artist: Erberhard Schoener country of origin: Germany style(s): Ambient, environmental essential releases: Meditation / Sky Music Mountain Music (1973/1984, Kuckuck)

Although not prolific, this German composer was part of the first wave of eclectic downtempo artists from Germany in the 1970's that included Deuter, Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh.

His excellent first album Meditation remains a subtle, trance-inducing electronic recording with an Eastern undercurrent that’s simultaneously alluring and ominous. Schoener has travelled extensively through Asia and the East and studied the region's music in depth, but he makes a point of not allowing himself to be overwhelmed by his influences. On the cover notes he puts forward the intriguing argument that Western artists can only be truly effective when framing their influences in the language of their own culture.

His first album is repackaged on CD through Celestial Harmonies sub-label Kuckuck along with a later and equally fine work Sky Music/Mountain Music. This contains two extended ambient pieces, both delicate and expansive and one of which features a bizarre method of generating tones: attaching tuned whistles to the feet of pigeons and throwing them into the wind tunnel of a BMW factory in Germany.

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