Peter Frohmader (1958–2022) was born in Munich and grew up listening to Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, and Ash Ra Tempel during the height of the Krautrock revolution. By his early twenties he had established the Nekropolis project and self-released his first LP, Musik aus dem Schattenreich, in 1979, in an edition of 500 copies. Over the following decades he produced an extraordinary and almost unclassifiable body of work from his Nekropolis Studio in Munich: dark ambient compositions informed by Zeuhl and free jazz, electronic works in the tradition of Darmstadt-era Stockhausen and Ligeti, tape pieces, multimedia installations, visual art collaborations with H.R. Giger and Chris Karrer of Amon Düül II, and an eventual collaboration with Richard Pinhas of Heldon on the album Fossile Culture (1999). His work appeared on Hasch Platten, Atonal Records, Auricle, and Cuneiform Records, while his 1981 cassette series Nekropolis 81 (Vol.1–4) circulated in the tape underground before being compiled by VOD.

This VOD double LP (VOD118) compiles the four Nekropolis 81 cassettes into their first proper vinyl presentation: recordings of a 23-year-old Frohmader working through the full range of his interests in real time, from dense electronic minimalism to dark kosmische ambience to improvised rock structures. Goldmine called his work "a brilliant achievement, highly recommended to any fan of electronic music, past or present." Exposé described it as "dense and dynamic electronic minimalism... atonal melodies floating above convoluted sequenced patterns." A comprehensive retrospective of one of the most singular figures in German experimental music, and a document that gains new weight in light of his 2022 death.