VIA PRESS RELEASE | Groenland Records is set to release the first Harmonia album entitled Musik von Harmonia available exclusively at participating record stores as part of Record Store Day. The release will be on double LP and contains versatile reworks and remixes by internationally renowned artists and Harmonia companions to mark the album’s 50th anniversary.
Harmonia consisted of German supergroup Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Michael Rother. Moebius and Roedelius were in the band Cluter while Rother had just left Kraftwerk to form the duo Neu! with legendary drummer Klaus Dinger. In the mid-1970s, Harmonia blew up everything that spanned the German sound corset and were so alone in the field that their innovative work received hardly any attention in Germany. Yet what emerged there in the mid-1970s represented a real momentum. Without Harmonia and groups like Kraftwerk, Can, and Tangerine Dream, entire genres would hardly be conceivable today.
Brian Eno who was already one of the most respected music artists (and biggest Harmonia fans) at the time prompted the trio to unite for the legendary recording session that became their debut LP. The trio’s sound became an inspiration for his work with David Bowie, Devo, and Ultravox in those years. Though the band was only together from ’73-’76, their work continues to have an impact to this day and is an integral part of the intricate chain that led to ambient and techno.
The reworks and remixes released with the reissue explore the impulses of Harmonia. David Pajo from the post-rock legend Slint for example, inspired by the working methods of the sound tinkerers in the 1970s, produced his arrangement of Veterano, called “Harmoniumm,” completely analog—without the use of a computer. The piece chugs and chugs as if it came from the sessions of the three original performers. It is followed by “Idle Place,” a cool technoid sound construction from the hands and vocal chords of Vittoria Maccabruni, who released her debut As Long As The Light with Michael Rother in 2022.
Matthew Herbert contributes his dubby, meandering interpretation of “Ahoi!,” which seems like a lesson in Harmonia’s far-reaching inspiration, paying homage to and continuing the dense, warm sound from Lower Saxony. After a leisurely fade-out by Matthews, newcomer Dextro (aka Ewan Mackenzie) from Glasgow takes on the Harmonia track “Watussi,” whose prominent core melody he preserves and makes the center of his organic interpretation, which also tells of Harmonia’s influence on shoegaze.
This is followed by a version by Michael Rother and Vittoria Maccabruni that is not least reminiscent of Nico. Rother takes on his own music, continues it, modernizes it with his Italian partner who shows how symbiotically the original sounds can combine with a human voice.
Argentinian Kaleema (aka Heidi Lewandowski) produced a complex and intense version of “Ahoi!” with a variety of instruments. James Holden, one of today’s most prominent remixers builds a bridge between “Watussi” and contemporary, intelligent electronics which build up to the climax of the cover LP, whereupon the thoughtful tape remix by Italian music prodigy Marta Salogni slowly and dreamily releases us from this eight-part spectacle.
