LP (180 Gram)
Original Artwork by Hartmut Geerken
Numbered & signed edition of 25 ex.
d’or054
SOLD (Still available from the artist. See below)
Hartmut Geerken born 1939 in stuttgart/germany. studied oriental languages, comparative religious studies and philosophy (ernst bloch) at the universities of tuebingen/germany, constantine/algeria and istanbul/turkey. worked for goethe-institutes in cairo, kabul and athens (1966-1984).
author, composer, musician, film-maker, actor, mycologist, bumble-bee-keeper, publisher of authors from the circle of literary expressionism and dada etc.
in the age of 8 years he started piano lessons and with 14 he gives his first public solo piano radio concert performing works of bela bartok. after finishing his classical piano education he switched to jazz and new music. studied with karlheinz stockhausen, lukas foss, györgy ligeti, aloys kontarsky et al. worked with john tchicai, salah ragab, famoudou don moye, sunny murray, grace yoon, don cherry, takehisa kosugi, sainkho namtchilak, sun ra, robert lax, the art ensemble of chicago, the sun ra arkestra et al. in the end 60’s he co-foundes the “cairo jazz band” with salah ragab & directed the “cairo free jazz ensemble”. in 1976 he toured in duo with michael ranta far east from teheran to osaka. 1985 he was on an extensive tour through west afrika with john tchicai & famoudou don moye. he has more than 40 vinyls & cds in his name. from 1991-1992 he held the chair of poetics at he the folkwang university in essen.
living in cairo for 6 years he invited sun ra to his spiritual homeland. geerken runs one of the most complete sun ra archives worldwide and organizes from 1994 to 2010 the annual “waitawhile international sun ra conventions”. since 2005 he is co-editor of a 40 volume edition of the complete works of the german philosopher salomo friedlaender/mynona. since 1953 he came up with about 200 radio-broadcasts, numerous books, lps, cds, exhibitions & films. Hartmut Geerken Website
Michael Ranta Percussionist/composer Michael Ranta (US, 1942) is a key figure in the world of contemporary avant garde music. He studied composition with a.o. Lejaren Hiller and Herbert Brün, recorded and performed in all Harry Partch productions between 1960 and 1968. In the late 60’s he moved to Cologne and worked with Lachenmann, Kagel, Stockhausen, Riedl… In 1970 he took part in the Osaka World Expo as member of Stockhausen’s ensemble. Ranta lived in Taiwan from 1972 till 1979 where he taught music history and percussion. Meanwhile he performed with a.o. Takehisa Kosugi, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Toru Takemitsu and worked in the electronic music broadcast studio in Tokyo (NHK). He was also part of the ephemeral group ‘Wired’ with Mike Lewis, Karl-Heinz Böttner and Conny Plank that only did one single studio session resulting in that legendary LP on the ‘Free Improvisation’ box set on the Deutsche Grammophon. In the mid 70’s Ranta performed intensively with Hartmut Geerken all over Asia and North Africa. Back in Germany Ranta formed the percussion group Transit, worked with Jean Claude Eloy and also provided music for theatre, dance and documentary film. Ranta privately released a couple of intriguing solo albums through Asian Sound which is also the company he founded specializing in distribution of Oriental percussion instruments. Since 2010 Belgian label Metaphon has been releasing major works from his archive including the highly acclaimed ‘MU’ sessions with Mike Lewis and Conny Plank. Michael Ranta is one of those rare composers able to organically melt his wide artistic span into a singular but yet diverse universe morphing his rich vocabulary as a percussionist with the Oriental esoteric tradition, the psychedelic underground and the realm of electronic/concrete minimalism. Michael Ranta Website
a side
-february 15, 1972, goethe institute cairo, egypt. 18:44
b side
-may 10, 1975, karachi, pakistan. 18:48
a side contains the very first concert by the heliopolar egg, february 15, 1972, goethe institute cairo, egypt. personel: geerken, ranta, von puttkamer, el hakim.
b side contains a concert at may 10 1975, usis karachi pakistan. personel: ranta, geerken.
All Music by The Heliopolar Egg
Production, mastering, vinylcut by Raymond Dijkstra
Artwork Description:
Lomography by Hartmut Geerken.
Lomography, cellotape on LP jacket.
More pictures follow
| ORDER BELOW | |
| S O L D |