About this item

Harald Grosskopf is best known as drummer in the band Ashra and for Klaus Schulze and as an electronic musician. Following “Synthesist” (1980), “Oceanheart” was his second solo album. It may sound like a child of the 1980s, but in a compositional sense it is related to the Berliner Schule / Berlin School of the 70's
.
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 NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) group Lilli Berlin and backed Joachim Witt on his best-selling “Silberblick” LP, which featured the hit “Goldener Reiter”.

Sky, the record company, were more than a little disappointed with the performance of Grosskopf’s first solo effort “Synthesist”, 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 ‘Oceanheart’ years later. I finally realized that I had created something quite special.” - Christoph Dallach

TRACK LISTING

1. Eve On The Hill (10:30)
2. While I'm Walking (4:44)
3. Oceanheart (4:59)
4. Coming Out (3:25)
5. Pondicherry Dream (3:42)
6. Minimal Boogie (10:54)