Kosmischer Läufer – The Secret Cosmic Music of the East German Olympic Program 1972-83: Volume Five (2023)
Artist: Kosmischer Läufer
Album: The Secret Cosmic Music of the East German Olympic Program 1972-83: Volume Five
Genre: Krautrock, Progressive Electronic
Label: Unknown Capability Recordings
Year Of Release: 2023
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
01. Zeit zum Laufen 180 (03:39)
02. Der kosmische Strahl (06:38)
03. Schreibmaschine (05:42)
04. Im Herzen des Universums (03:48)
05. Die stille Sonne (Teil 1) (02:31)
06. Sonnenfleck I (01:16)
07. Nordlicht (05:13)
08. Sonnenfleck II (01:16)
09. Südlicht (04:41)
10. Sonnenfleck III (01:03)
11. Die stille Sonne (Teil 2) (05:33)
Back in 2013, when the first volume of Kosmischer Läufer’s ‘The Secret Cosmic Music Of The East German Olympic Program 1972-83’ was released, it purported to be the lost tapes of kosmische/krautrock music used to “train and inspire GDR’s athletic elite” in the 1970s and early 80s. Critics’ ears pricked up.
The story goes that East German composer Martin Zeichnete was drafted in to oversee “Project Kosmischer Läufer” from the early 70s onwards, inspired by the sounds of pioneering German artists such as Kraftwerk, Neu!, Cluster and others from over the Berlin Wall. Working as a sound editor for DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), he lived a parallel life for 11 years, creating motorik workout soundtracks for the Nationales Olympisches Komitee in Berlin and later writing incidental music for East German state television. Quite a tale.
The initial consensus was that the inaugural Kosmischer Läufer album was extraordinary. Music writers were gobsmacked, falling over themselves with praise. How, they seemed to say, could something as good as this have slipped the net? There were radio documentaries and investigations, aimed at finding out more about Zeichnete and his music, and even an exhibition of Kosmischer Läufer equipment and ephemera in Edinburgh in 2016. But was the project genuine, or was there some clever kidology going on?
Since that initial 2013 release, of course, there’s been widespread acknowledgement that Zeichnete and his elaborate backstory are a carefully constructed ruse by Scottish musician Drew McFadyen, who has “curated” all of the ‘Kosmischer Läufer’ (German for ‘Cosmic Runner’) volumes to date, drawn from Zeichnete’s so-called archive.
Now, 10 years later, the mystery of Kosmischer Läufer rumbles on with the fifth – and possibly final – volume in the series. For his part, McFadyen seems happy to continue the pretence. Martin Zeichnete, he says, is a pseudonym created by the musician himself to stay out of the limelight.
This sort of clever manipulation is nothing new, but when done well, it adds an inscrutable, tantalising edge. The deceased German electronicist Ursula Bogner was believed to be a persona invented by producer Jan Jelinek (although he’s never admitted it), and one of the most recent examples is that of enigmatic synthesist Abul Mogard, who always claimed to be a retired Serbian factory worker, before finally revealing himself last year to be Italian DJ Guido Zen.
But whether or not McFadyen allows his mask to slip (assuming it really is him – it almost doesn’t matter), the authentic retro-futuristic sounds are so redolent of that 1970s/80s German era, the backstory so detailed, that it seems a shame to disrupt the painstakingly assembled flow. Zeichnete’s extensive notes about ‘Volume Four’ felt distinctly scientific, even a little sci-fi and far out. It’s “a cosmic voyage of both the body and the mind”, he said, describing the process of plugging athletes into alpha wave projections, meditations and “dream-machine-like devices”. As one sharp commentator on Bandcamp brilliantly put it, “The krautrock ’n’ roll swindle continues, but who cares?”.
‘Volume Five’ pretty much carries on from where the previous four volumes left off, and it’s just as stellar and immersive. As with Zeichnete’s earlier work, the classic Kraftwerk/Neu!/Tangerine Dream/Cluster/Berlin School copybook is heavily thumbed, with more than a hint of ‘Spiral’-era Vangelis thrown in for good measure. It’s derivative, for sure, but with enough of a point of difference and compositional skill to more than stand out on its own merits.
The first section, titled ‘Laufprogramm 180’, is supposedly a 180 bpm running program in four parts. ‘Zeit Zum Laufen 180’ could be the best tune Harmonia or La Düsseldorf never wrote, while ‘Der Kosmische Strahl’ is a propulsive analogue synth charge so euphoric you can feel the endorphins kicking in.
The second section, ‘Jahre Der Rughigen Sonne’ (‘Years Of The Quiet Sun’) is more personal and reflective, in a Popol Vuh vein, indulging Zeichnete’s “lifelong interest in the planets, the stars and the mysteries of the cosmos” – so we’re told. Desperate to have his music heard by a wider audience, Zeichnete recorded tracks on his makeshift home set-up then secretly worked on them in the studio with an engineer, once his minders had got bored of watching over him and left. You couldn’t make it up.
Given that this is most likely a hoax, it’s even more remarkable that McFadyen’s passion for that seminal German era comes across in spades. Interspersed with three gorgeous contemplative interludes, ‘Sonnenfleck I-III’, this is potent machine music with real heft and emotion, much like the illustrious canon of original German kosmische. The sensuous ‘Nordlicht’ feels like a great lost Cluster offcut, but the pulsating ‘Die Still Sonne (Teil 2)’ is a real standout, its engaging synth flutters and oscillations recalling ‘Stuntman’-era Edgar Froese.
Zeichnete apparently hopes ‘Volume Five’ will convey his sense of “wonder and awe at the living universe”. Well, it’s most definitely job done, and then some.
And it might not be quite the last we’ll hear from Herr Zeichnete, either. Although the Kosmischer Läufer project has seemingly run its course, the accompanying blurb mentions the tantalising possibility of digging into Zeichnete’s personal archive for future releases. Elektronische fantastische!
~ by Vel Ilic, electronicsound
