Early life Roedelius was born on 26 October 1934 in
Berlin,
Nazi Germany in the family of a dentist. He was an unwilling member of the
German Youngsters in the Hitler Youth, membership being mandatory for all boys from the age of ten, and appeared in several propaganda films (
Faded Melody by Viktor Tourjansky in 1938 and
Riding for Germany by Arthur Maria Rabenalt in 1941). Roedelius and his mother Gertrud were evacuated from Berlin to a small hamlet in
East Prussia. In his book
Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany,
David Stubbs writes that "the aftermath of the war was most difficult for the Roedelius family" who didn't have "enough to live on and just a bit too much to die on". He served two years in prison after the war when he attempted to defect from
East Germany. Before managing to escape over the border into West Berlin in 1961, he had worked as a physical therapist and masseur. Soon thereafter he gave up his day job to pursue a career in music.
Kluster, Cluster and Harmonia In 1968 Roedelius co-founded the music commune known as "Human Being" and co-formed
Zodiak Free Arts Lab, the center of Berlin's Underground Culture at the time, with conceptual artist
Conrad Schnitzler. He met
Dieter Moebius at the Zodiak. In 1969 Roedelius, Schnitzler and Moebius formed
Kluster. In 1971 Schnitzler left the group to start a long-running solo career and Moebius and Roedelius anglicised the band's name to
Cluster. They signed first to
Philips then to
Brain. In 1973 Roedelius and Moebius worked with
Neu! guitarist
Michael Rother under the name of
Harmonia.
Musik Von Harmonia was released on the back of a huge publicity campaign by Brain. Harmonia released one further album, 1975's
Deluxe. Rother also co-produced the 1974 Cluster album
Zuckerzeit. British musician
Brian Eno, a fan of both Cluster and Harmonia, joined them for several jams, the result of which was released in 1997 as
Tracks and Traces. Rother left Harmonia to pursue his solo career and Cluster returned to the studio to record
Sowiesoso which was released on
Sky Records. Brian Eno later worked on two albums with Cluster: 1977's
Cluster & Eno and 1978's
After the Heat, the latter of which gained the band much attention in the British music press. A further Cluster album produced by former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann
Großes Wasser extended Cluster's music into long form.
Solo career Roedelius' solo career began with
Durch die Wüste in 1978 and then
Jardin Au Fou in 1979. The first of the lengthy
Selbstportrait series was released in 1979, being material done beside his work with Cluster and Harmonia, without the input of his collaborators. Mostly recorded on simple two-track equipment, the Selbstportraits make up the backbone of Roedelius' early solo recordings. Leaving Sky in 1982, his work took a more
new-age style as he signed to
Virgin's
Venture sub-label. During this period, his best selling solo album
Geschenk des Augenblicks – Gift of the Moment was released. He was dropped by Venture in 1989 and began releasing on a variety of small labels.
Sinfonia Contempora No. 2: La Nordica (Salz Des Nordens) was released in 1996. Also released in this period was
Selbstportrait VI: The Diary of the Unforgotten, the first of the modern
Selbstportraits. Now, rather than merely remastering the seventies tapes, Roedelius also played over them, the sound montage
Homage á Forst samples many Harmonia and Cluster tracks into the mix.
21st century The turn of the century was Roedelius' most productive year, with no fewer than eight albums being released between 2000 and 2001. Reprising the
Selbstportrait series for the seventh time in 2000, Roedelius composed entirely new tracks for the first time on
Selfportrait VII: dem Wind voran – ahead of the wind. The new century also saw Roedelius begin to work with other, usually younger, musicians than he had done since the late eighties. In the meantime, Cluster had reformed. 1990's
Apropos Cluster was an update for the band, being a work of avant-techno not dissimilar in style to
Großes Wasser. In 1996 Cluster embarked on two international tours, one of Japan and one of America. Cluster reunited again in 2007. In November 2010 it was announced that Cluster had split up for the third time. In the official announcement, the split-up was described as
Moebius leaving the group. In the wake of this news, Roedelius announced that he was beginning a new project called Qluster, to follow on from Cluster and
Kluster. The band was made up of Roedelius and accomplished electronic musician Onnen Bock with third member Armin Metz and released a trilogy consisting of "
Rufen", "
Fragen" and "
Antworten" (
Calling,
Asking and
Answering) in 2011. His autobiography,
The Book – The Autobiography of Hans-Joachim Roedelius, was published in 2018. In March 2021 Roedelius launched his official website and in April he performed his first free surprise live stream concert on YouTube. == Discography ==