Irmin Schmidt – Filmmusik

We've both been avid Can fans for some tine now, so you can imagine the excitement when we found out that Irmin was to release some solo work. To our surprise though, neither of the 2 platters turned out to be what we expected.First is FILMMUSIK, which is a selection from 3 soundtracks. For ease of description we've decided to deal with each soundtrack as a whole. "In Herzen des Hurrican" (tracks 1,3,5 & 8) was recorded with a group format, Irmin being helped by Max Lasser (guitar), Peter & Walter Keiser (bass & drums respectively) plus a couple of appearances by Michael Karoli. All these 4 cuts sound amazingly like Can, circa LANDED. Irmin is generally low key in these pieces, leaving plenty of room for lots of guitar solos, as in Verfolfgung which is like a re-run of Vernal Equinox. "Der Tote bin ich" (tracks 2 & 4) was recorded by Irmin on keyboards & Bruno Spoerri on sax. These cuts are made up of simple sequencer rhythms & synthi overlays, with lots of room left for Bruno's excellent sax playing. "Messer im Kopf" (tracks 6 &7) is Irmin solo. The first cut is an E.F.S. for/of the koto: whether it was performed on the said instrument is left to the listener's discretion. The Titelmusik sees Irmin in full splendour as a multi-keyboard player; the most unusual aspect of this piece is that the lead instrument is piano, backed by synths (unlike Cluster for instance), conjuring up a sense of mystique that is quite compelling, and very unusual.
by Alan & Steve Freeman, first published in Neumusik ca. 1981