Harald Grosskopf

Harald Grosskopf 2011 in New York

Harald Grosskopf (born October 23, 1949 in Hildesheim ), actually Großkopf , is a German musician, drummer and keyboard player.

biography

Grosskopf first appeared as a drummer in the beat group The Stuntmen in the 1960s . At the end of the 1960s he played with the then still unknown Scorpions . In 1971 he moved to Mönchengladbach to join the band Blitzkrieg , which was soon renamed Wallenstein . This art rock band called themselves the "symphonic rock orchestra" and aroused u. a. caused a sensation with her album "Stories, Songs & Symphonies", produced in Quadrophonie by Dieter Dierks . From 1972 Wallenstein was under contract with Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's Pilz label .

In 1972 Kaiser initiated the studio and label project Kosmische Kuriere , which included Grosskopf, Dollase and Dierks, Manuel Göttsching and Klaus Schulze . Originally the project was only supposed to record the album "Tarot" by Walter Wegmüller .

Grosskopf also worked on productions by other artists who were under contract with Kaiser, and as a guest musician on some of Klaus Schulze's albums. So he played z. B. on his album Body Love drums in the piece Stardancer . After leaving Wallenstein in 1975, Grosskopf Manuel Göttschings joined the band called Ashra . In the trio with Lutz Ulbrich ( Lüül ) they recorded various albums for the Virgin label.

In the 1980s Grosskopf was co-founder and drummer of the NDW band Lilli Berlin . During this time he also made his first two solo records, on which he particularly demonstrated his skills on the synthesizer. At the end of the 1980s, Grosskopf was a member of the Central Europe Performance group and in the future increasingly turned to sound art projects. He also had a share in the great successes of Joachim Witt . So he played synthesizers on the hit Goldener Reiter . He accompanied Witt with other musicians such as Helmut Zerlett , Harald Gutowski and Jaki Liebezeit . In the mid-1990s he was the initiator of several techno / dance projects, including a. N-Tribe (with Steve Baltes ) and The Ambush (with Oliver Lieb ). He was also a member of the 17 Hippies and in the late 1990s he co-founded the band Sunya Beat with Axel Heilhecker and Steve Baltes. Tours in 1997 and 2008 led to Japan with ASHRA, to Germany with Phonoroid in 1997 and to the USA in 1998. In 1998 he was with the 17 Hippies at the SXSW Festival in Austin / Texas (USA). Together with Marc Ribot and Jakob Ilja ( Element of Crime ) he and the 17 Hippies played a concert that was published on CD in February 2006 under the title 17 Hippies play Guitar .

In 2009 he met the Hollywood director Philippe Mora in Berlin and produced the documentary German Sons with him, in which Grosskopf also composed the music. The film tells of the different careers of the two fathers in the 3rd Reich. Mora's father was a member of the French Resistance, while Grosskopf's father, as a member of the NSDAP, attacked Poland with the Wehrmacht.

In December 2010, Harald Grosskopf released a solo album entitled "Synthesist 2010" on the MellowJet Records label .

In 2011 Grosskopf gave a solo concert at the "Unsound Festival" in New York. In 2013 at the “Ambient Festival” in Gorlice in Poland and in 2013 he was invited to Brazil to give a lecture on Krautrock at the “Oscillation Festival” and then give a concert. Guitarist Axel Heilhecker accompanied him as a guest musician at all three festivals. In 2017, Grosskopf went on a short tour of Great Britain with Eberhard Kranemann , a member of Kraftwerk from the very beginning , as a duo called Krautwerk, and previously produced an album of the same title with him.

Grosskopf appeared on over 100 albums by other musicians. He himself released six solo albums from 1980 to 2010, and his seventh is currently in the works. Grosskopf occasionally works as an actor and has appeared on several television shows with Hans-Werner Olm .

Discography

With various groups (excerpt)

• Wallenstein - Blitzkrieg (recorded 1971, published 1972)
• Wallenstein - Mother Universe (1972)
• Witthüser & Westrupp - Bauer Plath (1972)
• Walter Wegmüller - Tarot (1973)
• Cosmic Jokers - Cosmic Jokers (1973)
• Ash Ra Tempel - Starring Rosi (1973)
• Wallenstein - Cosmic Century (1973)
• Cosmic Jokers - Galactic Supermarket (1974)
• Cosmic Couriers - Sci Fi Party (1974)
• Cosmic Couriers - Planets Sit-In (1974)
• Wallenstein - Stories, Songs & Symphonies (1975)
• Klaus Schulze - Moondawn (1976)
• Klaus Schulze - Body Love (1977)
• Klaus Schulze - Body Love Vol. 2 (1977)
• Klaus Schulze - X (1978)
• Ashra - Correlations (1979)
• Klaus Schulze - Live (1980)
• Joachim Witt - Silberblick (1980)
• Lilli Berlin - Lilli Berlin (1981)
• Lilli Berlin - Sweet and Merciless (1982)
• Lilli Berlin - Huh huh (1983)
• Ashra - Tropical Heat (1991)
• Bernd Kistenmacher - Characters (1991)
• Mario Schönwälder - Hypnotic Beats (1992)
• Bernd Kistenmacher - Stadtgarten Live (1995)
• Steve Baltes - Pictures in Rhythm (1995)
• Ashra - @shra (1998)
• Ashra - Hollandaise sauce (1998)
• N-Tribe - Tower of Power (1998)
• Sunya Beat - Sunya Beat (1998)
• Steve Baltes - Rhythm of Life (1998)
• Phonoroid - Not on the map (1999)
• 17 Hippies - who is that? (1999)
• Sunya Beat - Delhi Slide (1999)
• Axel Heilhecker - Fishmoon (2000)
• Baltes, Grosskopf, Heilhecker - Viermaldrei (2001)
• Ashra - @shra Vol. 2 (2002)
• 17 Hippies - 17 Hippies play guitar (2006)
• Sunya Beat - Comin 'Soon (2006)
• Fish Moon - TwoMoon Music (2007)
• 17 Hippies Beasts (2014)
• 17 Hippies - Anatomy (2016)
• Krautwerk - Krautwerk (2017)

Solo albums

• Synthesist (1980)
• Oceanheart (1986)
• World of Quetzal (1992)
• Digital Nomad (2002)
• Yeti Society (2004)
• Synthesist 2010 (2010)
• Local recreation (2016)

Web links

Commons : Harald Grosskopf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Harald Grosskopf's official website
• Interview from the beginning of June 2008 by Stephan Schelle (MusikZirkus-Magazin)
• Interview from July 25, 2005 by Tobias Fischer (tokafi)
• Harald Grosskopf at Discogs (English)