A.r. Machines

71/17 Another Green Journey – Live at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg” is a musical journey of discovery full of surprises and difficult to assign to a genre. Both the terms “Krautrock” and “Psychedelic Rock” do insufficient justice to the music of Achim Reichel with his solo project “AR & Machines” – the truth probably lies somewhere in between.

The complete collection of Achim Reichel’s innovative avant-garde project in the early 1970s. The lavishly designed 10 CD box-set includes all five studio albums and almost five hours of rare and unreleased music, a new remix-album – Virtual Journey – as well as a hardcover book with the artist’s own liner notes. A lucky accident was the catalyst. In Hamburg in the early 70s, while playing with his new Akai X330D tape machine, Achim Reichel discovered he could build soundscapes of guitar echoes and add even more simultaneously. He spent hours in his room with headphones on, growing his orchestra of guitars. A.R. & Machines recorded five studio albums. Their debut, “Die grüne Reise”, – The Green Journey – was released in 1971 on tape cassette and vinyl, and was met with complete confusion, even from the music press, who had no genre-drawer to stick it into, and is a lasting Krautrock monument captured on tape.

Producer, composer and musician from Hamburg (Germany), Achim Reichel is a key figure in the explosion of krautrock. Reichel was first a founder member of "The Rattles" at the beginning of the 60's. In 1968 he formed the "Wonderland band" with the drummer Frank Dostal. Late 60's he launched his first solo musical project called A. R. & Machines. Musically it provides a supreme sonic musical voyage turned to cycled psychedelic guitar playing with lot of echoes and delay. The first album was published in 1971 in collaboration with Frank Dostal. The album presents an ambitious collection of spacey rock jams featuring a lot of electronic effects and arrangements. This album prefigures "acid" trips of krautrock guitar / minimal electronic explorers like Manuel Gottsching.

The Syrian American producer lingers with grief and horror on her past while the music accelerates into the future.