Wöstheinrich, Bernhard

Artist: Woestheinrich
P: 2018
In 2000, Bernhard Wöstheinrich and Markus Reuter recorded Blast, their first album as a duo. Comprising of four monumental, otherworldly compositions spread out across as many sides of vinyl, the music was an overt tribute: "I had discovered Tangerine Dream's Zeit sometime in the late 1980s and it had blown me away," Wöstheinrich says, "I remember thinking to myself: This is the album I've been waiting for my entire life!" More than three decades later, he now presents Elsewhere - a record that once again feels deeply inspired by the Krautrock classics.
Recorded entirely live and again produced by Reuter, Elsewhere's four epic sequencer journeys ignite a black dance of hypnotic pulses, surreal electronic silhouettes and mood music for sentimental cyborgs. The record was created with a minimal, but carefully honed set-up to create these floating and flowing studies in rhythm and time.
Despite its modern leanings, Elsewhere is decidedly part of a continuum that stretches from Zeit to the present day. It is unlikely that this album will have the same impact that Tangerine Dream's 'Zeit' once did – in a sense, this may be impossible for any release. But it is the album Wöstheinrich was meant to record his entire life.

Artist: Woestheinrich
P: 2023
Genre, however, sticks out. It is an evocative ambient record that will leave the listener spellbound. Recorded with the intention of being explicit, noisy and at the same time very refined, these six tracks find a dark, and yet playful angle to dub, krautrock, and ambient - like Bill Laswell on Benzos or a Tangerine Dream recorded in an empty space hangar.
The raw material for Genre was recorded in a long day of recording at Horus Studios in Hannover, joined by Markus Reuter. Reuter did not just man the vintage analogue recording deck, but also manipulated the incoming signals in real-time, routing them through a mindblogglingly complex array of guitar pedals. “At the end of the day, I had no idea if it sounded particularly inspired or how much of it was usable,” Wöstheinrich admits.
As it turned out, there were plenty of inspiring moments in those recordings. During weeks of studio work, the tracks were edited and refined into a finished album. Thick ganja clouds are blown over the hypnotic abstract drumless beats. There are long stretches of scratchy soundscapes, bizarre and quirky. Most of all, however, there is a lot of space and listening to be found here.
The song titles picture the intertwining of identities represented by the use of words found in both German and English. However, the words of the song titles have a completely different meaning in each language.
The new music of Genre is to move forward – there is a lot of grid to be found in those sounds, but also featuring a blend of unsettling, haunting melodies, and lush, expansive soundscapes.
It is a audacious statement, carving out its own identity.

Artist: Centrozoon
P: 2000    
DIN 6
LTD 1000 Copies. 750 pressed.
Centrozoon are a duo consisting of the guitarist Markus Reuter and synthesist Bernhard Wostheinrich. Blast contains four epic soundscapes that are ambient in intent but with unusual sequencer under-scores. Mixed by Ian Boddy this album should appeal to anyone who liked Distant Rituals (DiN 2).

Here are the last copies!

Artist: Centrozoon
P: 2002  
A collection of pieces of a varying nature, issued on British art-rock label Burning Shed in 2001 as a CD-R release. Allmusic noted the album’s ”ambient-inspired depths, with slowly progressing songs that unfold with layers of haunting, lovely drones that sound like soft sighs. " and commented on the “definite hints of prog-tinged exploration throughout… Reuter's a very deliberate player, and his skill at creating loops out of his performances establishes the shade and beautiful texture of the pieces. Wöstheinrich's work is subtle throughout, providing low-key accompaniment and melody to the performances, working in gentle sync with Reuter.

Artist: Erik Wollo & Bernhard Wöstheinrich
P: 2014    
DIN 46
LTD 500
Norwegian ambient guitarist Erik Wøllo and German synthesist Bernhard Wöstheinrich are familiar names to aficionados of the DiN label. They previously collaborated in 2009 on the album Arcadia Borealis (DiN34) but have also been involved in several other DiN project collaborations. Most notably Wøllo in conjunction with DiN label boss Ian Boddy on Frontiers (DiN39) and Wöstheinrich also with Boddy on Moiré (DiN18). During a visit to Germany in 2010 to attend the Schallwelle Prize ceremony for which Arcadia Borealis had been nominated Erik spent some time with Bernhard working on new ideas for a follow up album. Due to the busy work schedule of both musicians the gestation of this project grew intermittently over the next three years. They exchanged ideas and gradually those initial sketches coalesced into their second collaborative album Weltenuhr (German for World Clock). Pushing the boundaries of ambient electronica there is a strong vocal presence to the album with a beautiful, haunting female voice on the opener Gales as well as the albums title track. These pieces complement the other fully instrumental tracks which range from the pounding beat driven Subgiants to the ethereal Echoes Of Parlours. Bernhard’s inventive textural rhythms provide the perfect backdrop for Wøllo’s soaring E-bow guitar melodies on tracks such as Oculus and Denser World.  Beautifully mastered by Lee Fletcher and with an intriguingly abstract cover image Weltenuhr is yet again another quality ambient electronica release from the DiN label.

Artist: Hoffmann-Hoock & Wöstheinrich
P: 2007
DIN 27
LTD 1000
Space guitar, rhythms, atmospheres. The collaboration of two extraordinary musicians.
Interesting and a kind of new.

Here the last copy!

Artist: Ian Boddy  & Wöstheinrich
P: 2004    
DIN 18
LTD 1000 Copies
One of the aims of the DiN label was to act as a community of artists who could interact and colloborate in different ways. DiN 18 is a perfect example of this with label founder Ian Boddy forming a new creative partnership with Bernhard Wöstheinrich. DiN afficionadas will recognise the latters previous involvement as both one half of Centrozoon on DiN 6 - Blast and also Subsonic Experience on DiN 13 - Praposition. Furthermore Wöstheinrich, a trained graphic designer, has also been instrumental in the sense of design style that permeates the DiN artwork since DiN 10.

However the collaborative mesh involved in the creation of Moiré has further layers in that Markus Reuter, long time Boddy colloborator & musical partner to Wöstheinrich in Centrozoon was also heavily involved in the early editing of the pieces as well as guesting on bass on the track "Fractalise". Indeed the gestation of Moiré has been a long and complex process. Boddy & Wöstheinrich first got together in the DiN studio way back in April 2002 and played a number of improvisations utilising Boddys mastery of his large analogue modular system with Wöstheinrichs quirky & organic approach to drum & arpeggiator patterns. These sessions were then locked in the DiN vault for almost a year until Reuter opened the lid and intuitively edited the performances into a number of arrangements that formed the basis of the tracks on Moiré. The baton was then taken on by Wöstheinrich who, over the summer of 2004, further added to and sculpted the pieces into more refined forms. The final lap was then for Boddy & Wöstheinrich to finalise the arrangements & mix at the DiN studios in December 2004.

The resulting music spread over 10 tracks captures both the detail & complexity of arrangement possible with modern music technology with the spontaneous nature & organic feel of the original improvisations. Sonically it effortlessly ranges from classic analogue sequencer lines to deep, metallic atmospheres through to full on drum & synth work-outs. The majority of the tracks employ organic analogue arpeggiations together with muscular & unusual percussive loops to form the backbone of the music . Ethereal ambient textures provide a suitably surreal counter-balance to the solidity of the rhythmic structure to create a constant sense of flow & change within the compositions .

Artist: Ornah-Mental
P: 2025
Nature loves forms, multiple forms of creation, guided by geometric structures. Rythms, Polyrythms, Trancegrooves are those structures, brought into experience through the air to the ear. Vibrations become sound, and sounds create movement. and emotion. Focussing on those grooves following this sounds helps us to find orientation - it might help you too!

Artist: Ornah-Mental
P: 2022
Dirk Schlömer : Guitars, Keyboards, Loops, Vocal
Bernhard Wöstheinrich : Keyboards, Laptop, Edit-Worx
Carsten Agthe : Percussion, WaveDrum, Cymbals

Guests:
Leander Reininghaus : Acoustic Guitar on Cara-wahn Part II
Volker Lankow : Treated Percussion on Bali Bernhard & Synapsis Lux

Artist: Subsonic Experience
P: 2003
DIN 13
LTD 1000 Copies
The members of Subsonic Experience are traditionalists. Not so much in their thinking, but in their history. Bernhard Wöstheinrich (born in 1968) and Thorsten Niestrath (born in 1967) met in Arts School in Bielefeld, Germany, a city with a reputation in improvised experimental music and design. Being design students, the two worked together on a number of art projects which included film, performance art, painting and last but not least, the band Subsonic Experience (from autumn 1990 till summer 1993). Artistically influenced by Zen Buddhism, the teachings of Don Juan, Gerhard Richter, Peter Michael Hamel and the likes of Klaus Schulze and early Tangerine Dream, Subsonic Experience played several festivals including two legendary support shows for the band "Embryo".

The band reformed for a weekend recording session at Bernhard´s studio in the German countryside just after Christmas 2000. The result was a rough snapshot of intuitive improvisation at work. The music was all played live, between cigarette breaks and with coffee stained equipment (mostly cheap synths and abandoned floor effects pedals). Most notably there is Thorsten´s amazing synth organ work. His wonderful lead lines and colourful organ clusters can be found on all tracks of the album. Bernhard's duties on the other hand levitated toward keeping the sequencers running, generating endless variations of tones and textures in real time.

Recorded with very basic means, but mixed and mastered using state-of-the-art technology, this album is the perfect amalgamation of musicianship with a traditionalists feel for early EM, and modern production techniques. The material from the recording session was edited and mixed by DiN founder Ian Boddy and mastered by Krautrock specialist and mastering guru Eroc. Bernhard Wöstheinrich, as one half of the duo Centrozoon, has already been featured on DiN 6 - Blast.