Cosmic Baby
Encyclopedia
Harald Blüchel is a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 electronic
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...

 artist who is mostly known under his alias Cosmic Baby. Blüchel is also well known for his participation in dance
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...

 acts such as Energy 52
Energy 52
Energy 52 was a solo project comprising Paul Schmitz-Moormann and Harald Blüchel. The 1993 track "Café del Mar" became one of the most heard trance songs in the world; its dozens of remixes have appeared on hundred of compilation albums. In April 2011, the song was voted number one by BBC Radio 1...

 with Paul Schmitz-Moormann and The Visions of Shiva with Paul van Dyk
Paul van Dyk
Matthias Paul, better known by his stage name Paul van Dyk is a German Grammy Award-winning Electronic Dance Music DJ, musician and record producer...

.

Biography and musical career

Harald Blüchel was born in Nuremberg, Germany. At the age of 6, Blüchel started taking classes in classical piano. He began studying at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg one year later. His favourite composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

s soon were, amongst others, Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

 and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

. In 1976 he would discover electronic music and take an interest in playing the synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

. At the time he was listening to bands
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 such as Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...

 and Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...

. Blüchel continued his studies in music. In 1986 he moved to West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

 and entered into the Berlin Institute of Technology to study audio engineering
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...

, and also entered into the Berlin University of the Arts
Berlin University of the Arts
The Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK is a public art school in Berlin, Germany, one of the four universities in the city...

 to study composition. While living in Berlin, he would soon meet producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 Kid Paul
Kid Paul
Paul Schmitz Moorman is a former German DJ and acid house and trance musician.He moved with his family to Berlin in 1981 and appeared in the music video "Herzlichen Glückwunsch" of the rock group Spliff...

. In 1988 he started to compose and take side in techno music and house music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...

.

In 1991, Blüchel first appeared as "Cosmic Baby" in live acts. That year he signed with trance label MFS
MFS (label)
MFS was an independent electronic dance music label from Berlin, Germany lasting from 1990-2008 . It was founded by Berlin based Englishman, Mark Reeder in 1990...

, where he released his first album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 Stellar Supreme
Stellar Supreme
Stellar Supreme is a music album by techno/trance artist Cosmic Baby. It is Cosmic Baby's debut album and it was first released in late 1992 on the MFS label.- Track listing :- Trivia :...

in 1992. In 1992 he also paired up with Paul van Dyk for the project "The Visions of Shiva" under which name two EPs
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 came out, Perfect Day (1992) and How Much Can You Take? (1993). The two then later went their separate ways. In late 1993, Blüchel left MFS and signed onto Logic Records, a record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 owned by BMG
BMG
Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...

.

At the beginning of the 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...

, Blüchel formed Energy 52 with Kid Paul. In 1993, Energy 52 released "Café del Mar", which is considered to be a trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...

 classic and one of the most remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....

ed songs in electronic music. In 1994, Blüchel released his single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 "Loops of Infinity" which stayed in the top 30 of the German charts
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

 for three months. In April 1994 he released his second album Thinking About Myself
Thinking About Myself
Thinking About Myself is a music album by techno/trance artist Cosmic Baby which was released in 1994. It is Cosmic Baby's second studio album.- Track listing :# "Thinking About Myself" – 5:20# "Treptow" – 6:23# "Tao 2000" – 6:41...

. He later also created a soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 for Futura, a musical dance act. This soundtrack features some material from Thinking About Myself and was released under the name Cosmic Inc. in 1995. Another soundtrack, Musik zu Andorra, for the stageplay Andorra
Andorra (play)
Andorra is a play written by the Swiss dramatist Max Frisch in 1961. The original text came from a prose sketch Frisch had written in his diary titled Der andorranische Jude . The Andorra in Frisch's play is fictional and not intended to be a representation of the real Andorra located between...

by Max Frisch
Max Frisch
Max Rudolf Frisch was a Swiss playwright and novelist, regarded as highly representative of German-language literature after World War II. In his creative works Frisch paid particular attention to issues relating to problems of human identity, individuality, responsibility, morality and political...

, appeared in 1997. Blüchel decided to become a music publisher and founded Cosmic Enterprises in 1994; he then created his own label Time Out of Mind Records in 1995. The third full-length album Fourteen Pieces
Fourteen Pieces
Fourteen Pieces: Selected Works 1995 is a music album by techno/trance artist Cosmic Baby which was released internationally on 27 May 1996. It is Cosmic Baby's third full-length album. It was released as a double CD with seven tracks on each CD...

was released in 1996, the fourth album Heaven
Heaven (Cosmic Baby album)
Heaven is a music album by techno/trance artist Cosmic Baby which was released in 1999. It is Cosmic Baby's fourth full-length album. It was his final album before his break from recording as Cosmic Baby, as well as his final album in traditional Cosmic Baby style...

followed in 1999. Throughout the late 1990s, Blüchel would perform as a DJ in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and other places around the world.

Blüchel later started collaborating with Christopher von Deylen
Christopher von Deylen
Christopher von Deylen is an electronica music producer, formerly one-half of a duo, and now the main member of the band Schiller...

. Together they released two albums as Blüchel & Von Deylen in 2004: Bi Polar and Mare Stellaris. After this, Blüchel began releasing works under his real name, more ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...

-like, minimalistic and experimental than his works as Cosmic Baby. The albums that appeared in the following years were part of the "Zauberberg" ("Magic Mountain") trilogy. Meanwhile, Blüchel also made a come-back as Cosmic Baby with the release of the album Industrie und Melodie
Industrie und Melodie
Industrie und Melodie is in all the sixth studio album by Cosmic Baby and his fifth under that pseudonym. The title is German for "industry and melody"....

at the end of 2006.

Discography

As Cosmic Baby
  • Stellar Supreme
    Stellar Supreme
    Stellar Supreme is a music album by techno/trance artist Cosmic Baby. It is Cosmic Baby's debut album and it was first released in late 1992 on the MFS label.- Track listing :- Trivia :...

    (1992)
  • Thinking About Myself
    Thinking About Myself
    Thinking About Myself is a music album by techno/trance artist Cosmic Baby which was released in 1994. It is Cosmic Baby's second studio album.- Track listing :# "Thinking About Myself" – 5:20# "Treptow" – 6:23# "Tao 2000" – 6:41...

    (1994)
  • Fourteen Pieces — Selected Works 1995
    Fourteen Pieces
    Fourteen Pieces: Selected Works 1995 is a music album by techno/trance artist Cosmic Baby which was released internationally on 27 May 1996. It is Cosmic Baby's third full-length album. It was released as a double CD with seven tracks on each CD...

    (1996)
  • Heaven
    Heaven (Cosmic Baby album)
    Heaven is a music album by techno/trance artist Cosmic Baby which was released in 1999. It is Cosmic Baby's fourth full-length album. It was his final album before his break from recording as Cosmic Baby, as well as his final album in traditional Cosmic Baby style...

    (1999)
  • Industrie und Melodie
    Industrie und Melodie
    Industrie und Melodie is in all the sixth studio album by Cosmic Baby and his fifth under that pseudonym. The title is German for "industry and melody"....

    (2006)
  • Works 1996.1 — Somnambul (2007) (for download only)
  • Works 1996.2 — Hundeherz (2007) (for download only)


As Harald Blüchel
  • Die Toteninsel (Zauberberg-Trilogie Teil 1) (2006)
  • Caged (Zauberberg-Trilogie Teil 2) (2007)
  • Electric Chamber Music (Zauberberg-Trilogie Teil 3) (2009)


External links

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