Harmonic Ascendant (1979)

“The best way to start your Robert Schroeder discovery”

1 Harmonic Ascendant 22:16  
2 Future Passing By 9:19 
3 The Day After X 11:41 
IC ‎– KS 80 033 (43:15) *****
(Retro Berlin School)

Klaus Schulze's old apprentice, Robert Schroeder was a victim of bad timing when he launches this all-time classic in EM; “Harmonic Ascendant”. Whereas EM knew its first difficulties in Europe and while the breath of digital instruments gave a colder tonus to this wonderful musical art, Robert Schroeder released with a naive freshness a superb album which combined the moods of a sort of psychedelic electronic music tinted of a moving romanticism.
The whole thing starts when some notes of a soft guitar cross the reverberations of mislaid piano’s notes. Suddenly, everything stops! A light bluish mist is settling down and its smog is dispersing with the superbly nostalgic acoustic guitar of Udo Mattusch. So we are enthralled by this tone so clear which comes out of this delicate fusion of the piano and the acoustic guitar. A very ethereal synth wraps this inmost complicity which loses its piano in the mist a little bit farther. Alone, the guitar breaths in those misty mellotron pads while that Wolfgang Tiepold's cello embraces this long romantic track of its first bow rubblings. This is a purely wonderful moment the we have here. Like a soundtrack of a poignant movie, Tiepold strings eat our emotions of an ignored sensibility until here, while the first bites of Robert Schroeder's synth create the same charms. In a magnificent celestial movement, the guitar, the cello and the synth combine their strange lamentations which merge in a single appeal to the soul. At around the 9th minute Udo Mattusch's finds itself alone introducing the first sequences of "Harmonic Ascendant". Harmonious, minimalism and hypnotic this sequenced movement is a road to perdition for the guitar and the foggy synth, leaving all the room to Tiepold’s sublime cello which plows a melodious path more and more accentuated by a firm sequencer, revealing a psychedelic-electronic passage of a melancholic cohesion and of a harmonious beauty. 
On the other side of this truly and splendid masterpiece there are "Future Passing By" and "The Day After X". Two tracks which are quite the opposite of "Harmonic Ascendant" with their electronic approaches and their strange moods. "Future Passing By" lets filter a vocoder which chews its words in an ambient universe. A universe which is waking up quietly on a synth painted of melodious prisms and on a  sequencer which is waving lightly. Filled of choirs and of dark breezes, "Future Passing By" turns into a slow ethereal procession which fades out in its moods. "The Day After X" presents an intro which is rather similar to "Future Passing By". In fact, a meshing could have been done between both extremities so much that is sounding like that. The intro is more ambient and is crossed by metallic streaks and some very metallic laments. A fine sequence is getting out of this strange industrial mood. Undulating and vaguely indistinct, this movement of the sequencer is substituting to this heterogeneous intro in order to forge a minimalism tempo which draws its harmonies on a superb synth filled of soft solos which get wrapped by foggy layers and so melting to these light modulation lines of the sequencer.
Produced by Klaus Schulze on his Innovative Communication label, “Harmonic Ascendant” was like a breath of fresh air on the scene of EM at that time. Even if not as much sequenced or rhythmic as the major works of that era, it amazed a lot of people by its fascinating minimalist approach. It’s a superb album with 2 different sides of EM. The romantic mood of the title-track remains a masterpiece which has travelled through the ages. It’s strongly recommended for the fans of Klaus Schulze and to those who have this romantic flame in the soul.
Sylvain Lupari
gutsofdarkness.com & synthsequences.blogspot.ca
Liens/Links related to this album:
The title-track on YouTube
The whole album on YouTube

Ancien élève de Klaus Schulze, Robert Schroeder a été victime de mauvais timing ors du lancement de son immortel classique; “Harmonic Ascendant” .Alors que la MÉ connaissait son 1ier creux de vague en Europe et que le souffle des instruments numériques donnait un tonus plus froid à la MÉ, Robert Schroeder déposait avec une fraîcheur naïve un album électro psychédélique teinté d’un romantisme désarmant.
Le tout débute lorsque des accords d’une douce guitare croisent la réverbération d’une note de piano égarée. Soudainement, tout s’arrête. Une légère brume bleutée s’installe dont les voiles se dissipent  auprès de la superbe guitare acoustique d’Udo Mattusch. Nous sommes subjugués par la sonorité si claire qui émane de cette délicate fusion piano/guitare acoustique. Un synthé très éthéré enveloppe cette intime complicité qui perd son piano dans la brume. Seule la guitare hume la brumeuse mellotronnée, alors que le violoncelle de Wolfgang Tiepold embrasse ce long titre romantique de ses premiers frottements d’archets. Que c’est beau. Comme une trame sonore d’un drame déchirant, les cordes de Tiepold ramassent les émotions d’une sensibilité ignorées, pendant que les premières morsures du synthé de Schroeder opèrent le même charme. Dans un superbe mouvement céleste, guitare, violoncelle et synthé combinent d’étranges lamentations qui fusionnent en un seul appel de l’âme. Vers la 9ième minute, la guitare de Udo Mattusch se retrouve seul, initiant les premières séquences de Harmonic Ascendant. Harmonique, minimalisme et hypnotique, ce mouvement séquentiel est une route de perdition pour guitare et synthé brumeux, laissant toute la place au sublime violoncelle de Tiepold qui arche une route mélodieuse de plus en plus accentuée par un séquenceur tenace. Dévoilant un passage psychédélico-électronique d’une cohésion mélancolique et d’une beauté harmonieuse. Un petit chef d’œuvre!
Future Passing By exploite un vocodeur qui mâchonne ses mots dans un univers ambiant. Un univers qui s’éveille tranquillement, sur un synthé aux prismes mélodieux et une légère séquence ondulante. Truffé de chœurs aux souffles sombres, Future Passing By devient une lente procession éthérée. The Day After X présente une intro assez similaire à Future Passing By. En fait, un maillage aurait pu subsister entre les deux extrémités que ça aurait bien passé. L’intro est plus ambiante et est traversée de striures métalliques aux lamentations acerbes. Une fine séquence se dessine. Ondoyante, elle se substitue à cette intro hétéroclite pour dessiner un tempo minimalisme qui puise ses harmonies sur un superbe synthé aux solos doux, nappés de couches sonores brumeuses qui se fondent aux légères modulations séquencées.
Produit par Klaus Schulze sur son label IC, “Harmonic Ascendant” dégage une fraîcheur juvénile et étonne par une ambiance minimalisme moins monotone par rapport aux œuvres de la même période. Extrêmement doux et mélodieux  c’est une œuvre fortement recommandée aux amateurs de Klaus Schulze et à tous ceux qui ont le romantisme dans l’âme. La pièce titre est à crevé l’abcès de la fragilité.
Sylvain Lupari

About Robert Schroeder

Born in Aachen, Germany, on May 20, 1955 Robert Schroeder made his first musical experiences on guitar. After initial attempts at various methods of electronic noise generation, he switched to a synthesizer. He then chose to goes solo after playing music with some local bands. He began to explore more and more the EM scene by experimenting parts of synths and other relative EM instruments. Soon he will learn how to build synths and instruments for musicians as well as recording studio equipment and finally his own synthesizers, having thus his own sound.

Being a huge aficionado of Klaus Schulze, he named his second son, born in 78, after him. He also managed to win his trust and has him as the godfather of baby Klaus. This is how Schulze and Schroeder connected their bonds. After having heard Schroerder’s music, Schulze proposed him a record contract with Innovative Communication (IC) which belongs to Schulze.
Schroeder ended his career as an electrical engineer with the publication of a generally comprehensible specialist book on the self-construction of a so-called step sequencer. From 1979 onwards, he devoted himself primarily to music, but also worked for other artists, especially Klaus Schulze, for whom he developed and built various devices. 
He released his first album Harmonic Ascendant in 1979 with the help of Udo Mattusch on guitar and Wolfgang Tiepold on cello. The music had to be completely reworked as it did not appeal to the decision makers of the distribution company WEA . The album is characterized by the combination of electronic and acoustic elements. The second album entitled  » Floating Music » was released in 1980 and has been rated by the press as one of the best productions in the electronic music of the year. With the third album Mosaique from 1981, the music of Schroeder was more rhythmic. Supported by Charly Büchel (guitar), Rob van Schaik (bass) and Fred Severloh (drums), he now also increasingly inspired experimental sounds.
For the Ars Electronica in Linz, Schroeder captured the radio signals of the galaxy Cygnus-A in the constellation Schwan from the then largest mobile radio telescope in the world in 1982 and converted to the audible frequency range by amplification. The so-called « white noise » formed the basis for Schroeder’s « Music Computer Symphony », which later emerged as the Galaxy Cygnus-A album. The event, which was broadcast on television, synchronized music and images on a large screen wall.
Paradise, released in 1983 with Guenther Beckers on acoustic guitars and synth guitar and Ecky Zillman on drums, became the very first commercial success of Robert Schroeder with the single Skywalker. The next album, Computer Voice, was released on the new Schroeder’s new record company, Racket Records. The album contained a selection of Schroeder’s best songs as well as some new titles. Always digging for new ideas, he produced a music for film with the so-called artificial head technology in 1985 with Brain Voyager.
He formed Double Fantasy in 1986. The album Universal Ave. was published on IC-Digit-Label. The main idea was to provide a more groovy tone to the music of Schroeder. The music was created during long improvised studio sessions with Charly Büchel and some of it reached the charts of L.A. radio stations in the United States and responded very well to this new invasion of EM in the States known as New Age or easy listening music. The Double Fantasy name stayed and created other albums which have no relation with Robert Schroeder.
Then came Timewaves, a very successful album. Driftin, which came one year later in 1988, was also quite successful. The electronic ballads on it have met the taste of the time, so that the music of Robert hit once again various radio broadcasts, such as the WDR.
Two years later, IC-Digit released an album, which was based on a production from 1982 and was originally to be published as music from several musicians for a science fiction novel. However, Schroeder never released it due to various differences. Pegasus came in 1990 as a pure Robert Schroeder album.
In 1991 Schroeder deserted Racket Records in order to form another label of his own; NEWS-music. The first album was Hamaja which was released on September. Robert tried to light our curiosity by giving to each title a name of which the first letter of the 6 tracks form the word Hamaja and if we pronounce all of the tracks one after one it gives this following phrase; Imagination, Music for the senses anytime you listen join your forces and you will find a place of refuge. Pretty awesome! The 1993’s album Mindwalk is the fruit of a concert that Robert gave in1990 which he re-recorded and rearranged the music. Charly Büchel can be heard on the guitar as well as Schroeder.
On 8 October 1994 Robert Schroeder played with guitarist Christian Guth and drummer Horst Schippers at the KLEM-Festival in Nijmegen, Holland. A rearranged version of this event was release appeared on the album Everdreams. After a hiatus of 4 years, the album D.MO Vol. 1, a compilation of older material, was released in the framework of Robert’s 20 years of music anniversary. It was released on the German label Cue Records. There was no reworks or remixes of the old material here, giving a nostalgic charm to this first chapter of D.MO (for Demo).
The next studio album of Robert Schroeder appeared in 2005, either more than 11 years after Everdreams. The album was BrainCHIPS and was released on another German label, the so prestigious Spheric Music. BrainCHIPS was released in two versions; one strictly musical and the other with vocals sung by Rahal Brimil. Since then, Robert Schroeder produces music a lot. His Berlin School albums are release on Spheric Music and his Groovy music, he has taken a part of Double Fantasy name as Food For Fantasy, is release on his label NEWS music.
To date, including Velocity, Robert Schroeder has make more than 35 albums and participated at numerous albums in the field of EM since the mid 70’s.