It's just a Cosmic Joke

This really is a cosmic joke, but not all the musicians involved were laughing. Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser & Gille Lettman of the Kosmische Musik label arranged several acid parties in early 1973 to be held at Dieter Dierks studio in Stommein, Germany. Since 1969 Dierks Studios had  been the home of the most important Krautrock artists, first generation German rock bands, & electronic pioneers, among them Ihre Kinder, Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, Witthüser & Westrupp, Hoelderlin, Wallenstein, Birth Control, Guru Guru, Embryo, Popol Vuh, Bröselmaschine, the politically orientated rock bands Amon Düül, & Floh de Colgne.

The musicians attending Kaiser’s acid parties were offered drugs in exchange for recording tracks. Participants included Manuel Göttsching & Klaus Schulze of Ash Ra Tempel, also Jürgen Dollase & Harald Großkopf of Wallenstein. Prior to this, all of the musicians involved had been in the Cosmic Couriers, which had played on experimental recordings by Sergius Golowin, Walter Wegmüller, & Timothy Leary.

Kaiser took the tapes from these sessions. He edited & mixed them with the help of Dierks. He then released them on his label, Kosmische Musik, complete with the musicians' pictures on the LP sleeve, without asking for their permission. Göttsching did not find out about the record release until he heard one of the records playing in a record store in Berlin & asked the record clerk what was playing.

Kaiser released five records accredited to the Cosmic Jokers in 1974. While none of the musicians were happy with the recordings, Schulze was so angry after the release of Gilles Zeitschiff that he sued Kaiser. In 1975, Kaiser was forced to discontinue & withdraw the recordings. He fled the country over the affair, abandoning his record label over the threat of impending legal problems.

Here are two of the better examples…

Cosmic Jokers – Cosmic Jokers, Kosmische Musik KM 58.008, 1974.

decryption codes in comments

Seite 1 –

Galactic Joke

Seite 2 –

Cosmic Joy

Galactic Supermarket – Galactic Supermarket, Kosmische Musik KM 58.010, 1974.

Seite 1 –

Kinder des Alls

Seite 2 –

Galactic Supermarket

with Rosi Müller,& Gille Lettmann

Enjoy this tripping Krautrock,

NØ