Ulrich Rützel

Ulrich Rützel (born October 25, 1944 in Gelsenkirchen-Buer ) is a German music producer and music publisher.

He founded the music labels Erdenklang and CCn'C (Classical, CrossCulture and Contemporary Music). He is also a co-founder of Ars Electronica in Linz .

Life

Ulrich Rützel (as a producer and composer he is occasionally mentioned under the name "Ulli A. Rützel") began his professional life as a banker in the 1960s, but also worked as a jazz pianist . He quickly became known for his cross-genre improvisations with themes from contemporary music and free jazz .

In January 1972, Rützel became product manager at “BASF Musikproduktion” in Hamburg, which at the time was to make a name for itself with the Krautrock label “Pilz” (series title: “New German Folk Music” - “ Cosmic Couriers ” etc., Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser ) sought. In addition to this new musical territory, Rützel also looked after the already renowned jazz label " MPS ".

In 1974 Ulrich Rützel then switched to Phonogram , labels such as B. Charisma (with Peter Gabriel among others ) and "20th Century" (with Barry White among others ) were under his care. His musical background soon led him to other tasks: Rützel became the new “staff producer” of the Hamburg “Phonogram”. On the one hand he was responsible for the young pop musicians, but on the other hand he was also responsible for jazz productions in succession to Siegfried Loch , for example with the US saxophonist Bobby Stern , the German jazz guitarist Toto Blanke , the pianist Jasper van't Hof , Chris Hinze and many more.

Later, however, the development went in a different direction: at the end of the 1970s he produced the three important albums for the development of more popular electronic music in Germany with the Austrian musician Hubert Bognermayr and his symphonic rock group Eela Craig, again on behalf of Phonogram "One Niter", "Hats of Glass" and "Missa Universalis".

The very successful performance of the “Missa Universalis” at the Bruckner Festival in Linz in 1978 paved the way for the founding of Ars Electronica in Linz , to which Hubert Bognermayr and Ulrich Rützel made significant contributions.

In October 1981 Ulrich Rützel founded the "Erdenklang Musikverlag" and the music label Erdenklang , which initially only focused on "computer-acoustic music". In the following years, Rützel founded other labels such as "CrossCulture" and "CCn'C", both of which offered world music as well as contemporary music and jazz.

After a serious illness, Ulrich Rützel sold his labels and publishers to Da Music in Diepholz in October 2005 . Until 2010, however, Rützel worked as a producer for the Erdenklang and “CCn'C” labels .

After 2010, Rützel, who now lives in seclusion in the Sauerland, made a name for himself with sound installations , for example the interactive Erdenklangstraße on a hiking trail in Wenholthausen in the Sauerland or the permanent installation "Steel and iron breaks, but our Essel does not" in the "Dampf-Land-Menschen Museum" in Eslohe .

Also in the Hochsauerlandkreis , Ulrich Rützel initiated and curated an art project in spring 2016 with the working title " Steamless Digital ", which is linked to his previous projects , for the first time at the Catholic high school of the Benedictine Meschede . It allowed middle school students to playfully explore the ruptures between industrial and agricultural tradition and the upcoming industrial production 4.0.

Although the project was accompanied by the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences and the North Rhine-Westphalian Center Future Through Innovation (ZDI), the MINT subjects were initially left out and interdisciplinary, creative projects were set up instead. The Regensburg consciousness researcher Thilo Hinterberger , for example, had a choreographer convert the brain waves of schoolgirls into what he called " braindance ". The internationally renowned electronic musician and producer Antye Greie-Ripatti developed apps for a digital "orchestra" with students. In the workshop Selfies of Tomorrow, the journalist and author Rainer Jogschies let middle school students fantasize about their hoped-for or feared future from their cell phone photos and process them into a small stage play.

Importance as a producer

In the early years of 1979 and 1980, which were decisive for later development, Ulrich Rützel and Hubert Bognermayr were responsible for large parts of the Linz festival program as well as global PR.

This event management at a time when the term was far from fashionable, in combination with Rützel's music production activities, had lasting consequences for the development of electronically based music. The Fairlight music computer developed by Peter Vogel in Australia was presented to a larger international audience for the first time as early as 1979 at the “Grand Price of Ars Electronica” . The main innovation of this complex (8-bit) calculating machine was the sampling method, which could save all the sounds of our world in a computer and not only make them easily accessible at any time using the keyboard, but also bring them to any desired pitch made malleable.

In January 1982, the Erdenklang label and publisher founded especially for this type of music by Ulrich Rützel in Hamburg, the album "Erdenklang Computerakustische Klangsinfonie" was released. It was the first available sound carrier with this production technology. In her liner notes for this album, Wendy Carlos noted : “Erdenklang must no longer be viewed exclusively as a technical achievement, but rather as a musical achievement. Something that electronic music has been fighting for since it was around. "

Bognermayr and Rützel came up with the term computer acoustic music specifically for this genre of music . The “ Sermon on the Mount - Oratorio for Music Computers and Voices”, published in 1983, solidified this development in music history and represents a milestone in computer music to this day.

Equally significant was the “Million Bits in Concert” concert initiated by Ulrich Rützel and organized by WDR Cologne on April 25, 1987 with electronic musicians Hubert Bognermayr , Harald Zusatzrader , Johannes Schmoelling , Kristian Schultze and Matthias Thurow . Various computer systems such as B. Fairlight CMI or PPG Wave used in a live concert. Even Mike Oldfield could be introduced into this technology Bognermayr and Zuschrader and went with the Fairlight CMI and Harald Zuschrader on tour.

Ulrich Rützel soon opened his label program, which initially only focused on electronic music, to a synthesis with global music currents: a cross-culture music was created that on the one hand almost always had something to do with electronics, but on the other - shaped by Rützel's biography - from the wealth of the Classical, jazz, folk, ethnic and medieval music.

The best-known recordings on the Erdenklang label were those with Hubert Bognermayr and Harald Abschrader or later their Blue Chip Orchestra , with Johannes Schmoelling (formerly Tangerine Dream ), with the group Tri Atma , with Bernward Koch , Erlend Krauser , Michael Hoppé , Irén Lovász , Peeter Vähi , Kirile Loo , the productions with the Ensemble Vox (with Vladimir Ivanoff ), which - influenced by Rützel - brought together electronics and medieval music for the first time. The publications of the Trautonium builder and player Oskar Sala also fell during this period .

In 1998 Rützel founded the label CCn'C (Classical, CrossCulture and Contemporary Music), which has won numerous record awards, including recordings by Kristjan Järvi and his Absolute Ensemble , the Turtle Island String Quartet , Lee Johnson , Tatiana Grindenko , Mikhail Chekalin , with the Ensemble Opus Posth. , the Hulu Project and much more

Discography

Selection of some productions by Ulrich Rützel:

• 1975: Spider's Dance - Toto Blanke - (Vertigo 6360 623)
• 1975: Virgo - Bobby Stern - (Vertigo 6360 624)
• 1975: Erich Kästner, poetry and jazz - Peter Pasetti - (Philips 6305 252)

• 1976: Libra - Bobby Stern & Head Heart and Hands - (Vertigo 6360 632)
• 1976: Electric Circus - Toto Blanke - (Vertigo 6360 634)
• 1976: One Niter - Eela Craig - (Vertigo 6360 635)

• 1978: Hats Of Glass - Eela Craig - (Vertigo 6360 638)
• 1978: Missa Universalis - Eela Craig - (Philips 6360639)

• 1980: Four Years Before 1984 - Control Company - (Teldec 6.24393)

• 1982: Erdenklang Symphony - Hubert Bognermayr & Harald Zusatzrader - (Erdenklang 8.25030)
• 1982: Longing and Harmony - Tri Atma & Gyan Nishabda - (Erdenklang 8.25315)

• 1983: Sermon on the Mount - Hubert Bognermayr & Harald Zusatzrader - (Erdenklang 89006-301)

• 1988: Blue Chip Orchestra - Blue Chip Orchestra - (Erdenklang 971.166)

• 1989: Silent Beauty - Philip Tabane - (Cross Culture 89330)
• 1989: Flowing - Bernward Koch - (Erdenklang 89332)

• 1990: My Fascinating Instrument - Oskar Sala - (Erdenklang 90340)
• 1990: Diadema Hildegard von Bingen - Vox - (Erdenklang 90343)

• 1992: From Spain To Spain - Vox - (Erdenklang 20562)
• 1992: The Path to the Heart of Asia - Peeter Vähi - (Erdenklang 20602)
• 1993: Night Pulsation - Mikhail Chekalin - (Erdenklang 30632)
• 1994: Sorrow And Solitude - Hector Zazou & Penta Leslee Swanson - (Erdenklang 40732)
• 1994: Behind The Crimson Veil - Scarlet Rivera - (Erdenklang 40702)

• 1996: Rosebuds In A Stoneyard - Irén Lovász - (Erdenklang 60892)

• 1997: Subharmonic Mixtures - Oskar Sala - (Erdenklang 70962)
• 1997: White River Red Spirit - Blue Chip Orchestra - (Erdenklang 70992)

• 1998: Supreme Silence - Peeter Vähi - (CCn'C 00182)

• 1999: Lullabies For Husbands - Kirile Loo - (Erdenklang 91062)
• 1999: Café Creole - Amanda - (CCn'C 00592)

• 2000: Night In Galicia - Opus Posth. Tatiana Grindenko - (CCn'C 00802)
• 2000: Wide Is The Danube - Irén Lovász - (CCn'C 00902)
• 2000: Absolute Mix live - Absolute Ensemble Kristjan Järvi - (CCn'C 00702)

• 2001: Come In - Opus Posth. Tatiana Grindenko - (CCn'C 01412)
• 2001: Celestials - Maarika Järvi - (CCn'C 01712)
• 2001: Last Seasons - Mikhail Chekalin - (CCn'C 01612)
• 2002: Train Songs - Spring String Quartet - (CCn'C 02022)

• 2003: Made In Sardinia - Enzo Favata - (CCn'C 02632)
• 2003: Sand Floor Cathedral - Lee Johnson - (CCn'C 02432)
• 2008: Bog Oak - Gerd Bessler - (CCn'C 03272)
• 2010: The Sermon on the Mount - Radical Codex - Bognermayr / Abschrader, Film: Ute Mansel - (Erdenklang / DA music 08155)

swell

• Ars Electronica 1982
• Entry - Giessener Electronic Library
• Jan Reetze: "Medienwelten" - Springer Verlag - 1993 - p. 88 ff.
• Peter Bickel "Music from the Machine" - Sigma Medienwissenschaft, ISBN 3-89404-908-1 .
• Jan Reetze "Music Computer - Computer Music" - JB Metzler Verlag, ISBN 3-476-30294-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On the occasion of his solo appearance at the Cologne preliminary decision for the “First International Competition for Modern Jazz” in Vienna , Heinz Josef Herbort wrote in Die Zeit (No. 13 of March 25, 1966): “Ulrich Rützel, ... a pianist who once did his style not from late Romanticism or Impressionism, but from twelve-tone speakers. As the only one by the way. "
2. ↑ See, among other things, the Rheinische Post from October 6, 1978 The spectacular climax of the whole festival. The young people who appeared in large numbers were very enthusiastic . As well as Die Zeit of September 29, 1978 Pop music conquered the Bruckner Festival - sound fantasy, euphony of electronics: ... and the Brucknerhaus raced .
3. ↑ For the history of the “Linzer Klangwolke” see in detail: Ars Electronica Festival in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
4. ↑ Website of the music publisher "Da Music"
5. ↑ website of the label CC'nC
6. ↑ Erdenklangstraße on YouTube [1]
7. ^ Website of the museum in Eslohe
8. ^ Newspaper report on the opening of the art sound installation "Stahl und Eisen breaks ..." in the Esloher Museum on July 14, 2013 [2]
9. ↑ Website of the art project "Steamless digital"
10. ↑ ZDI website
11. ↑ Website of the research project [3]
12. ↑ "Dancing on the waves of the brain" - In the 'Dampflos Digital' project, students get to know a new dimension of modern technology, in: "Westfalenpost" from July 9, 2016 Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ↑ "Electronic musician leads app orchestra - Monday starts a project week at the Benedictine high school under the motto 'Steamless Digital'", in: Westfalenpost from June 30, 2016 Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info : The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
14. ↑ The project was portrayed in a video from the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences [4]
15. ↑ In the thirtieth year, according to Markus Zinsmaier on "ZEIT Online" on September 4, 2009 [5] , "the media art festival has long since grown up and has nevertheless retained the experimental charm of the early years. The circle of accredited journalists and artists has grown steadily, as has the importance of the festival far beyond Austria. "And Bernd Graff summarized the further development in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on September 7, 2009:" Ars Electronica is with its many scattered venues and their all-round program of exhibitions, congresses, first-class forums and symposia, technical innovations and sensations, which fill the state capital, has always been something like a comprehensive work of art in the here and now: just as visionary as crazy, just as pragmatic as programmatic in its conception. “ [6]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
16. ↑ See the liner notes under Teldec 6.25030 / LC 8155
17. ↑ "The Sermon on the Mount " was released on DVD in 2010 with a "film-photographic interpretation" by director Ute Mansel with the subtitle "Radical Codex"
18. ↑ This is the assessment made by Veronica Matho in: "The 100 best rock and pop LPs" - Veronica Matho, Berlin 1987, Ullstein book UTB No. 36537, p. 24
19. ↑ See http://www.johannesschmoelling.de/html/mbic.htm
20. ↑ Collaboration with Mike Oldfield (Interview in Musik Szene , 1984) Archived copy ( memento of the original from August 24, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
21. ↑ For a more complete overview, go to: http://www.erdenklang.de and http://www.ccnc.de