Zodiak Free Arts Lab

The Zodiak Free Arts Lab, also known as " Zodiak Club" or "Zodiac Club " was a short-lived, yet successful project with a strong influence on the former landscape of experimental live music. Founded in West Berlin in the late days of the year in 1967 by the artists and musicians Conrad Schnitzler and Hans -Joachim Roedelius, together with Boris Schaaak.

History

The Zodiak Free Arts Lab was located in rented rooms in a building on Hall 's bank, located on the north side of the Landwehr Canal in Berlin- Kreuzberg, near the Großbeerenstraße, U -Bhf Moeckernbruecke. The building was the first seat of the Berlin theater, political theater. The close proximity of the zodiac to the theater, the opening times of the club were placed after the end of the theatrical events, so that the theater could not be disturbed by a high noise level.

The Zodiak itself was divided into two areas, which could be used for performances. One area was completely painted in white and the other completely in black, everywhere were a variety of instruments, amplifiers and speakers that could be used freely by those present, more or less. Here musicians to experiment with different stylistic devices, such as free jazz, psychedelic rock or avant-garde. Conventional styles of music, however, were frowned upon, according to the spirit of the times was the song classically arranged as too bourgeois.

Among the many artists, musicians and bands that the Zodiac used as a platform included names like Ash Ra Tempel, sounds, Plus / Minus, Curly Curve, By Sonore, Human Being, The agitation later known as Agitation Free, Klaus Schulze and Tangerine also Dream. Admission was usually low or free, the loud and iconoclastic improvised concerts culminated happy times in destroyed equipment. The club played a major role in the development of a musical style which should get later pushed the stamp of Krautrock.

Whether due to send a reminder of the high volumes through the stage management or by the simple fact of restlessness in the West Berlin scene of that time, ever not busy in search of open spaces, that's survived the Zodiak only a few months and joined the top in 1969. Nevertheless, the Zodiak Free Arts Lab has earned a rightful place in the German music history and remains those who worked there in good memory. Conrad Schnitzler, one of the founders of the zodiac, was added to the group Tangerine Dream in 1969, there was playing the first album Electronic Meditation, which was published in 1970, with a. Later founded Schnitzler with the other zodiac founder, Hans -Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius his own band, the only Kluster, later called clusters.

Movies

• Excerpt from " Zodiak ", Dietmar Buchmann, DE 1969, 15 min
• Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany, BBC Documentation, UK 2009