[CP 155 CD] Klaus Röder; Elektronische Kompositionen, 1975-1983

September 2023; Réédition of this seminal mid-period C.P. chestnut, now augmented to include the entirety of the Röder-centric 1978 "Düsseldorfer Hochschulkonzerte 5" LP featuring the near-side-length "Schmutzmusik (1975). Eine stereophone elektronische Komposition" (which predates all of the material on the two privately-released early-80s LPs being compiled here) alongside work by C.P. alum Francisco Estevez ("Phonson für Flöte, Gitarre, Klavier und elektronische Modulationsgeräte (1975)", see [CP 254 CD]), Raimund Jülich (an amazing "Werkstück 1 für Flöte und elektronische Modulationsgeräte (1975)") & of course the typical non-electronic opening slot "Toccata für Klavier (1976)" by Nikos Athinäos, essentially cornering the entire era-approriate output of Klaus post "Autobahn" ...

Privately released as a pair of LPs in 1981 & 1983, respectively, this set covers the early Electro-Acoustic work of German Composer, Guitarist, and Electronic Percussionist Klaus Röder, a student of Milko Kelemen & Günther Becker’s (more on Becker later in the series) & along w/ Gerhard Illi a member of the Free Jazz band Synthesis (not to be confused w/ the Arthur Blythe / Olu Dara / David Murray group of the same name) who formed an Electronic Music studio in Solingen to realize his idiosyncratic experiments in hyper-rhythmic, cut-up Musique Concrète in the mid-70s.

Meticulous, frenetic, and wryly humorous, the pieces here often show Röder’s dexterity as an instrumentalist (there’s a fair bit of Classical Guitar “Shredding” peppered throughout) but consistently show him as a master of assemblage; there’s an incredibly prescient sense of rhythmic “Programming” that, at times, presages dance/electronic music’s rush towards feverish complexity in the mid-late-90s.