Broekhuis

Broekhuis-Keller-Schönwälder, for years a solid base in the Electronic and "Berlin School" style of music. Inspired by Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Vangelis they have managed to develop their own style of Electronic Music, with Trance and Ambient influences and their way to perform that on stage. Beautiful sequences and driving drums with a wide variety of pads and astonishing sound effects on top, which can best be described as "the -BK&S-way of Electronic Music".

Berlin School retro style electronic music with long tracks with carefully composed sequences and ambient landscapes that is perfect for dreaming and reflection.
Bas Broekhuis, Detlef Keller, Mario Schönwälder, Wolfram Spyra & Bill Fox get together as the Space Cowboys in Jelenia Gora Poland in September 2004 for the Ricochet Gathering Electronic Music Festival. All musicians are from Germany except Bill Fox who traveled from USA. Spyra and Bill Fox are featured on the last two tracks. This is the first time all musicians played together without rehearsal so the music is live and improvised. The music is definitely like 1970's Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze and this release is limited to only 300 digipaks.

It's been what, a good 3 years since Broekhuis, Keller & Schönwälder invited us to a musical feast! Purple was this last sound rendezvous. A nice and quiet album with atmospheres and twirling elements which are at the heart of The Vlagtwedde Tapes, a studio album composed and recorded in the town of Vlagtwedde located in the province of Groningen in Holland. BKS goes back to his more Berlin School style by offering 5 beautiful structures with evolving rhythms not too accentuated. Well, just enough to keep our neurons awake.

Awakenings 2007 Vol. 1: New Worlds (2007). Brendan Pollard donates his awesome twenty-minute 'E-Live 2006 Rehearsal' to get this double CD set underway. The initial sounds are as if vast objects are being hurled into the sea accompanied by all sorts of weird whooshes and twitters. A superb combination of sequences emerge from the aquatic depths. These meld rapid melodic runs as well as bass pulses. It is all underpinned by some wonderful mellotron. In other words Berlin School Heaven. More sequences are added accompanied by a flutey lead line. In the seventh minute things subside to more thick analogue sonic effects, coming out of it with a decidedly 'Ricochet' sounding collage of sounds. Very impressive indeed…

Awakenings 2006 Vol. 1. John Sherwood who is responsible for the Awakenings series of concerts in Leeds has put together another compilation for us (the first being 'Awakenings 2005') featuring both known (['ramp], The Omega Syndicate, Gert Emmens, Create, Nattefrost…) and lesser known acts. Much of the music is exclusive to this set.
Awakenings 2006 Vol. 2. This is a double album set containing all previously unreleased material (except for probably the Entity track). There is quite a variety of music to be found on this 2 CD set, some real gems included…

Filter-Kaffee 101 is the first collaborative project by Mario Schönwälder & Frank Rothe, who composed the music for this album between 2007 and 2011.
The 66-minute outcome, presented as eight different "cups", is melodic and rhythmic sequencer music featuring lots of vintage sound textures and warm solos hovering over them. Its mellow and well-tempered atmosphere also has a certain contemporary technical feel, while at the same time carefully incorporating the profound retro sound and feel of '70's electronic music.

Thomas Fanger and Mario Schönwälder from the famous Manikin label play wonderful Berlin School Retro electronic music similar to Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. Bas Broekhuis adds drums on the last track. Some very long and contemplative tracks on this 2CD set.

Manikin Records is on of the most prominent record companies present that promotes electronic music. Owned by Mario Schönwälder, himself a prominent musician, the company has on its books classic artists from the seventies electronic era such as Ash Ra Tempel and Klaus Schulze as well as lesser known and newer artists, many of whom are featured on this compilation that is a collection from the best releases by Manikin Records over the 2000.