THE COSMIC JOKERS

Kosmische Musik 1974

01. Cosmic Joy
02. Galactic Joke

So you probably already know the story, but if you don't...

A lot of great music came out of Dieter Dierks' Berlin studio in the early 1970's. Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary's "7 Up", Walter Wegmüller's "Tarot" and Sergius Golowin's "Lord Krishna Von Goloka" to name a few. The musicians on these records were dubbed 'The Cosmic Couriers' and included  Manuel Göttsching and Klaus Schulze of Ash Ra Tempel and Jurgen Dollase and Harold Grosskopf of Wallenstein.

Ash Ra Tempel even found time between sessions to record their classic "Join Inn". Fellow German heads Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser and Gille Lettman hit upon the idea of giving these musicians acid, letting them improvise and recording the results. What they didn't do however, was ask their permission to release those results.

And so, in 1974, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser released 5 (!) albums made up from these sessions. Released under varying names (but now recognised under the Cosmic Jokers moniker) on Kaiser's own Kosmische Musik label.

Klaus Schulze had had enough by the fifth release and started legal proceedings. Kaiser went on the run.

It's a shame that these records have such shaky ethical beginnings because their is some fine music here.

The first album is almost an Ash Ra Tempel record. Göttsching dominates side 1, total space rock guitar with heavy hypnotic percussion. Side 2 belongs to Schulze and it sounds like a lot of his records at the time. Spacey, glacial electronic ambient.

Probably the finest Cosmic Jokers 'album'. But it doesn't end there.