Harald Blüchel

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Harald Blüchel (born February 19, 1963 in Nuremberg ) is a German composer , pianist and music producer . Under the stage name Cosmic Baby , he became a protagonist in techno and trance music in Germany between 1989 and 1999 . Since the year 2000, his compositions have primarily been ( neo ) classical music under his real name .

Life

As a child, Harald Blüchel was trained as a classical pianist at the Nuremberg Conservatory at the age of seven. Later he oriented himself towards German electronic music groups such as Cluster , Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk . In 1987 Blüchel moved to West Berlin and studied composition at the University of the Arts (today UdK) . In 1988 he approached the techno and trance movement that was just emerging .

His music is characterized by driving arpeggios , superimposed sequencer figures and accentuated melodies. An example of this is the first Cosmic Baby album Stellar Supreme , released in September 1992 on Mark Reeder's label MFS . At the same time he made music with Paul van Dyk under the name The Visions of Shiva and released the single Perfect Day . He also brought along with Mijk van Dijk on a MFS-mixed Trance - CD out: Tranceformed from beyond .

1993 was published in collaboration with Kid Paul under the name Energy 52 the trance anthem Café del Mar , which was this musical direction to one of the world's most famous songs. The second Visions of Shiva single was also released: How much can you take? . In the same year, Blüchel moved to Logic Records and concentrated on his solo project. In January 1994 he released the single Loops of Infinity , which made it into the German charts as one of the first trance productions. His second album, Thinking about myself , followed in April .

In 1995 he left Logic Records and founded his own label Time out of Mind , on which he clearly distanced himself from the classic trance sound and in the following years released albums such as Zero Hour , Fourteen Pieces or Kinetik .

In addition to composer and producer, Blüchel was a live performer: he appeared in clubs and the growing rave events around the world ( Mayday , Time Warp , Tribal Gathering, etc.). In 1997 he was invited (as the first techno artist ever) to Rock am Ring / Rock im Park .

In addition, Blüchel also wrote music for the theater stage . In cooperation with the Pyro Space Ballet , the techno musical Futura premiered in April 1994 at the Berlin Academy of the Arts (AdK) . Two years later, in 1996, he received the offer to produce the soundtrack for Max Frisch's play Andorra at the Stuttgart State Theater under the direction of Crescentia Dünßer & Otto Kukla.

In 1998 Blüchel released the album Heaven and the two singles Lucifer and Sketches in Spring on Intercord .

At the end of 1999 he withdrew from the techno scene and in the following years devoted himself mainly to composing classical-contemporary music for theater productions. In 2000 he created music for string quartet for the video opera Memory and in 2003 the music for soprano & countertenor & hard disk recording for Susan Sontag's play The Woman from the Sea - both for the Theater am Neumarkt / Zurich , directed by Otto Kukla.

In 2002 Blüchel met the music producer Christopher von Deylen ( music project Schiller ). This resulted in the Bluechel & von Deylen project . In January 2004 the first joint album Bi Polar was released . In the same year, the follow-up album Mare Stellaris was released , as the soundtrack for the Long Night of the Stars in German planetariums.

With his Zauberberg trilogy, Blüchel 's first solo publications under his real name, inspired by Thomas Mann's novel , the musician creates more experimental “audio pieces” that continue the tradition of classical modernism, which can be compared with “ dark ambient ” or “modern art music ” can. The first part, Die Toteninsel , published in September 2006 , was inspired by a painting of the same name by Arnold Böcklin . In April 2007, the second part caged was published, a play on words that on the one hand refers to John Cage and on the other hand to “being trapped” (English: cage = cage) and the inner workings of a person who “has lost the world” (quote Booklet / website).

In between, the artist released the Electro Pop album Industrie & Melodie , originally created between 1997 and 1999, in December 2006 as Cosmic Baby , and in September 2007 he released Works 1996.1 - Somnambul and Works 1996.2 - Hundeherz .

Blüchel also continued his theatrical work and in 2006 worked on another musical implementation for Max Frisch's play Andorra , which premiered on March 19, 2006 (with new compositions without reference to the 1996 Stuttgart performance) in the staging by director Tina Lanik for the Hamburger Schauspielhaus . In 2007, Federico García Lorca's play Bernarda Albas Haus was set to music in a staging by Hans Neuenfels for the Cologne Theater . In May 2009, the premiere of After: How Robinson !? in the Berlin theater under the roof (based on Arno Schmidt , directed by Lina Antje Gühne), in October the premiere of Tannöd was at the Hamburger Schauspielhaus (based on Andrea Maria Schenkel , directed by Crescentia Dünßer ). In 2010 there was another collaboration between Blüchel and the Berliner Theater unterm Dach : The piece ice skating themed the life and work of the poet Inge Müller and, produced by the group Kollegen & Gühne , had its premiere on February 18, 2010.

Since 2016, after several years of playing the piano and moving from Berlin to Fürstenberg / Havel , where he lives in the district of Himmelpfort , Blüchel has returned to the stage with solo piano concerts. These performances, called “workshop concerts” by the artist, had their Berlin premiere on November 28, 2016 in the Volksbühne / Roter Salon . His new style of composition, which Blüchel calls "piano music of the New York Minimal Music School", contains references to works by Steve Reich , Philip Glass and Simeon ten Holt from the areas of minimal music , as well as connections to neoclassical artists such as Ludovico Einaudi , Yann Tiersen or Max Richter .

Working together

Discography

Singles and EPs

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Loops of Infinity (as Cosmic Baby)
  DE 40 03/14/1994 (10 weeks)
  CH 34 04/24/1994 (3 weeks)
  UK 70 02/26/1994 (2 weeks)
A Tribute to Blade Runner Part 1 (as Cosmic Baby)
  UK 90 04/01/1995 (1 week)
  • 1985 - Chanson Deux: For days and nights (cassette release)
  • 1989 - De Luxe 63: E (Three Projects Of De Luxe 63) (Big Sex Records)
  • 1991 - Cosmic Enterprises: Tao (White Label)
  • 1992 - Cosmic Baby: Stellar Supreme (MFS)
  • 1992 - Cosmic Baby: Transcendental Overdrive (MFS)
  • 1992 - Cosmic Baby: Cosmikk Trigger (ESP)
  • 1992 - GTO Remixes Cosmic Babies (MFS)
  • 1992 - Cosmic Baby: 23 (MFS)
  • 1992 - Cosmic Baby: Oh Supergirl (ESP)
  • 1993 - Cosmic Baby: The Cosmic, very Cosmic EP (MFS)
  • 1993 - Cosmic Baby: Heaven's Tears (MFS)
  • 1994 - Cosmic Baby: Loops of Infinity (Logic)
  • 1994 - Cosmic Baby: Loops of Infinity Remixes (Logic)
  • 1994 - Cosmic Baby: Fantasia
  • 1994 - Cosmic Baby: A Tribute to Blade Runner, Part 1 (EastWest)
  • 1995 - Cosmic Baby: A Tribute to Blade Runner, Part 2 (EastWest)
  • 1995 - Cosmic Inc .: Futura (Logic)
  • 1995 - Cosmic Baby: Cosmic greets Florida (Logic)
  • 1998 - Cosmic Baby: Lucifer (Intercord)
  • 1999 - Cosmic Baby: Sketches in Spring
  • 2008 - Cosmic Baby: Cosmikk Trigger (download re-release, contains among other things new pieces)
  • 2008 - Cosmic Baby: Hommage a Blade Runner (download re-release, contains among other things new pieces)

Albums

  • 1986 - Chanson Deux: Behind Things
  • 1992 - Cosmic Baby: Stellar Supreme (MFS)
  • 1994 - Cosmic Baby: Thinking about myself (Logic)
  • 1995 - Cosmic Inc .: Futura (Logic)
  • 1995 - Cosmic Baby: Zero Hour (Time out of Mind)
  • 1995 - Cosmic Baby: Fourteen Pieces (Time out of Mind)
  • 1996 - Cosmic Baby: Kinetik (Time out of Mind)
  • 1997 - Cosmic Baby: Music for Andorra (Time out of Mind)
  • 1998 - Cosmic Baby: Heaven (Intercord)
  • 2004 - Bluechel & von Deylen: Bi Polar
  • 2004 - Bluechel & von Deylen: Mare Stellaris
  • 2006 - Harald Blüchel: Die Toteninsel (Magic Mountain Trilogy Part 1)
  • 2006 - Cosmic Baby: Industry and Melody
  • 2007 - Harald Blüchel: caged (Zauberberg trilogy part 2)
  • 2007 - Cosmic Baby: Works 1996.1 - Somnambul (download only)
  • 2007 - Cosmic Baby: Works 1996.2 - Dog Heart (download only)
  • 2008 - Cosmic Baby: Star Jump (download only)
  • 2009 - Harald Blüchel: Electric Chamber Music (Zauberberg Trilogy Part 3)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official homepage. Retrieved July 16, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Stefan Blumberg: Harald Blüchel: With complete devotion . In: maz-online.de from August 9, 2018.
  3. ↑ Official Facebook presence. Retrieved July 16, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Interview with Susanne Helmer, published in the Nürnberger Nachrichten , issue 23 May 2017.
  5. ↑ Chart sources: DE CH UK

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Blüchel, Harald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German music producer
DATE OF BIRTH 19th February 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg