here's a snippet from sound on sound's website archive:
DEPARTURE TIME: CHRIS FRANKE ON PETER BAUMANN'S EXIT
Chris Franke's memories of Peter Baumann are quite interesting today. "Peter was a very smart person. But we always wondered if he was a musician by deep heart. He could play music but could do other things too. Myself and Edgar were born for music and we had to do music. Peter played the game with us, and for a long time understood exactly what we were up to, so we shared a lot of musical experiences. Peter's speciality was in conceiving the music -- we discussed it, and then we played it. He knew that great music not only comes from virtuosity, but also from the mental state. That concept was very important to us, because we were making free-form music. But Peter always had a desire to go further on. He dreamt about a life that was more chic and yuppie-oriented, while myself and Edgar were more interested in being down-to-earth and continuing along the path."
best listened to while drinking bacardi and coke and wearing 80's big hair and white wham! shorts.....
It is very 80's, so the musicianship is very tight, which I like. Of course not all time, but I like the distance he made to TD and still did a great album. I'm not sure CF has managed to do that.
best listened to while drinking bacardi and coke and wearing 80's big hair and white wham! shorts.....
hmmm I think the wheels came off for him at this point IMHO. Peter was trying to be a star. And...you ain't heard this from me, but he even tried to turn Roedelius into a more commercial artist/star (I was chatting to somebody who wrote a book on him)...can you imagine anything weirder than Cluster on TOP?
best listened to while drinking bacardi and coke and wearing 80's big hair and white wham! shorts.....
hmmm I think the wheels came off for him at this point IMHO. Peter was trying to be a star. And...you ain't heard this from me, but he even tried to turn Roedelius into a more commercial artist/star (I was chatting to somebody who wrote a book on him)...can you imagine anything weirder than Cluster on TOP?
I can imagine TD on TOTP or Later..with Jools Holland, playing tracks from MAdcapsFlamingDuty......thats weird
According to the FAQ #55, he has settled down in Malibu and married a very rich woman, so he doesn't have to work anymore.
Hmm...some says artists are best when they're young, broke, on drugs, or mentally ill.
I wouldn't mind he did an album, only for the money. I think he had potential to extend his solo carreer in a very successful way, so only if the money was the catch, I'd still like to hear more from him.
Pertou wrote:"We'll have a house in the country..."
According to the FAQ #55, he has settled down in Malibu and married a very rich woman, so he doesn't have to work anymore.
Hmm...some says artists are best when they're young, broke, on drugs, or mentally ill.
I wouldn't mind he did an album, only for the money. I think he had potential to extend his solo carreer in a very successful way, so only if the money was the catch, I'd still like to hear more from him.
Me too, it should be better than the not good you hear those days.
From an audio interview I'm transcribing today (from 1977):
I. "Do you feel that the fact that you are now becoming more ‘structured’, and you have very ‘obvious’ melody lines that can be picked up again, do you think that helps?".
PB. "Oh yes sure. Well as I said previously, this is the matter of the language. I think the ideas in the music are still the same as they were seven years ago, but I think it's the duty of the musician to try and find a language that is understood by the most people you can reach…
I-What are the ideas in the music that you say are the same as seven years ago?
PB-“Well this is a very very long story, you would have to put up another tape I think (laughs)…”
I-(Laughs)
Unknown Voice (Edgar?) ‘You can try’!
PB- Well the basic idea of this group was to be ‘a group’ in the first place. We didn't want to have special roles, in the way that one is playing the rhythm and the other one is playing harmony, whilst the third plays bass guitar and like that. But everyone had the same position. We don't have a leader in the group. Especially with our setup of equipment, everybody is able to take over every part of the music. Every person this way is quite unique. The way we are improvising means that there are always new ways to go, not everybody is dependant on the other one, in the way that one has to lay down such a rhythm to play on. But you can play your own rhythm if you want. The combination of three people playing rhythm for instance only, or playing only melody, gives a much wider range than being limited to one instrument, that was the beginning. They key word was improvisation at that time, because we felt repeating ourselves was being in a very very tight jacket, not being free musically. After some years, if you know somebody and play a lot with them, then you know which way he likes to go. Which are his most nearly as good parts in music. This is the most interesting part in improvisation, it’s not valid to say ‘well let’s have a jam session". I like it very much but it has too many limits as much as you have to repeat yourself in songs. That was the basic idea of the musical structure of the group”
I gave Trans harmonics Nights a listen last week. Christ what a good album it is. I've owned it for a couple of years and this was only it's second airing. Bloody good album IMO.
sparrow wrote:I gave Trans harmonics Nights a listen last week. Christ what a good album it is. I've owned it for a couple of years and this was only it's second airing. Bloody good album IMO.
Great album and it really showcases what Peter did within TD as well.
