Manuel Göttsching

Manuel Göttsching is a German guitarist who rose to prominence as the mastermind behind Ash Ra Tempel during the early 1970s. In 1975, he debuted as a solo artist with the album Inventions for Electric Guitar on Kosmische/Ohr. The following year, he resumed band activity in the electronic combo Ashra, which released four albums on Virgin.

Background

Manuel Göttsching was born September 9, 1952, in the Friedenau district of West Berlin. His mother trained in acting, dance, and voice during childhood, while her brother served for a period as organist at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. His father taught mechanical engineering at Technische Universität Berlin and played piano at home. Göttsching attended Steuben-Schule and later Erich-Hoepner-Gymnasium in Westend. Around age ten, he began weekly classical-guitar lessons with Frau Scheibitz at Musikschule Charlottenburg, where he studied for six years.

Göttsching met Hartmut Enke in 1966 at Erich-Hoepner-Gymnasium in Westend. The pair formed the Bomb Proofs with guitarist Lutz Behrend at Enke’s fifteenth-birthday party the following year; drummer Christian Töttcher later joined the group. The Bomb Proofs played school parties and private functions with material by British beat groups. Göttsching soon switched to electric guitar as the band expanded songs through instrumental improvisation.

Göttsching and Enke moved into freer material under the name Bad Joe, then adopted blues structures in the Steeple Chase Blues Band with harmonica player Volker Zibell and drummer Wolfgang Müller. Swiss composer Thomas Kessler mentored the pair at the Beat Studio on Pfalzburger Straße in Wilmersdorf, where they studied improvisation and composition among musicians from the West Berlin experimental scene. Klaus Schulze entered their circle at the Beat Studio in 1970 after his exit from Tangerine Dream.

Ash Ra Tempel

Schulze encountered Göttsching and Enke at the Beat Studio soon after Enke returned from London with WEM amplification equipment. The three formed Ash Ra Tempel and played clubs, galleries, community centers, and arts spaces across the Berlin circuit. Schulze brought the group into contact with Ohr Records through his earlier involvement with Tangerine Dream, and label manager Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser signed the trio. Two Berlin studio attempts failed to produce usable masters, so Ash Ra Tempel traveled to Hamburg in March 1971 and recorded the debut album with engineer Conny Plank.

Schulze left the group following the first album, and Göttsching continued Ash Ra Tempel with Enke and a succession of guest musicians. The pair recorded Schwingungen at Studio Dierks with drummer Wolfgang Müller and other players, then worked with Timothy Leary and his associates on Seven Up. Schulze rejoined Göttsching and Enke for the sessions that produced Join Inn. Enke left music following an Ash Ra Tempel concert in Cologne in February 1973, leaving Göttsching as the group’s sole continuing member.

Göttsching retained the Ash Ra Tempel name and recorded Starring Rosi with singer Rosi Müller and drummer Harald Grosskopf, while engineer Dieter Dierks also contributed bass and percussion. His years in professional studios had introduced him to multitrack recording, tape manipulation, effects, and electronic instruments. He assembled Studio Roma at his Berlin home in 1974 with a TEAC four-track recorder, Revox tape machines, and effects pedals. Göttsching also studied the repetition-based music of Terry Riley as he developed a method built around layered electric guitar. In July, he began recording Inventions for Electric Guitar alone at Studio Roma.

Discography:

• Inventions for Electric Guitar (1975)
• E2-E4 (1984)

Sources

• Bernd Kistenmacher, Ferne Ziele — Göttsching interview from January 23, 2020. This is the strongest source for Friedenau, Steuben-Schule, Erich-Hoepner-Gymnasium, the family background, Frau Scheibitz, Musikschule Charlottenburg, Enke, the Bomb Proofs, Lutz Behrend, and Christian Töttcher. Kistenmacher interview excerpt
• Red Bull Music Academy — Manuel Göttsching lecture. Göttsching covers allied-forces radio, classical guitar, the school band, Enke, the shift from covers to improvisation, and the troubled first recording attempts for Ash Ra Tempel. RBMA lecture transcript
• The Quietus — “Everything Was In The Moment.” Göttsching gives the Bomb Proofs → Bad Joe → Steeple Chase sequence, the Beat Studio routine, Enke’s London equipment trip, Schulze’s arrival, and early Ash Ra Tempel concert activity. The Quietus interview
• Pertti Grönholm, “Ash Ra Tempel, Manuel Göttsching, and Klaus Schulze,” The Cambridge Companion to Krautrock. The accepted manuscript gives a useful cross-check for Kessler, Eruption chronology, Ash Ra Tempel live activity, Ohr, the first album, Schulze’s departure, the February 1973 Cologne show, Starring Rosi, and the move toward solo work.
• FACT — Göttsching’s album-by-album interview. Göttsching directly explains that Enke’s departure led him to abandon replacement lineups, pursue a solo format, absorb Terry Riley, and build Inventions for Electric Guitar around electric guitar and tape. FACT interview
• Eurock — Manuel Göttsching interview. Göttsching identifies Schulze’s earlier Ohr connection through Electronic Meditation as the route that brought Ash Ra Tempel to the label. (Eurock)