Let There Be Light
“It’s an interesting point.” Michael Rother pauses mid-flow as he stops to compare the working methods of Harmonia – the kosmische ‘supergroup’ he formed with Cluster’s Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius in 1973 – and the composition and construction of As Long As The Light, the new album that he’s just released with his life partner and new musical collaborator, Vittoria Maccabruni. For whether he consciously intended it or not, the similarities between the projects are difficult to ignore.
Lest we forget, guitarist Michael Rother is a true pioneer. Now aged 71, but looking at least 10 years younger, he’s best known for his idiosyncratic work in Neu! with drummer Klaus Dinger, whom he met in an early line-up of Kraftwerk. The pair – alongside bands such as Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh and Amon Düül II among others – set about rejecting the orthodoxy of American and British rock music to reclaim and reset contemporary German culture in the wake of the ruins left by the Third Reich.
“It’s very rewarding when somebody brings you
