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Ethereal Worlds and Humanized Robots
Books About Ambient Music and Kraftwerk's Wolfgang Flur: Expand your musical horizons with the roots of Ambient music in David Toop's Ocean of Sound and then get a first hand account from one of the original godfathers of electronica in Wolfgang Flur's (of Kraftwerk) autobiography, I was a Robot. Call it Ambient, call it Goa, call it opium music, whatever your pleasure the sound seeps around you, affecting everything it encounters. Musician and author David Toop, digs deep into the encompassing energy of Ambient Music in his 1995 release of Ocean of Sound from Serpents Tale Publishers. Toop introduces and relishes in the music, painting pictures of earth and space through words. Rightly so as the artists his discussions are with and about contribute to a worldly view of the music where the designated lines of style and category start to blur and mix. Where most music styles and genre's can draw from a specific line of influence, Toop sets out to showcase the endless input that has and will make Ambient music more than a half shelf section at the record store. The music takes on abstract forms in Ocean of Sound, emulating the genius of something like Sun Ra writing while possessed by the spirit of Da Vinci, adapted by Jules Verne for a Ridley Scott epic, underscored by Pink Floyd re-mixed by Larry Heard. In other words, the collage of sound that makes up ambient music is a plethora of ideas. Rooted and grown in electronic music, Ambient's seeds were planted early on in the garden of experimental minimalism by the likes of Terry Riley, John Cage and La Monte Young. The toying and gradual mastering of electronics lead to breakthroughs in production that reached Jimi Hendrix and his unfinished symphonies, as well as the bittersweet re-mastering of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. When you have such names mingle with the likes of Paul Oakenfold, the Orb, Oliver Lieb, Sven Vath and Mix-master Morris, you start to slowly comprehend this larger realm that is Ambient. The music has been displayed and viewed in this scope before, but not as intimately as Toop wraps you up in it. Overflowing from the Pages of Ocean of Sound is former Kraftwerk "Robot" Wolfgang Flur's memoir I Was a Robot. This anticipated autobiography from Sanctuary Publishing sentimentalizes the historic account of Kraftwerk, direct from their rhythm man. Flur writes vividly of his encounters with human trials and triumphs, dosing the bands robotic image evoked by their music, with a realism that is unplugged. Among the lists of those influenced by Kraftwerk, which Flur modestly avoids, he praises the musical moments and artists that molded him into one fourth of a music machine and later into his solo project "Yoma." The book is filled with quirky eccentricities that color Flur like a Monty Python character born from space pioneers who were political activists. In Wolfgang's house, The Who's My Generation induces masturbatory ejaculation as he runs from groupies trying to entwine him in a threesome. The mothership lands and George "Sticky Fingers" Clinton (of Parliament Funkadelic) inspires possible collaborations in the future and Flur's desire to work with the ubiquitous David Bowie is often prevalent Perhaps Kraftwerk's most influential piece, "The Trans Europe Express" made it to the charts and was embraced by pop culture when Afrika Bambaataa and Arthur Baker blended Mixed Numbers and the latter into Planet Rock. Flur is not hesitant in expressing his personal, and the groups', dissatisfaction with this unprecedented re-mix. His concerns dwelled heavily on the principles of intellectual property and the blatant, yet understandable cry of theft that was later made on Tommy Boy Records, who eventually paid fines for the un-licensed material. Undeniably, Flur's Journey with Kraftwerk and beyond is one of a musical pioneer. His compositions, Time Pie for instance, can be meditative and lie comfortably with the minimalist composers' theory that beauty, harmony and even melody awake within the rapture of repetition. Originally Published in BPM Culture Magazine
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Contributor's Note
When the past meets future for Jason, the moment is fueled by a creative background in music, writing, film and philosophy providing a nexus of the complex world to come. He is currently a freelance writer and ghostwriter of books, articles and screenplays.
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Books About Ambient Music and Kraftwerk's Wolfgang Flur
| BPM Magazine
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