Radio Schwingungen: Elektronische Elegien Vol. 4/5

4.01 - As Ships In The Night [by John Kerr]
4.02 - Endless Running [by Double Fantasy]
4.03 - Schwanensee II [excerpt] [by Klaus Schulze]
4.04 - Strange Light [by Brian Eno]
4.05 - The Rocky Mountains [by Wendy Carlos]
4.06 - Wolkenreise 78 [by Eroc]
4.07 - Heaven and Hell Part II [excerpt] [by Vangelis]
4.08 - Movement VII from 'El Greco'[by Vangelis]
4.09 - Virtual Journey [by Ian Boddy]
4.10 - Heinrich von Kleist [excerpt] [by Klaus Schulze]
4.11 - Unfamiliar Winds (Leeks Hills) [by Brian Eno]
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Radio Schwingungen: Elektronische Elegien Vol. 3/5

More electronic tunes for frozen winter nights:
3.01 - Alleewalzer (1982) [by Thomas Dinger]
3.02 - Oxygene Part 6 [by Jean Michel Jarre]
3.03 - La Petite Fille De La Mer [by Vangelis]
3.04 - A Distant Memory [by Symbian]
3.05 - Secret Feelings [by Rolf Trostel]
3.06 - Havlandet [excerpt] [by Klaus Schulze & Rainer Bloss]
3.07 - Frozen Breath of Life [by Robert Schroeder]
3.08 - Hands and Clouds [by Andreas Vollenweider]
3.09 - Spacelab [by Dieter Schütz]
3.10 - Sometimes I Cry [by Les McCann]
3.11 - Tears In Rain [by Vangelis]
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Radio Schwingungen: Elektronische Elegien Vol. 2/5

With our second installment of Elektronische Elegien (=electronic elegies) we continue to explore the bipolar regions of electronic tunes: music whiches pushes you to emotional heights in one second, and to melancholical lows in another. This anatagonistic quality will not leave you untouched...
2.01 - Erdung [by Blue Chip Orchestra]
2.02 - Before I Rest [extract] [by Les McCann]
2.03 - Sparrowfall (1) [by Brian Eno]
2.04 - Sparrowfall (2) [by Brian Eno]
2.05 - Sparrowfall (3) [by Brain Eno]
2.06 - Rachel's Song [by Vangelis]
2.07 - Oxygene Part 2 [by Jean Michel Jarre]
2.08 - Soli Festivites (Movement 1) [by Vangelis]
2.09 - In The Ocean Of Dreams [by Ralph Lundsten]
2.10 - Inside the Harlequin [by Klaus Schulze]
2.11 - The Inside of Feelings [by Robert Schroeder]
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Radio Schwingungen: Elektronische Elegien Vol. 1/5

Elegies are born when beauty meets sadness. Elegies are melodic but not simple, are beautiful but not naive, are moving but not schmaltzy. Schwingungen was a wonderful place to discover such electronic elegies, a few of which I have tried to compile in a series of 5 albums.

This is what you'll get in part one:
1.01 - Soaring (at Dawn) Part I [by Les McCann]
1.02 - Heartbreaker [by Double Fantasy]
1.03 - Morgana da Capo [by Ashra]
1.04 - Dis Moll Adagio [by Rolf Trostel]
1.05 - Movement III [by Vangelis]
1.06 - Prelude [by Neuronium]
1.07 - Slow Water [by Brian Eno]
1.08 - Memories of Green [by Vangelis]
1.09 - La vie secrète [excerpt] [by Klaus Schulze]
1.10 - Brutal Ardour [by Brian Eno]

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Schwingungen Polls 1993: Top 3 songs

#01 Ron Boots: Twisted Tales

#02 John Kerr: As Ships in the Night

#03 Tangerine Dream: 220 Volt

Radio Schwingungen: Sternenmusik Vol. 2

Alternate cover:

This is a sequel to last week's Sternenmusik Vol. 1, adding some cosmic music to our space music bouquet. This is what you'll get today:

01 - Albedo 0.39 [by Vangelis]
02 - Taygeta [by Nik Tyndall]
03 - Starmoods [by Jonn Serrie]
04 - Still [excerpt] [by Steve Roach]
05 - Beyond the Cosmic Horizon [by Michael Garrison]
06 - Toto, I've A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore [by Michael Stearns]
07 - Begin Where I End [by Steve Roach]
08 - The Stars Tonight [by Michael Garrison]

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Schwingungen Polls 1992: Top 3 songs

#01 John Kerr: The Seed
#02 Dennis Hart: Contiki
#03 Christopher Franke: Purple Waves [Studio version, extract]

Radio Schwingungen: Sternenmusik Vol. 1

Alternate cover:

To me, two distinct styles represent the essence of Radio Schwingungen: (1) Cosmic/space music, and (2) melodic elegies. Then there's a third stream which (in my humble opinion) ruined Schwingungen: superficial melodic new age instrumental music - or, as I prefer to call it, Schlager without words. Anyway, I have compiled some of best tracks from (1) and (2) and here we go:

Sternenmusik features some essential space music, or music for stargazing or however you'd like to call this type of music mostly associated with the likes of Michael Stearns and Steve Roach. For the being I've excluded the cosmic music stream because it's far too big and complex stream to be covered in a single compilation.

Here's what you get today:

01 - In the Beginning... [by Michael Stearns]
02 - Alkyone [by Nik Tyndall]
03 - Kilree [by Matthias Grassow]
04 - Infinite Shore [by Steve Roach]
05 - Continuum [by Jonn Serrie]
06 - Jewel [by Michael Stearns]
07 - Regeneration Mode [by Van Zyl & Gulch]

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Requests for Radio Schwingungen

95% of the 442 items that I am going to post here in the future are ready - but going for 100% and securing my mission to preserve the legacy of Schwingungen requires your help. Please consider sharing with me (through comments or email to adam.eleven at googlemail.com) if you have some of the following recordings. Many thanks in advance.

• Terra: Terra
• Burkard Schmidl: Klanggarten
• Rüdiger Gleisberg: Chronical '86-'93
• Rüdiger Lorenz: The Last Secret Of
• Erlend Krauser: Erlend Krauser
• Eberhard Schoener: Bon Voage
• Gold-System (=Martin Buntrock): Meer
• Lila: Amethyst
• Rudolf Heimann: Touch The Sky
• (Guitar Special) Sigi Schwab: Meditation Vol. 2
• Nik Tyndall: Entspannung
• Aga Kaan: Bon Voyage
• Amao: Keep Cool
• Klaus Netzle: Shambhala
• Intence: Triade
• Ben Serano: Music For Fantasy
• Jakino's 7th World: Ocean Alpha
• Norman Grey: Once upon a time

Schwingungen Polls 1991: Top 3 songs

#01 Peter Seiler: The Longing for...
#02 Dennis Hart: Meridian
#03 John Dyson: Shadows

Schwingungen Polls 1990: Top 3 songs

# 01 Dennis Hart: Sternthaler
# 02 John Kerr & Ron Boots: Oceans of Emotions
# 03 Mind over Matter: Jack the Bear

Radio Schwingungen: Status Update

A quick status update for Radio Schwingungen:

• I am planning to post samples of all 222 albums mentioned in the 11 annual polls (top twenty) - 190 albums are already available, 32 are still missing.
• I am also planning to post all 220 songs mentioned in the 11 annual polls (top twenty) - 203 songs are already available, and just 17 still missing.
• I am also planning a series of special shows: a) "Stargazer": Space Music; b) Portraits of You - Harald Grosskopf - Dieter Schütz - Peter Schäfer - Conrad Schnitzler - Peter Frohmader; and c) Electronic Music Classics 1970-1990.

This is a work in progress. More info hopefully soon.

Schwingungen Polls 1989: Top 3 songs

# 01 Dennis Hart: Blue Planet
# 02 Helmut Teubner: Heaven's Light
# 03 Bernd Kistenmacher: Ferne Ziele [excerpt]

Schwingungen Polls 1988: Top 3 songs

# 01 Klaus Schulze: FM Delight [excerpt]
# 02 Tangerine Dream: Marakesh
# 03 Software: Island-sunrise

Schwingungen Polls 1987: Top 3 songs

#01 (a) Robert Schroeder: The Message (Part 1)
#01 (b) Robert Schroeder: The Message (Part 2)
#02 Tangerine Dream: Tyger
#03 Bernd Kistenmacher: Cassandra's Dance [excerpt]

Official launch of Radio Schwingungen

After having fixed some technical problems this blog is now officially online. Every Thursday we're going to update it with a new selection from the annual Schwingungen polls. For the time being we have to stick to the top 3, but we're working hard to make the full top 20 selection available sometime in the future.

Further, on our sidebars, please find some technical gadgets & service information:

(a) Our new "RockIt" Audioblog Search Engine: On the basis of our 160 favourite sharity blogs we've created a Google Custom Search Engine exclusively searching downloadable audio blogs (range: krautrock, electronic, jazz, weird, avantgarde, contemporary classical etc.)

(b) Schwingungen title melodies: Using our embedded audio player (requires Flash) you will be able to listen to Schwingungen's two signature tunes: (i) Harald Grosskopf's So weit so gut (used from 1984 to 1993 or so) and (ii) Michael Garrison's Departure.

(c) There's a massive directory of links to other sharity blogs, mail-orders, record labels and electronic artists from that era.

Enjoy!

And don't forget to leave a comment if you like this blog. Passive freeriders are killing web 2.0.

Schwingungen Polls 1986: Top 3 songs

#01 (a) Tangerine Dream: Song of the Whale (Part 1)

#01 (b) Tangerine Dream: Song of the Whale (Part 2)

#02 Peter Seiler: Grönland

#03 You: Passing Landscapes

Schwingungen Polls 1985: Top 3 songs

#01 Yello: Ciel Ouvert
#02 Tangerine Dream: Yellowstone Park
#03 Serge Blenner: Esthematique

Introduction to Radio Schwingungen

Hello. This is Adam Eleven from Orpheus Music: The Electronic Music Time Machine where I present vintage, commercially neglected electronic music from Pierre Henry to Roland Kayn.

In this side project, I will revive the nostalgic days when "Schwingungen" was still on the air, and when your Thursday evenings/nights were dedicated to electronic musings.

"Schwingungen" was quite a popular radio show on the West German Radio (WDR=Westdeutscher Rundfunk), moderated by Winfrid Trenkler. It ran between 1984 and 1995 and focussed on "popular/mainstream" electronic music - something in between new age & melodic stuff (J.M. Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis), but with occassional outings to more abstract and "experimental" stuff like Conrad Schnitzler and the early Ralph Lundsten. At this time, Schwingungen was more or less the only source of this type of electronic music (or even any electronics) on the Radio (outside the U.S.). But it wasn't just an conventional outlet of electronic music; Winfrid left no stone unturned to produce exclusive background content on the "scene": for instance, he visited Vangelis for an extended interview in his Hotel studio in Paris & Ralph Lundsten on his penninsula just outside Stockholm; Klaus Schulze & Tangerine Dream were regular visitors in Winfrid's Cologne studio; and there were even exclusive radio concerts with Ashra, Klaus Schulze and a bunch of others.

To make a long story short, this whole thing got me into electronic music. Although I'm not into the rather cheesy & plain Schwingungen stuff any longer (I nowadays prefer Xenakis' UPIC noise, Kayn's cybernetic madness, Pousseur's idosyncratic oscillations & Henry's sonic savageness) - I still enjoy a nostalgic dose of melody from time to time, and thought it would be high time to pay tribute to the once leading electronic show in Europe.

We'll I stop waffling in a minute. The purpose of this blog is to bring you some music from this era, plus some background info (interviews with Winfrid Trenkler and so on). The plan is like this: In the course of the next few months or so I'm going to post most of the top-twenty entries of the ten annual plus one "all-time" polls.

I don't have a definite release schedule so far, but this is likely to get rolling in November - so subscribe to my RSS and stay tuned to Radio Schwingungen.

Adam Eleven