Heaven

Die Symbiose aus elektronischer Musik und klassischen Kompositionsprinzipien hat es in der Form noch nie gegeben – in welche Schublade soll man den Buben also stecken?

D2000 08/98

Categories CD, No Shop

Produktion

Credits

Tracklist

Produktionszeitraum: August 1997 bis Januar 1998
Veröffentlicht im September 1998 auf Intercord
Format: CD
Singleauskopplungen : Lucifer im August 1998 und Sketches in Spring im April 1999

Performed & produced by Cosmic Baby.
Composed by Cosmic Baby except track 8 by Cosmic Baby & Felicia „Kyle“ Alexander and track 13 by Alan Parsons & Eric Woolfson.
Engineered & mastered by Wolfgang Ragwitz.
Published by Cosmic Enterprises Music & Publishing GmbH except track 13 by Woolfsongs LTD./BMG.
Artwork: authentic decade, Berlin

Gedanken

Mit „Heaven“ wollte ich einer Fülle von großen inneren und äußeren Ansprüchen gerecht werden: es sollte charttauglich sein, und gleichzeitig anspruchsvoll, es sollte bezaubern wie „Stellar Supreme“, aber doch anders klingen, es sollte „mehr als Techno“ sein und doch Teil davon, ich wollte den Brückenschlag zur klassischen Musik mit anderen Mitteln weiter vorantreiben.

Sollte, wollte, musste…
Ich betrachtete das neue Album-Vorhaben „Heaven“ als eine Aufgabe, die ich zu lösen hatte, der ich
gerecht werden musste. Ich suchte nach vielen möglichen inspirativen Ansätzen…

Es wäre sicher eine gute Idee gewesen, “Heaven” mit zwei radikal unterschiedlichen Seiten als Doppel-CD-Album herauszubringen. Denn zur gleichen Zeit arbeitete ich parallel weitaus zielstrebiger an den Stücken, die stringent von einer klaren Idee bestimmt waren:
elektronische (Pop-)Musik ausschließlich mit Instrumenten der 70er-Jahre zu machen (Diese Stücke waren gesammelt unter dem Thema „Industrie & Melodie“ die ich erst im Dezember 2006, also mit 7-jähriger Verspätung veröffentlichte). Die “gleichberechtigte” Durchsetzung dieser Stücke auf dem Album, hätte sehr wahrscheinlich zu einem befreiteren und gleichzeitig stärker konturiertem Umgang mit dem vorliegenden “Heaven”-Material führen können. Der Kopf war leider nicht frei genug – ich war einfach zu angespannt und zu unsicher: Ich machte mir zu viele Gedanken…

Jetzt aus dem Abstand heraus kann ich das Album mit viel mehr Mitgefühl und mit einem Lächeln wieder hören…

… erst in der Erinnerung weiß ich die vielen Stunden wieder zu schätzen, die ich mit meinem Freund und Tonmeister Wolfgang Ragwitz in meinem Studio zu Hause im schönen Berlin-Schlachtensee beim Philosophieren, Diskutieren, Aufnehmen und Mischen verbrachte. Und erst jetzt wird mir wirklich bewußt, dass „Heaven“ in einigen Passagen ganz eindeutig das vorwegnimmt, was seit einigen Jahren gerne als „Neoklassik“ bezeichnet wird… Junge Dame / junger Mann melancholisch am Klavier, oder junge Dame / junger Mann am Flügel mit konzentriertem Blick eine am Juno oder Prophet programmierte Sequenz überwachend und deren Filter mit der linken Hand steuernd: Beispiel gefällig? “Würzburg”!

Kritiken

Daniel Karg

Harald Bluechel aka COSMIC BABY is probably the protagonist of the German electronic scene to whom the term “intellectual artist” can best be applied. Classical musical training, music studies, since ’91 both dance releases and simultaneous work in soundtrack format, brilliant live performances, bourgeois country house life with afternoon tea: all this goes far beyond the scope of the 08-15 super DJ, who leaves a clever impression with his three differentiated opinions on the subject of the underground and the future. At least it has a different quality. Accordingly, “Heaven” leaves a lot of room for daring interpretations that move within the framework of the permanent conflict between age and ego. “Heaven” is the epic of a dreamer who lets 90% pink and 10% gray clouds pass by, incorporates supernatural dream experiments and clearly indicates unreality as the vanishing point. It is clear that Bluechel’s potential is huge; “Heaven” from someone else’s pen would fall into the abyss as the thousandth JEAN-MICHEL JARRE copy. Clichéd trance film music that doesn’t exude that special touch on its own, even if it sounds quite nice with your eyes closed.

D2000

[…] Harald Bluechel proves it with his own compositions – synthesizers and rhythm machines result in a sometimes melancholy sound rhythm. […] The symbiosis of electronic music and classical compositional principles has never existed in this form before – so what category should you put the boy in? […] “His instrumental music offers the opportunity to be accompanied by a parallel world that arises before the inner eye.” […] young people actually dance to his music […] he clearly stands out from the mass spectacle of electronic music […] Of course, this time the music also defies any labeling. And if so, then at most for the music that Harald has created for himself: “Reduced, electronic music that combines elements from different directions into a new and clear compositional world.”
It is a cosmic offspring that roams through the universe on its way to new unknown dimensions, delighting in everything, only to create its own universe from the wealth of impressions it has gained. Planets are formed there, galaxies collapse again, black holes swallow up what exists and in the end throw it out again as an interesting conglomerate of the most diverse time streams. […]

Robert Baumann

[…] Cosmic Baby took over three years to produce his new album. “Heaven” is a concept album in two parts, dealing with the earthly and the supernatural. “Both”, says Bluechel, “exist in parallel”. Therefore, both are musically brought to the ideal state in the exact temporal middle of the album and at the same time in the middle of the key title “Sketches In Spring”, in which the dialectic of “earthly” and “supernatural” is briefly suspended. Cosmic Baby claims that there can be no terminus technicus for his music, which is true, but…. you can still hear influences. House, techno, ambient, trance in a melange with enamored piano melodies. To Another Plane” and “Karma Il” are very nice, because they provide the necessary momentum on the dance floor with driving beats. Lucifer does the same, but has to be mentioned separately because it is an imaginative (for a change) cover version of Alan Parsons’ “Monitor” theme tune. The “Suite Russe” is a beautiful little piano piece and “Good Times” is reminiscent of the good old (and new) days of breakdancing. But the best thing about “Heaven” is its authenticity. […]

Thomas Guntermann

[…] The techno blade runner was born in ’66 and is therefore actually too old for techno. Consequently, Cosmic Baby’s techno “Heaven” in ’98 is not in the bad breath range of techno mama Marusha, but in the white listening noise of people who were influenced by the heroes of the 70s in the 80s. So “Heaven” is either brilliant or off the mark. There’s nothing in between. First of all, Cosmic Baby has given the album a philosophical superstructure. This is comprehensive in the New Age sense or arbitrary at will. The philosophical theme is actually uninteresting. Much more interesting, because it is new, is the attempt to link the wordless electronics to the album culture of the 70s with theory and a concept of content. “Heaven” is not a techno-pop album like Sven Väth’s “Fusion”. It is an attempt to breathe new life into music that is by definition one-dimensional using the means of the double album. The album, the concept, the artist, the ideology – electronics on interpersonal, ambitious, sophisticated, endearing and yet too close to the Alan Parsons Project. Or was someone trying to anticipate “The Wall” for the new millennium? […]

Heaven

Gedanken

Kritiken

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