Cosmic Music

Cosmic Music is a music genre known in Central and Southern Europe .

History of origin

The origin of this style of music, this music genre is localized in Italy from the late 1970s, when in the discotheque Baia degli Angeli 1976–1979 in Gabicce Mare near Rimini , Cattolica with DJ Mozart, DJ Rubens, but later also with DJ Daniele Baldelli first cosmic sounds rang out.

Before that, Bob & Tom from America played in the Baia degli Angeli disco . They mixed funky sound, disco, Philadelphia sound and inspired DJ Mozart to create an afro-funky reggae sound. There were no disco charts, the backs and freaky alternative numbers were put on.

From 1980 there was a discotheque in Lazise on Lake Garda called Cosmic, where DJ Daniele Baldelli mixed and the sound spread. DJ TBC (Claudio Tosi Brandi), Marco Maldi and others also played there with Baldelli.

The founding fathers include Daniele Baldelli, TBC, Loda (aka Beppe Loda, Discothek Typhoon in Brescia, Italy), DJ Mozart, Fabrizio Fattori, DJ Rubens, Ebreo, Yano, Spleen Club: Corrado DJ & DJ Stefan Egger. Other cosmic DJs are: Fary, Rudy Franceschi, Gege, Melody Mecca, Pery, Meo, DJ Enne and Roberto Lodola. They mixed suitable pieces from the most varied of musical genres in such a way that a continuous overall work in the sense of a composition of classical music was created. It was crucial that the pieces were played without pauses and at the same, adapted speed. Up to five turntables were worked on.

Cosmic had also become popular in other nightclubs in Italy in the early 1980s. From 1981 the Austrian DJ Stefan Egger exported the Cosmic to Austria and Germany , more precisely: Innsbruck and Munich. He took over this style of music from Italy, but from 1987 mixed it with slowly played techno, beats and grooves. This made Cosmic suitable for the masses and accessible to a wider audience.

The big leap to Germany was achieved when - the now deceased - Hannes Alshut, together with his partners Stefan Egger and Rob Neureiter, decided to give the style a catchy name: "Cosmic Music". Until then, people always talked about Afro , which often led to misleading associations. Stefan Egger already used the term Cosmic Music at his first parties from 1984 in Innsbruck, as more and more electronic music, reggae, world etc. were mixed together.

Other pioneers were DJ Pablo Landauer (“Fiesta Musica Magica”) and Frank Sammüller (“Bahiana Corps”).

As a marketing specialist, Hannes Alshut recognized the potential in “Cosmic Music”, registered the term as a word and image trademark and started his successful series of events together with Stefan Egger as the musical idea generator and booking partner. He later transferred the rights to the brand to his DJ Micky, who had been under contract for him since the 1990s. Oli Schneider designed the “Cosmic Music” logo based on the example of the logo of the cult disco “Cosmic” on Lake Garda. Oli Schneider now lives in Augsburg after a stroke.

"Cosmic Music" as a music and event agency contributed mainly in the German-speaking Alpine region to the spread of the alternative music "Cosmic", which however had less and less in common with the origins of this musical genre. The music style elements Afro, Reggae, Funk, Brasil, Cumbia, Ambient etc. are still used. But Cosmic has evolved and modernized. There is still a difference to existing music styles such as house, techno, hip-hop, dance, etc. It is still not mainstream, there are no explicit charts and hit lists. One of the most important elements of this old-school cosmic was the idea of composition in the sense of classical serious music. At that time, the DJs worked out their own one-hour compositions for each of their performances, which, similar to the classic composition, contained an opening, increases, highlights and a finale. The “instruments” were sound set pieces, the laying on was more like “composing” in comparison to today's recycling of your own remixes.

Cosmic Music has remained an insider brand in southern Germany, Bavaria, Tyrol and northern Italy to this day and is still spread by various DJs at numerous events in clubs and halls in these regions.

Musical classification of cosmic music

As part of Cosmic, songs from a wide variety of cultures and many different styles of music were and are processed, such as funk , afro, Brazil, reggae , ragga , bhangra , rock , pop , and later hip-hop , trip-hop , big beat up to Trance and other forms of electronic music .

Since these styles of music differ greatly in their basic tempo, records that are intended to be played at 33 rpm are also played at 45 rpm. The resulting Mickey Mouse effect became a defining style feature. Since the classic 1210 has a "speed gap" between the highest position of the pitch control at 33 and the lowest at 45, modified turntables with a pitching range extended by up to 30% are standard equipment. Technics now offers the model 1210 M5G with a pitch range of ± 16%.

Initially, Cosmic moved in a tempo range of 90 to 105 BPM . The basic tempo increased over the years, at the weddings it was already 105 - 110 BPM. The pace continued to pick up and has already exceeded 110 BPM today. The cosmic tempo today is between 105 and 115 BPM.

Even today, Cosmic lives on, albeit regionally limited to Italy, Austria and southern Germany. Cosmic has developed into a kind of "world music ".

Sociology of Cosmic Music

Geographical distribution: Cosmic has only spread from Italy to southern Germany and northern Tyrol. Innsbruck (Afro-Meeting), Augsburg and Munich should be mentioned as strongholds in the non-Italian region. In Italy, the genre of music is particularly popular in the Veneto region, with Verona (Discoteca Stargate) and Padova playing a special role.

Austria: In Austria, the cosmic culture is almost exclusively limited to North Tyrol. Although Innsbruck as a university town is home to numerous students from Vorarlberg and other federal states, the musical genre in Austria has at no time noticeably spread to other federal states. The style of music is almost unknown in Vienna as well. Also in the Austrian cultural channels like FM4 the music hardly gets any attention. In the summer of 2005, however, there was a series on FM4 that presented Italian cosmic from the 1980s every Saturday night. In Innsbruck, Cosmic even has the status of a kind of underground folk music. For example, Cosmic was played in the Tivoli Stadium during the Bundesliga games of FC Wacker Innsbruck.

Dance: Cosmic is characterized by a characteristic dance style that can best be described as expressive dance. What is particularly striking is the "like tapping on velvet paws".

Regular events

Regular events where cosmic music is played are the annual Heilig 3 Cosmic in M1 Aichach and various meetings in Italy and Austria, for example in Bozen, Bergamo, Verona and Innsbruck. There are discos like the PM in Untermeitingen near Augsburg, which put on a cosmic music evening with DJ Stefan Egger once a month.