October 2024 sees veteran German synthesist Harald Grosskopf turn 75.

To celebrate, he releases a brand new album ‘Strom’ and publishes his autobiography ‘Monsieur Séquenceur’ in Deutsch which will be of interest to anyone remotely interested in Deutsche Elektronische Musik.

Harald Grosskopf had been the drummer of WALLENSTEIN, THE COSMIC JOKERS and ASHRA, working with Manuel Göttsching in the latter while some of his most notable sessions were with Klaus Schulze on his albums ‘Moondawn’, ‘Body Love’ and ‘X’.

But while in between projects, with the encouragement of friend and composer Udo Hanten, Grosskopf’s desire for making music led him experiment with a Minimoog, Korg PS3200 and an ARP 16-Step Sequencer alongside his drums. The end result was his wonderfully dreamy solo debut ‘Synthesist’ released in 1980; fans of the record included Andy McCluskey, Mark Reeder and Jean-Michel Jarre.

Grosskopf’s desire not to repeat himself has meant he has not been prolific as a solo artist, although over the years, he continued working with Manuel Göttsching in ASHRA as well as undertaking various collaborations Steve Baltes, Eberhard Kranemann, Thorsten Quäschning and Axel Heilhecker. Now after several years in the making comes ‘Strom’, translated from German as “electricity” and looking not that dissimilar the English word “storm” which could also sonically apply to this work.

Opening salvo ‘Bureau 39’ demonstrates an aural heritage with ‘Synthesist’ which is no bad thing, absorbing yet acting as a relaxant within a kaleidoscopic soundscape that twists with bursts of Doppler engine noise. Moving into more grinding territory, ‘Blow’ possesses a fierce marching rumble. There is a sharp use of rhythm on this album, as can be heard on ‘Später Strom’ but its overall gallop and texturing wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘Synthesist’, save the percussive sample template.

There are the more breezy overtures of ‘Gleich Strom’ but experimental and noisy, both ‘After The Future’ and ‘Um Pah Pah Uh’ almost do away with melody and reveal some quite unsettling voices, the former growling “NEVER” like a twisted character from The Brother Grimm while the latter also plays with eerie Middle Eastern overtones.

Like a passing express locomotive, the strident ‘Stylo Kraut’ is the album’s driving centrepiece, building towards a cosmic metallic fervour. Meanwhile the closer ‘Stromklang’ wouldn’t sound of place in a club, displaying a stomping affinity to dance culture over a sinister backdrop with cutting stabs of synth duelling with more spacey shimmers and rolling arpeggios.

‘Strom’ is an album that merges Harald Grosskopf’s classic melodic synth sound with the digital machine of today for a fully charged body of work. It retains enough familiarity while going off on various sonic tangents and abstract adventures to satisfy many a listener of more esoteric electronic forms.

‘Strom’ is released by Bureau B on 18 October 2024 in CD and vinyl LP formats, available from https://shop.tapeterecords.com/records/bureau-b/

Download available from https://haraldgrosskopf.bandcamp.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Markus Luigs
16 October 2024