(Unknown Capability Recordings, 2013)
THE SECRET COSMIC MUSIC OF THE EAST GERMAN OLYMPIC PROGRAM 1972-83 (VOLUME ONE)
Martin Zeichnete was born in Pesterwitz, a small town seven miles south-west of Dresden city centre, in 1951. His first job was working at DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft, the state-owned film studio), where he learned tape-editing skills.
With the GDR Government censoring the arts, Zeichnete’s exposure to music from the west was limited, but he could tune into a radio station in Dusseldorf, nearly 600km away in West Germany, where he was exposed to bands like Neu!, Cluster and Kraftwerk. To cut a long story short, Zeichnete started making tapes of his own music, inspired by what he heard on the radio, and shared them with his friends.
“I was a keen amateur runner, and when out I would play these motorik, repetitive songs in my head,” Zeichnete said in a 2013 interview. “I thought somehow it could be used as a training aid for athletes. The electric pulse sort of thing.”
Inevitably, this activity came to the attention of the authorities, who whisked Zeichnete off to Berlin to produce music for the East German Olympic Program. The recordings were never officially released, but the audio files were digitised in the early 90s and finally saw the light of day as The Secret Cosmic Music Of The East German Olympic Program 1972-83 (Volume One), released under the name Kosmischer Läufer in 2013. The album contained just five tracks, with the 13-minute highlight Die Lange Gerade (or ‘The Long Straight’) leading the way, powered by churning, chiming synths and an archetypal motorik shuffle. Another four volumes have followed, with the latest arriving earlier this year.
If this all sounds too good to be true, wel
