Hans-Joachim Roedelius

Bureau B reissues the eleventh solo album by German keyboardist Hans-Joachim Roedelius, originally released in 1986 on the small Norwegian label Cicada. If we can agree on 1969 as the year of Cluster's inception, then Roedelius needed a good 17 years to discover the aural qualities and musical beauty of the grand piano for his own compositions. More precisely, he must have become aware of the grand piano during the recording sessions for Jardin Au Fou (1979) andLustwandel (1981) in Peter Baumann's Paragon studio. Another five years would pass before he built an album entirely around the piano, with electronic elements altogether absent. There is no sign of the Farfisa organ or indeed any of the synthesizers which had previously been such a common feature of Roedelius' solo works.

The piano sounds were left untreated. Indeed, he was clearly so fascinated by the sonority and potential of the Bösendorfer grand piano that, a few overdubs notwithstanding, he dispensed with virtually all distinguishing features of his musical approach. On Wie Das Wispern Des Windes, Roedelius played his way into virgin territory, as new to his listeners as it was to him. It's no wonder that Wispern was released not on a specialist electronic label in Germany, but on a small Norwegian label called Cicada. Rarely has the title of a Roedelius album (trans. "Like the whispering of the wind") so poetically and yet so accurately described its content. Roedelius expands his études towards amorphousness; then suddenly, a disarmingly familiar melody appears, from a completely different source, perhaps (Harmonia? Cluster?). T

o continue the poetic theme of the LP's title, Roedelius is not only listening to the wind, he surrenders to it, allowing himself to be carried hither and thither; effortlessly, weightlessly transported to where the sun shines brightest. In this context, the image of a butterfly may be pushing the metaphor a little too far, but an apposite one nevertheless. Liner notes by Asmus Tietchens.