Ash Ra Tempel - 50th Anniversary Edition

Ash Ra Tempel is the eponymous debut studio album by the Krautrock band Ash Ra Tempel. It features guitarist Manuel Göttsching with drummer Klaus Schulze and bassist Hartmut Enke. Engineered by Conny Plank it was recorded in March 1971 and released in June 1971 on Ohr Records. This 50Th Anniversary Album will be Released in Memoriam of all the musical contributors to this release and on Manuel Göttsching´s MG.ART label. It's the fourth and headlining edition in this series and was finalised, carefully overseen by Manuel Göttsching himself in the late Autumn of 2022.

Much has been written about the record and band. Having finished a first musical chapter with their Steeple Chase Bluesband and still at the very young age of only 17 and 18 years old Manuel Göttsching and Hartmut Enke met Klaus Schulze. Together they started to write and and compose what, to many, became one the holy grails of Psychedelic Rock and early Electronic Music – the German variant which was later also named “Krautrock”: “The trio of Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching and Hartmut Enke decided to abandon conventional composition and songwriting, in favour of free-form improvising and developing a new musical language. As such, they became notorious
for jams that could exceed 30 minutes.” Says Discogs. “Some of these recordings can be found on Manuel Göttsching´s “The Private Tapes” releases”, which will be re-released on MG.ART as well, following this edition.

Here we would like the Band to be heard, for what can easily be said as the first time in 50+ years, with the exception of some early Journalists for whom the young Manuel Göttsching wrote a statement of intent (the original text can be found inside this edition) as following:

“Our musical concept is based on a combination of blues rock and delicate collages of electronic sound. These two elements should remain inseparable. And in their complex unity, the different musical philosophies of each musician find a common sweet spot. Our music is a permanently impulsive experience left to develop as it will, starting from a common fixed point of departure. This is where the difficulty of the music begins: No standardized formulation of our music can and should be possible. Only the constant reaction within the band can determine the musical result. And this requires constant listening with full concentration on the part of the creators. The idea of a particular musician will be – if flexible enough – absorbed by the others, transposed to their own instrument, and reflected back into the music as an individual contribution. This reciprocity within the band is then transferred over to the audience. And this process means that their reaction is not only a contribution to the end result; it actually makes them jointly responsible for the creation of the final musical product.

On our album, the track “Amboss” represents the first layer. Conventional instruments communicate familiar music which is in part expanded through electronic means. In the second track of the album – “Traummaschine” – the actual basic sound approach is dissolved into an electronic Nirvana which no longer allows the concrete identification of actual instruments. Innocent, virgin listening, free from any and every association, can finally begin – and the music can be absorbed and processed free from the limitations of categorization. That is the purpose of our music: To convey freedom
without any predetermined criteria or traditions.