Conrad Schnitzler: Conal

So, as mentioned yesterday, I didn't experiment with the Tomita albums that I found in the Synth/Freak racks of the Guildford record shops — but I thought Conrad Schnitzler was a good, solid name (almost familiar) so I decided to take a punt and buy this record. Here's something I wrote in 2005, just before Music Arcades began, that picks up the story (obviously the links in the original were different):

There was a record shop in Guildford that had a good collection of German electronic music in the period after Krautrock and Kraftwerk were at their peak but before electronica really took off. The ersatz lavender whiff of New Age was not too far away. I already had several Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze albums in my collection, and had branched out into other releases on Schulze's Innovative Communications (IC) label.

Buoyed by the 'winning streak' of taking a punt on Schulze himself and then IC's Robert Schroeder, I wanted to keep going. But I was running out of leads: Schulze had been in Tangerine Dream; Schroeder was on Schulze's label; after more or less exhausting these paths, the only 'cue' left was the proximity of unheard-of records to those I already knew in the Guildford shop's electronic section. Atmosphere by Adelbert von Deyen turned out to be the not-so-thin end of the New Age wedge — just bland and noodly — and I don't think I've listened to it at all in the last twenty years.

Conrad Schnitzler, however, was a different matter. He looked to have some things in his favour: he was very briefly a member of Tangerine Dream and the cover of his Conal album was fantastic (see above; its stark minimalism is much more striking when 12 inches square). When it was still there on about my fourth visit to the shop, I bought it. And for a long time, I considered this the most unlistenable thing I'd ever heard. I used to get it out every now and again to check that I still didn't like it, but, even if I just had it on as background music, I'd take it off before it got to the end of a side.

Flicking through Stephen Iliffe's Painting with Sound for the Harmonia post a couple of days ago, I was reminded that Schnitzler was not only in Tangerine Dream, he was also a member of Kluster, the forerunners of Cluster. As with TD, the collaboration was brief and not without its tensions. Hans-Joachim Roedelius (of Kluster, Cluster and Harmonia) is quoted, "Conrad was the real rebel". That from someone who was himself on first name terms with members of the Baader-Meinhoff gang.

So here's someone who alienates listeners and fellow band members alike. Irresistible!

Evidently he didn't waste too much time gassing down at the beerkeller, because Conal was, according to Wikipedia, one of eight albums he released in 1981.

Listening again in 2009, the record is no longer as grating as it once was. Decades of Autechre have raised the pain threshold. For sure, I can see how Side 1 could have got on my nerves: there's a returning motif that evokes nothing so much as a washing machine with a squeaky bearing. But Side 2 is quite diverting in its own chaotic way, and not a million miles away from the dream sequence on Side 4 of Audentity…

… I hope you're taking all this in, for today will not be the last mention of our Conrad.

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Comments

[Fred Stagg]

I hope that somewhere in that vast collection of music you harbour, is a copy of Con. That particular gem was released in 1978. I picked up a delete copy of this album 'round about that time. I've never been the same since.

[David]

Sadly not, Fred. Just the two Conal albums. You've piqued my interest, but at the prices it now commands, I don't expect I'm going to be able to get a copy any time soon.