Zodiak Free Arts Lab

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The Zodiak Free Arts Lab , also known as the "Zodiak Club" or "Zodiac Club", was a short-lived, yet successful project that had a major impact on the experimental live music landscape of the time. Founded in West Berlin in the late days of 1967 by the artists and musicians Conrad Schnitzler and Hans-Joachim Roedelius , together with Boris Schaaak .

history

The Zodiak Free Arts Lab was located in rented rooms in a building on Hallesches Ufer, on the north side of the Landwehr Canal in Berlin-Kreuzberg , near Großbeerenstraße, Möckernbrücke underground station . The building was the first seat of the Berlin Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer , a political theater. Due to the close proximity of the zodiac to the theater, the club's opening times were set after the end of the theater events so that the theater performances could not be disturbed by a high level of noise.

The zodiac itself was divided into two areas that could be used for performances. One area was painted completely in white, the other completely in black, everywhere there were various instruments, amplifiers and loudspeakers that could be used more or less freely by those present. Here musicians could experiment with different stylistic devices, e.g. B. free jazz , psychedelic rock or avant-garde . Conventional styles of music were frowned upon, however, in keeping with the zeitgeist, the classically structured song was considered too bourgeois.

Among the many artists, musicians and bands who used the Zodiak as a platform were names like Ash Ra Tempel , Geräusche , Plus / Minus , Curly Curve , Per Sonore , Human Being , The Agitation later known as Agitation Free , Klaus Schulze and also Tangerine Dream . Admission was usually low or free, the loud and iconoclastically improvised concerts often culminated in destroyed equipment. The club played an important role in the development of a style of music that would later get the stamp of Krautrock .

Whether it was due to the high volume warnings from the Schaubühnen management or the simple fact of restlessness in the West Berlin scene at the time, constantly looking for free space, that is not further proven, the zodiac only survived a few months and closed at the beginning 1969. Nonetheless, the Zodiak Free Arts Lab deserves a place it deserves in German music history and is fondly remembered by those who worked there. Conrad Schnitzler, one of the founders of the Zodiak, was accepted into the group Tangerine Dream in 1969, where they recorded the first album Electronic Meditation , which was released in 1970. Later Schnitzler founded his own band with the other Zodiak founders, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius , which first called itself "Kluster" and later called Cluster .

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