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Follow-up to the 1979 classic that was the ‘Synthesist’ LP, after another exciting opening track, a slightly more mellow approach dominates this album!
Tired of the rock format and excited by the freedoms promised by electronic music, Harald Grosskopf quit WALLENSTEIN, a conventional rock band, in the mid-seventies to turn his attention to electronica.
Grosskopf thus became the first drummer to specialize in the electronic music field. He played drums on Klaus Schulze’s albums: ‘Moondawn’ and ‘Body Love’ and on YOU’s ‘Electric Day’.
When Manuel Göttsching from ASH RA TEMPEL asked him if he would consider enrolling as the regular drummer in the group now rechristened ASHRA, he did not need to think about it for long.
Grosskopf changed course again in the eighties, this time in pursuit of commercial success: he played in the group LILLI BERLIN and backed Joachim Witt on his best-selling ‘Silberblick’ LP, which featured the hit: ‘Goldener Reiter’.
Sky Records, the record company that first issued ‘Synthesist’, were more than a little disappointed with the performance of Grosskopf’s first solo effort, so there was no great sense of urgency as far as its successor was concerned. “They even halved my advance!” Grosskopf recalls.
‘Oceanheart’ was released some six years after ‘Synthesist’. “The album title reflects my love of transcendental meditation, of course it might be taken for watery esoterics.” (A similar vibe was evident in the cover art, hence fresh artwork has been created for the reissue.)
Musical equipment for the production was limited by the label’s ongoing thrift programme. The first ‘Oceanheart’ recordings took place “under the roof” in the Lilli Berlin Studio, Kreuzberg. They were completed at the Spandauer Studio by former TANGERINE DREAM member Christoph Franke.
“We mixed everything down and recorded the drums there.” Harald Grosskopf again played everything himself, except for the tablas.
In keeping with its predecessor, ‘Oceanheart’ was no bestseller, but, like ‘Synthesist’, it attained cult status, rediscovered in recent years through the Internet by a younger generation. Harald Grosskopf himself needed time to appreciate the work: “I only really discovered the musical quality of the album years later. I finally realized that I had created something quite special.”
Here’s Andy G’s review of this album from the 2010 remaster…
‘Oceanheart’ opens with a ten-minute track that is right out of the mid-eighties (live) ASH RA territory, the only thing missing being a guitar! As it stands there’s this mix of totally addictive rhythms from synths, sequencer, synth bass and drums to which you simply cannot resist tapping your feet and swaying merrily to. On top of all this, a huge panorama of string synths spreads gloriously over the rhythms, gradually evolving into and out of yet more “rhythm-as-melody lines” style leads, the whole piece being one of those insistent tracks that stays with you for ages after you first hear it, and from the moment it ends you want to go back and play it all again! This opener takes up over a quarter of the album and it’s definitely the star track in the set and worth the asking price just for this alone.
The remastering process has really put the life back into the remaining tracks, which I originally remember as paling in comparison with the opener, but which, at this level of quality, now show themselves to have strength and depth that I never really credited when I first heard the album.
The loping rhythms of ‘While I’m Walking’ are slower than the opener, but equally strong and strident, with a solid heart to the synthesizer work at the centre of the piece, as melodies and strings fly and dive all around, in and out. The title track ‘Oceanheart’ is a beautiful example of rhythm-free space music with a warm analogue heart, almost like a forerunner of the gorgeous intro to ‘Aloo’ by ASTRALASIA, as its flowing atmospheres and textures clearly illustrate. A couple of near 4 minute tracks follow – ‘Coming Out ‘ and ‘Pondicherry Dream’ – and once again introduce multi-layered rhythmic content, the latter of the two possessing a decidedly Moroccan flavour to its mix of synths, tables, drums and rumbling bass depths.
The album concludes with near eleven minutes of ‘Minimal Boogie’, a track that ploughs a now fantastic furrow through lands of cyclical rhythms and melodies, again with a foot in the earlier ASH RA camp, almost reminiscent of parts of ‘E2-E4’ in its looping construction and execution, as, keyboards, sequenced synthesizers, percussion and effects proceed, so much so that just short of six minutes, you’ll swear he’s just launched into his own rendition of the classic ‘Sunrain’ track by ASH RA, but, like the rest of the track, this soon takes a new path towards the next level.
Overall, an album you might remember originally just for one track, that now, thanks to a tremendous remastering job, sounds fresh and alive, strong and steaming. Surprisingly, recommended!
‘Ocean Heart’ is also available as a 180gm Vinyl LP – Stock # 1708443
Also available by HARALD GROSSKOPF in this series: SYNTHESIST - Stock # 1708440 (CD) / 1708441 (LP)
‘Synthesist’ is released on 28th August 2014.
HARALD GROSSKOPF: OCEANHEART CD Track List:
01. Eve On The Hill (10:30)
02. While I'm Walking (4:44)
03. Oceanheart (4:59)
04. Coming Out (3:25)
05. Pondicherry Dream (3:42)
06. Minimal Boogie (10:54)
TPT – 38:14