stretch from the 24th minute to the 30th.  If my Favourite Albums Of All Time had a sub-section where their desert-island status is absolutely impossible to top, only really E2-E4, Köln and Jobim's Wave make the cut.

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pw: sgtg

Manuel Göttsching - Inventions For Electric Guitar (1975)

Out of the three main echo-delay master guitarists of the 70s - Fripp, Pinhas & Göttsching - it's the latter who I've always found most accessible and enjoyable.  Seven years prior to recording the immortal E2-E4, Manuel Göttsching made this, his first solo album.  No electronics here; every sound on Inventions is guitar/guitar effects recorded on to four track.  He'd expand this palette collaboratively shortly afterwards, before integrating it into the early Ashra sound on his way to E2-E4, but the beauty of Inventions is the pure echo-delay guitar sound and what Göttsching does with it.

The album features three tracks, the first of which and the most uptempo is the 18-minute Echo Waves.  The delayed guitar loops are layered and tweaked as skillfully as any electronic sequencer album of the era, towards a memorable ending where Göttsching cranks everything up then grinds it to a halt.  As a breather after this, we get six minutes of lovely ambience in Quasarsphere.  The stage is then set for the second half of Inventions For Electric Guitar, the 21-minute Pluralis.  The main guitar sequence sets up a more mid-tempo rhythm this time, with a gentle funky edge.  Göttsching then spins out a gradually developing melody with ghostly, synth-like tones wafting over the top.  Things just get more hypnotic and awesome from there.  Don't miss this brilliant album.

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Ash Ra Tempel - Le Berceau De Cristal (1975, rel. 1993)

How about one more soundtrack?  In contrast to Barbet Schroeder's 'More', which at least had a plot, Philippe Garrel's 'Le berceau de cristal' (The Crystal Cradle) was a much more typically arthouse venture starring Nico and Anita Pallenberg.  And a thoroughly gloomy one to boot - I won't spoil the ending, but the sole imdb review has the lowdown.  If you can overlook the poor sound and picture quality, the whole thing's on vimeo.

What interests me most about the film is this great soundtrack.  Recorded in 1975, and eventually released on CD in 1993, 'Ash Ra Tempel' in this case are just Manuel Göttsching and Agitation Free founder member Lutz Ulbrich, working with an old Farfisa organ, EMS guitar synth, and Göttsching's patent floating layers of echo-unit treated guitar to create the "music for dreaming" that Philippe Garrel had been looking for.

In the wake of his first solo album, Inventions For Electric Guitar, Göttsching in 1975 was touring Europe accompanied by Ulbrich.  Approached by Garrel following a performance in Cannes, Göttsching offered a tape of the final piece they'd just performed, which is the first track you hear on this release.  The rest of the soundtrack was then recorded in the studio in Berlin, and was thankfully made available by Spalax in 1993.  Anyone who loves Göttsching's mid-late 70s echo-guitar work, and the subtle Berlin-school electronics that went with it, needs this one.  Le berceau de cristal will also definitely also appeal to anyone amenable to the Tangerine Dream / Klaus Schulze sounds of the era.  Everyone else - give this a try too!  It's a solid, durable soundtrack that sounds great as a cosmic dreamscape of an album.

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