Biography
In 1974, Manuel Göttsching of Ash Ra Tempel entered a Berlin record shop only to encounter unfamiliar yet unmistakably cosmic guitar lines pouring from the speakers. To his astonishment, the music belonged to a newly formed Krautrock supergroup called the Cosmic Jokers, and he himself was listed as its guitarist. The ensemble existed more as an elaborate fabrication than a deliberate band, its members largely unaware they had been assembled at all.
Months earlier, beginning in early 1973, producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser had staged a series of extended acid-fueled gatherings at Dieter Dierks’ studio. Participants received modest payment along with unlimited access to hallucinogens, and the resulting performances supplied the raw material for future releases. Among those who took part were Göttsching and Klaus Schulze from Ash Ra Tempel, Wallenstein members Jurgen Dollase and Harald Grosskopf, and Dierks himself. All had previously contributed to the loose collective known as the Cosmic Couriers, which supplied backing for Kaiser-produced albums by Swiss artist and poet Sergius Golowin, gypsy Tarot-reader Walter Wegmuller, and psychedelic advocate Timothy Leary in 1972.
Kaiser and Dierks subsequently shaped the tapes into finished albums, issuing them on the Kosmiche Musik imprint without informing the other musicians. Album covers displayed the players’ images even though none had consented to the project. Three titles appeared in quick succession during 1974: the self-titled Cosmic Jokers, Galactic Supermarket (originally released without the group name), and Planeten Sit-In. Two further 1974 releases were later attributed to the same entity: the Kosmische Musik label compilation Sci-Fi Party and Gilles Zeitschiff, also known as Jill’s Timeship. The latter featured narration by Gille Lettmann, then Kaiser’s girlfriend and known as Sternenmadchen, set over recycled music drawn from earlier Kosmische Musik recordings.
Resentment among the unpaid musicians intensified, culminating when Schulze initiated legal proceedings against the increasingly autocratic Kaiser. By 1975 the authorities had expelled Kaiser from the country, dismantled his label operations, and withdrawn all the albums pending resolution of rights issues. Although contemporary critics dismissed the records as cynical commercial ploys and Schulze continues to denounce them, they remain among the most compelling documents of fully immersive German cosmic space rock.
Months earlier, beginning in early 1973, producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser had staged a series of extended acid-fueled gatherings at Dieter Dierks’ studio. Participants received modest payment along with unlimited access to hallucinogens, and the resulting performances supplied the raw material for future releases. Among those who took part were Göttsching and Klaus Schulze from Ash Ra Tempel, Wallenstein members Jurgen Dollase and Harald Grosskopf, and Dierks himself. All had previously contributed to the loose collective known as the Cosmic Couriers, which supplied backing for Kaiser-produced albums by Swiss artist and poet Sergius Golowin, gypsy Tarot-reader Walter Wegmuller, and psychedelic advocate Timothy Leary in 1972.
Kaiser and Dierks subsequently shaped the tapes into finished albums, issuing them on the Kosmiche Musik imprint without informing the other musicians. Album covers displayed the players’ images even though none had consented to the project. Three titles appeared in quick succession during 1974: the self-titled Cosmic Jokers, Galactic Supermarket (originally released without the group name), and Planeten Sit-In. Two further 1974 releases were later attributed to the same entity: the Kosmische Musik label compilation Sci-Fi Party and Gilles Zeitschiff, also known as Jill’s Timeship. The latter featured narration by Gille Lettmann, then Kaiser’s girlfriend and known as Sternenmadchen, set over recycled music drawn from earlier Kosmische Musik recordings.
Resentment among the unpaid musicians intensified, culminating when Schulze initiated legal proceedings against the increasingly autocratic Kaiser. By 1975 the authorities had expelled Kaiser from the country, dismantled his label operations, and withdrawn all the albums pending resolution of rights issues. Although contemporary critics dismissed the records as cynical commercial ploys and Schulze continues to denounce them, they remain among the most compelling documents of fully immersive German cosmic space rock.
Albums
