Wunderbar

Wolfgang Riechmann | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 21, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bureau B
• ASIN: B00278FSI2
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #320,078 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Bureau B unearthed one of the best kept secrets of German electronic music. Wolfgang Riechmann's album "Wunderbar" from 1978 contains elements of the Berlin School (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze) and of the D sseldorf School (Kraftwerk, La D sseldorf, NEU!), and yet has hypnotic, spheral qualities all of its own. This album, however, is beautiful and tragic in equal measure, as Wolfgang Riechmann fell victim to a knife attack just three weeks before the LP went on sale. He was stabbed in the chest in a chance encounter with a drunk in Dusseldorf's Altstadt, the perpetrator "letting off steam" after a dispute with the landlord of his local pub, as he later recounted in court. With this reissue we take our hats off to Wolfgang Riechmann.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wunderbar, indeed!, September 9, 2009

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T. Hardin (seaside,oregon) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Wunderbar (Audio CD)

So apparently this artist was murdered shortly before this was released in 1978.His musical colleagues having included Michael Rother and Wolfgang Flur, among others. And that becomes quite apparent upon hearing this release as it brings immediately to mind Kraftwerk, La Dusseldorf and Klaus Schultz. Though upon repeat listens this is much more than the sum of its aforementioned influences (perhaps its the other way around?).

One thing that really struck me is the strong sound of the production,taking into account this was recorded in 1977 - 78! It's mostly instrumental,with only occasional vocal mutterings sprinkled here and there so think more Klaus Schultz and La Dusseldorf as opposed to the electro pop of Kraftwerk that was recorded in this same time period. One of the tracks has a real slow,creepingly ominous feel like something straight off a John Carpenter soundtrack - remember, this is 77-78!

Excellent stuff that is becoming more brilliant with each subsequent listen. Recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Cloud has a Silver Lining, December 18, 2011

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A listener - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Wunderbar (Audio CD)

Reichman is sadlly long dead and this is must form his epitaph. Like the cosmetic club gothic image of Reichman on the cover, the music at once has a nostalgic slightly mournful presence yet is removed,screened and refined by layers of compositional choices. Often derided as picture music, these kinds of plangent rythmical synthesised works presaged much of what was to follow, from Techno beat, to dance, to trance to ambient. A multi-instrumentalist, Reichman was involved early in the seminal forces of the 70's Industrial sound from Germany. Reichman does a lot with a little. While not as instrumentally inventive or as lyrically pastoral as say, Cluster's Sowiesoso, Reichman's Wunderbar seems inspired by a more modified approach to nature, as is he was comtemplating life within a laboratory, studying perhaps the growth and collision of crystals. Like a Christopher Marlowe, tragically also stabbed in an incidnet, cut off in their prime, one can only surmise what might have followed. Still we can enjoy what has been left to us.