Michael Borner's Sun -

Sun was a German jazz-rock band led by guitarist/percussionist Michael Borner, who headlines over the nameplate on the band’s singular, self-titled 1981 album.

Members:Detlef Anders (drums), Klaus Menzel (saxophone, clarinet), Bert Fastenrath (guitar), Thomas Wicke (bass), Michael Borner (guitar, congas, timbales)

Background

Sun emerged in the Bergisches Land in 1979 around guitarist and composer Jörn Michael Borner, an autodidact guitarist who took his first formal lesson at nineteen. He studied guitar with Alfred Eickholt and composition with Ingo Schmitt at the Cologne Musikhochschule, Wuppertal division, where he also followed developments in modern jazz guitar. Borner played with jazz and fusion ensembles alongside his classical studies and made recordings of his own pieces from his youth.

Guitarist Bert Fastenrath also studied guitar at the Wuppertal division of the Cologne Musikhochschule. Sun played the Börse in Wuppertal in 1979 with saxophonist Wolfgang Schmidtke, who studied saxophone at the same institution after earlier musicology studies in Münster. Schmidtke played in an improvisation ensemble led by Harald Bojé and subsequently entered the Wuppertal jazz circuit.

Sun toured youth centers through 1982 across the Bergisches Land. The group made several studio demos in advance of its LP, while Klaus Menzel replaced Schmidtke on saxophone and added clarinet. The album lineup paired Borner with Fastenrath, Menzel, bassist Thomas Wicke, and drummer Detlef Anders.

Discography:

Sun (1981)

Sources

Michael Borner, Sun archive — homepage. Borner identifies Sun as a Bergisches Land jazz-rock/funk/Latin band and states that it toured from 1979 through 1982, especially through youth centers. (Sun)
Michael Borner, “Sunmusic.” Most important source: identifies the 1981 LP as the debut, states that several studio demo recordings preceded it, and preserves a 1979 Börse/Wuppertal live recording with Wolfgang Schmidtke still on saxophone. (Sun)
Michael Borner, official Vita. Gives his autodidactic start, guitar studies with Alfred Eickholt, composition studies with Ingo Schmitt, and jazz/fusion activity before and alongside the Hochschule period. It also names Fastenrath, Anders, Menzel, Wicke, and Schmidtke among his collaborators and Sun among his bands. (Michael Borner – Composing Guitarist)
Internationales Bergisches Gitarrenfestival — Borner/Fastenrath biographies. Adds Borner’s first formal guitar lesson at 19 and his juvenile recordings of original pieces; confirms Fastenrath’s guitar studies at the Cologne Musikhochschule and Wuppertal connection. (Bergisches Guitar Festival)
Wolfgang Schmidtke biography. Schmidtke began on piano, added saxophone at 16, studied musicology in Münster, then saxophone at the Cologne Musikhochschule in Wuppertal; his early activity included Harald Bojé’s improvisation ensemble and the fusion group Das Pferd. (Insel)
LP-credit transcription / collector documentation. Confirms the recorded quintet as Anders, Menzel, Fastenrath, Wicke, and Borner; the independent-release listings identify MBS Music and the 1981 date. I regard this as supporting evidence below Borner’s own archive. (Old Rock)