Rolf Kühn Group

Although MPS was known for his studio and brilliant recording technique, Rolf Kühn decided not to record his albums in the studio in the Black Forest. At MPS, Rolf Kühn was allowed free rein to choose the team for the recordings and so he decided to get Wolfgang Hirschmann on board, one of the most interesting sound engineers in jazz at that time. Together with him and seven other musicians, “Total Space” was recorded in January 1975 in the Cornet Studios in the south of Cologne, Germany. Having a free jazz background, Kühn breaks out in a new direction towards jazz fusion with this album.

 “My recordings for the MPS label always benefited from an atmosphere of artistic freedom, something that I am still thankful for. Personally, the late label owner Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer was more rooted in traditional forms of jazz, especially swinging piano jazz. His productions with Oscar Peterson are still legendary today. But even so he allowed a lot of progressive jazz to be recorded for MPS. Although I got to know Brunner-Schwer through pianist Horst Jankowski, it was clear that when I signed a contract with MPS I would record a more freely experimental jazz. MPS was the first German record company that recorded solely jazz and was open for experiments and new fields of music.
For „Total Space“ I was allowed to try out new things like having two drummers, Daniel Humair and Kaspar Winding and to invite completely freethinking players like Albert Mangelsdorff or Gerd Dudek to the recording.”
(Rolf Kühn)