Asmus Tietchens is one of the most renowned German artists in the abstract music scene. “Nachtstücke” is his first ever solo work, produced by Tangerine-Dream’s Peter Baumann for the EGG label in France. Shadowy, ghostly, predominantly solemn synthesizer music from 1975 to 1978, far removed from the oblique synth pop albums of his subsequent “Zeitzeichen” phase.
• New cover artwork
• Available on CD (Digipak), vinyl (180g)
Nachtstücke owed its publication to former Tangerine-Dream member Peter Baumann,who was asked by the French label Barclay/EGG to produce three albums focussing specifically on German electronic music. He was working with Hans-Joachim Roedelius at the time, who had been given a few Tietchens tracks on cassette. When Baumann heard Roedelius play them in the studio during a break in proceedings, they sparked his interest and he met up with Tietchens some time later; they agreed that he would go over the material again and edit or abridge it in places. A release date was pencilled in for the latter part of 1978. The commissioning label, however, doubting the commercial potential of the project (Tietchens: “How right they would turn out to be”), postponed the release and had to be reminded of contractual commitments on more than one occasions. When the Nachtstücke LP finally appeared, almost two years later, it bore the unauthorized subheading Expressions et Perspectives Sonores Intemporelles and featured a completely different cover. Originally, the album was to depict a leathery embryo with a laser beam shooting through its eye (Tietchens: “I liked the idea of starting with something so gruesome”), but now three blurred figures danced on the sleeve: “I was pretty disgusted when I opened the package containing my copies”, Tietchens reports, taking the rerelease as his cue to create completely new artwork.
Nachtstücke has surprisingly little in common with the pseudo-pop of the ensuing Sky Phase, but shines a light further ahead to the gloomy, spectral aspects of Tietchens’ later works. Created between 1975 and 1978, the Nachtstücke pieces reveal a deliberate approach, avoiding dissonance and discord wherever possible. Still, the release saw the album “fall right out of time” as Tietchens frankly admits: “Gentle rhythm and harmonic beatitude did not suit the concert of advanced pop music as it was then being played.” Nevertheless, the Nachtstücke tracks remain important to the artist, as they document his early encounters with the Moog Sonic Six and Minimoog. With this in mind, the material is presented here in its original, unadulterated form.
