Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser

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Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser (born June 18, 1943 in Buckow (Märkische Schweiz) ) is a German author and record producer who became known for his publications in the late 1960s and early 1970s and who played a key role in shaping the Krautrock scene.

Life

Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser studied German and theater studies and initially worked as a journalist in Cologne. At the Burg Waldeck Festival in 1964 he first came into contact with the alternative music scene. He was particularly fascinated by the socio-political demands of the folk musicians at the time, and he worked for song magazine . He then went to the United States several times to research a book. In 1967 he published Das Songbuch in Damokles Verlag, which provides an overview of the international folk scene and contains interviews with Pete Seeger , Joan Baez and others. At the same time he took part in the political discussion about the social significance of the Waldeck Festival, which has now been sparked.

Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser was a founding member of the team of the legendary, new radio-form-defining series Panoptikum , which was broadcast monthly on NDR and WDR from 1968 to 1975 ; In addition to Kaiser, the Panoptikum troupe included Henryk M. Broder , Hans-Jürgen Haug, Hubert Maessen , Rosa Pape (who later became the manager of Milva ), Joachim Sonderhoff and the Mainz music journalist Tom Schroeder.

From September 25 to 29, 1968, Kaiser organized the International Essen Songtage (IEST) together with Martin Degenhardt and Tom Schroeder , a platform for bands and musicians such as Amon Düül , Floh de Cologne , Guru Guru , Tangerine Dream and Franz Josef Degenhardt , The Fugs , Peter Brötzmann , Julie Felix , Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger bid. Frank Zappa presented the festival, which was very successful with 40,000 visitors, for the first time in Germany. Kaiser praised the festival in the accompanying booklet as a "music happening that is mind-expanding and mind-expanding, psychedelic, opens up other modes of experience and thus rather emotionally questions what has been acquired and familiar."

Following the Songtage, Kaiser published numerous other books and booklets on pop music at the time, including a. Protest primer. Forms of a New Culture (1968), Fuck The Fugs, the Book of Fugs (1969), Zapzapzappa - the Book of the Mothers of Invention (1969) and The Book of New Pop Music (1969).

After the success of the Songtage, all doors were open to Kaiser. With the support of WDR and Lufthansa , Kaiser initiated the IEST competition for new songs in 1968, whose jury included Kaiser and Degenhardt, Reinhard Hippen and Henryk M. Broder.

With the financial support of Peter Meisel , then director of Hansa Musikverlag, he founded the record label Ohr in 1969 , which was dedicated to the nascent German rock scene. From 1969 albums by Floh de Cologne, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel , Klaus Schulze , Guru Guru, Amon Düül, Embryo , Witthüser & Westrupp , Birth Control , Hoelderlin and others have been released on Ohr . The label became one of the most important labels for Krautrock and German progressive rock .

Due to the success, the ear was within a short time, offered BASF to a "mushroom" fund called sub label of OHR. From 1971 onwards, Pilz released further albums by Popol Vuh , Bröselmaschine , Wallenstein and Witthüser & Westrupp.

Despite the lively production activity, Kaiser continued to publish numerous books, such as B. Underground? Pop? No! Counterculture! (1970), factory resident. Protocol of a Commune and 23 Trips (1970), Die Gegenmedien. New models of communication (1970), Frank Zappa (1971), rock time. Stars, Business, and History of New Pop Music (1972).

On December 3, 1971, Kaiser was part of the memorable discussion group that had to openly watch in the WDR series Ende openly how Nikel Pallat from Ton Steine ​​Scherben tried to smash the studio table with an ax after he had previously opposed Kaiser and the label owner Meisel as "a capitalist pig, a music thief of the highest order" had raved. The table turned out to be extremely robust.

In 1972 Kaiser and his girlfriend Gerlinde "Gille" Lettmann met Timothy Leary , whom they visited several times in exile in Switzerland. Leary propagated LSD , Kaiser and Lettmann enthusiastically joined in. In Switzerland, recordings were made with Leary, Ash Ra Tempel and some former musicians from Agitation Free , which would later be released under the name Seven Up as Ash Ra Tempel's third album. Kaiser founded the label Kosmische Kuriere especially for this album and later publications that are supposed to propagate the use of LSD . He had borrowed the term from Leary again, who saw himself as such a cosmic courier in his role as LSD protagonist.

Since Kaiser increasingly lost in his LSD experiments to Kaiser Employee Bruno Wendel and Guenter parted Körber 1972 by ear and founded Brain Records , where they continue Guru Guru, Klaus Schulze, Cluster, rough cut, Novalis, Harmonia, Jane and the Scorpions under Contract. Meanwhile, Kaiser produced the esoteric albums Tarot by Walter Wegmüller and Lord Krishna by Goloka by Sergius Golowin in Switzerland . Back in Berlin in 1973, Kaiser produced five more albums for Kosmische Kuriere from leftover session recordings.

Gradually, however, problems arose between Kaiser and the performers represented on Ohr. The Wallenstein group complained about missing royalties, Tangerine Dream distanced themselves from Kaiser's seemingly religious zeal for LSD, and the Hoelderlin band no longer wanted to identify with Kaiser's ideas. Kaiser was now also targeted by the press, which particularly condemned his affinity for Leary.

In 1975 Kaiser published the album Einsjäger und Siebenjäger by Popol Vuh and published a set of tarot cards that had been designed by Gille Lettmann. Then he stopped his production activities and withdrew completely from the public.

Some of his books have been reprinted several times, the records he produced are among the most important Krautrock publications of the time. A total of 13 singles and 32 LPs have been released on Ohr. 20 albums were released on Pilz and 17 on Kosmische Kuriere.

In the course of the 1980s, the publications initiated by Kaiser became sought-after rarities. The ZYX Music label therefore decided to re-release the most sought-after titles on CD. Since Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser could no longer be found, direct contracts were concluded between the artists and ZYX. When the first of these CDs came on the market, Kaiser stepped back on the scene and tried to appeal and assert his alleged rights. However, due to financial problems, he had long since ceded the rights and was therefore left out of the successful secondary marketing of "his" products.

Books by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser

  • The song book . Damokles-Verlag, Ahrensburg / Paris 1967
  • (Ed. :) Protest primer. Forms of a new culture . With contributions by Klaus Budzinski u. a. Scherz, Bern / Munich / Vienna: 1968
  • Zapzapzappa - the book of the mothers of invention . Children of the birthday press, Cologne 1968
  • Fuck the Fugs - the book of fugs . Children of the birthday press, Cologne 1969
  • B. is a shit. The best from the German underground press . Children of the birthday press, Cologne 1969
  • Underground? Pop? No! Counterculture! A book collage. Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne / Berlin 1969
  • The book of new pop music . Econ-Verlag, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1969 (2nd revised and expanded edition 1970, ISBN 3-430-15155-4 ; Dutch edition: De nieuwe pop-muziek. Hoorn, West-Friesland 1970; Italian edition: Guida alla musica pop.Milano: Mondadori 1971, 2nd ed. 1974, 3rd ed. 1978; Spanish edition: El mundo de la música Pop.Barcelona: Barral 1972, 2nd ed. 1974; Portuguese edition: O mundo da música pop . Postage: Paisagem 1973)
  • (together with Gille Lettmann :) Factory resident. Log of a municipality and 23 trips . Droste, Düsseldorf 1970
  • Frank Zappa . Hoorn, West Friesland 1971.
  • Rock time. Stars, business and history of new pop music . Econ-Verlag, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1972, ISBN 3-430-15156-2

Literature about Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kaiser, Rolf-Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author and record producer
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Buckow (Märkische Schweiz)