Germany's Hans Reichel earned equal recognition as a guitarist and an instrument inventor, pursuits that mutually reinforced one another, and he secured a distinctive place in European avant-garde improvisation. He differentiated himself from peers both through his unconventional guitar-like creations, which placed frets, pickups, or microphones in unexpected positions, and through a playing approach that often proved surprisingly melodic and folk-inflected, carrying a good-natured and unpretentious quality rare among avant-garde figures. At the same time he generated thoroughly eccentric and decidedly non-folk-like sounds across his career, most notably through various explorations of the daxophone, the bowed wooden plank he devised that produces strikingly animalistic creaks and groans.
Reichel was born in Hagen, Germany in 1949 and first played violin before turning to guitar during his mid-'60s attraction to rock & roll. Toward the close of the decade his musical activities receded as he concentrated on typesetting and font design, yet he resumed performing in the early '70s after receiving support from Jost Gebers, producer for the esteemed Berlin-based FMP label. His debut album, Wichlinghauser Blues, appeared on that imprint in 1973 and ranked among its earliest releases.
Reichel frequently recorded in intimate settings and issued numerous solo albums, among them The Death of the Rare Bird Ymir (1979), Bonobo Beach (1981), The Dawn of Dachsman (1987), Coco Bolo Nights (1988), Shanghaied on Tor Road (1992), and Lower Lurum (1994). He also collaborated in duets with cellist Tom Cora, accordionist/multi-instrumentalist Rüdiger Carl, percussionist Eroc, and guitarists Wädi Gysi, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, and Fred Frith. In addition he performed with the September Band, which included Carl, vocalist Shelley Hirsch, and percussionist Paul Lovens, and joined larger ensembles directed by conductor Butch Morris and saxophonist Thomas Borgmann.
Although most of his recordings came out on FMP and therefore circulated narrowly, especially in the United States, other small independent labels that released his work include Rastascan, Intakt, and Table of the Elements. Even so, Reichel attained occasional notice beyond specialized circles: Guitar Player magazine placed him on its 1997 list of the "30 Most Radical Guitarists," and he appeared on the 1996 Ellipsis Arts book/CD set Gravikords, Whirlies and Pyrophones devoted to invented instruments. Hans Reichel died in Wuppertal, Germany on November 22, 2011; he was 62 years old.
