krautrock – space rock
(1970 – 1979)
Psychedelic rock to krautrock and space rock
The psychedelic music of early Pink Floyd and Hawkwind evolved into experimental music and space rock.
German artists mixed elements of avant-garde composition and electronic music with those of psychedelic rock, producing kosmische musik called krautrock with bands & artists such as: Can, Amon Düül, Ash Ra Tempel, Kraftwerk, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream.
The Mellotron for MELOdy and elecTRONics is an essential analogue keyboard invented in 1963.
The Mellotron/Novatron is used by Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk.
During the 1970s, the Mellotron became common, used by The Beatles (Strawberry fields forever), King Crimson, Yes, Genesis (Get ‘em out by Friday), new wave bands : O.M.D or XTC.
The Mellotron is still in use today by bands like : Air, Justice, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, Oasis, Arcade Fire, Muse…
Experimental composer Terry Riley produced A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969), on which he played all the instruments and used tape loops and overdubs to construct a long, repetitive piece of music.
At the same time, influenced by this author, Mike Oldfield had already considered composing a musical symphony.
The Minimoog is a monophonic analogue synthesiser invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog, in collaboration with composers Walter Carlos and Herbert A. Deutsch.
Bob Moog invented the first voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and the associated filter.
The Minimoog has four sound sources : three VCOs and a noise generator.
It was used by both bands such as Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Klaus Schulze, Vangelis, Pink Floyd and Jean-Michel Jarre, and progressive bands such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes and Marillion, and later by Gary Numan, Giorgio Moroder, Abba and Daft Punk.
1970
In 1970, Mike Oldfield, bassist and guitarist with Kevin Ayers’ group The Whole World, set about composing a rock symphony, before the group split up in mid-1971.
Mike Oldfield was lent a Farfisa keyboard and a Bang & Olufsen Beocord ¼’ two-track tape recorder, then he tinkered with the tape recorder’s eraser head and generated multitrack recordings of four songs demos he had been composing in his head for a few years.
Using a tape recorder, keyboard, guitar, bass and a few toy percussion instruments, he submitted a demo of his future symphony to the members of the record distributor Virgin, who opened a recording studio in the autumn of 1971: The Manor Studio, in Oxfordshire .
1971
In 1972, the American firm brought out the ARP Odyssey analogue synthesiser, he has appeared on numerous jazz fusion, progressive rock, disco (Cerrone’s Supernature) and new wave albums by Gary Numan, Ultravox, and american rock band Devo.
In 2015, Korg Inc. acquired the rights and announced the re-creation of the Odyssey and the ARP brand.
1972
In 1972, at the age of nineteen, Mike Oldfield signed to Virgin, Richard Branson’s new label.
On 25 May 1973, Tubular Bells was the first album to be released by Virgin, under the catalogue number V2001.
1973
The American company Rocky Mount Instruments made its name in the late 60s by marketing electric pianos.
In 1970, it launched the Model 300, which proved a great success and was used by bands such as Yes and Genesis.
In 1974, the company marketed its first synthesiser, the Harmonic Synthesizer, an innovative instrument for its time, using sound additive synthesis to create a sound by superimposing harmonic sinusoidal signals and adjusting the frequency, amplitude and envelope of each oscillator.
Additive synthesis was opposed in principle to subtractive synthesis used by Moog or ARP.
1974
As a percussionist, the german composer played a part in the beginnings of Tangerine Dream, Sand and Ash Ra Tempel, before going solo and becoming one of the most prolific composers of electronic music.
Timewind is a major album by this composer, the first Klaus Schulze album to use a music sequencer.
He is one of the great pioneers of electronic music and the main artist of cosmic music.
The compositions by the group Tangerine Dream, formed in 1967 by Edgar Froese, are : Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann, for the 70s.
Keyboard artist Johannes Schmoelling replaced Peter Baumann in the 80s.
1975
1976 marked the beginning of success of the french composer with the recording of a concept album: Oxygène, a melodic musical journey divided into six movements. He used analogue synthesizers, including RMI’s Harmonic Synthesizer, released in 1974.
Jean-Michel Jarre’s studio
1976
1977
1978
1979
