Bernd Kistenmacher

Head-visions Bernd Kistenmacher

It was Klaus Schulze's 1976 album Moondawn that altered the trajectory of Bernd Kistenmacher's life when he heard it on the radio at the tender age of 16. The sequencer patterns, melody lines, and soundscapes triggered all of his aesthetic receptors. From then on, this was the only kind of music he wanted to hear. He became a relentless venerator of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, particularly the latter. But his heroes evolved; their music changed with the advent of digital sounds and midification. Kistenmacher was not happy with the way things were going. And if his idols were no longer making the music he loved them for, then he had to take up the challenge himself. His father had shown him how to play the piano when he was a child and he had always been fascinated by the technology of synthesizers, so Kistenmacher decided to become a musician. Synthesizers were prohibitively expensive, so he started to build his own modular system. But before he finished, he realized that this method would also be inordinately costly, and that it might not allow him to achieve the results he strove for. As soon as he was able to pay for one, Kistenmacher bought a Korg Mono/Poly, which would become the cornerstone of his career. That was in 1982. He acquired more and more equipment until, in 1984, he finally released his first cassette (Dancing Sequences). Kistenmacher was now using his analog gear to create the sounds that Schulze and Tangerine Dream had played at the zenith of their careers. Two further cassette productions followed (Music from Outer Space and Romantic Times), as did various concerts, meeting with approval from radio stations and audiences. In 1986, the time came for him to release his first LP, Head-Visions, reissued here. The cover art features a work by the Berlin sculptor Rainer Kriester. The reaction was overwhelming. Radio plays, concerts, music for fashion shows and television formats indicated to Kistenmacher that he was on the right track with his repetitive sequencer patterns, soft melody arcs, and layered soundscapes, driven forward by rhythmic basslines driving the music forward. Minor keys dominated. In other words: Bernd Kistenmacher.