Inventions For Electric Guitar

Description

Inventions for Electric Guitar is the first solo studio album by guitarist and composer Manuel Göttsching. Initially, it was released with the subtitle Ash Ra Tempel VI, technically making it the sixth and final album under the Ash Ra Tempel name. This record marked a change of direction, inspired by Göttsching’s foray into minimalism and technological experiments with his new studio equipment.

In 1974, Manuel Göttsching started to build his Berlin recording facility, Studio Roma. The name was derived from his and his wife’s Rosi first names. Roma’s equipment, at that point, consisted of a 1961 Gibson SG Special with Vibrola, a Lap steel guitar, a Sola Sound Fuzz, a Schaller Rotosound, a Wah-wah, a 4-track TEAC A-3340 and 2 Studer-Revox A77 tape machines. Inventions for Electric Guitar was the first album recorded at the studio.

The record was entirely written and performed by Göttsching on electric guitar. He took three to four months of “hard work” to finish writing for the album.

According to MG.ART, Göttsching’s label, the master tape of Inventions was encoded with the Stereo Quadraphonic, 4-channel quadraphonic sound. A copy of this tape was used for the 2011 remastered vinyl and CD versions of the record. These rereleases could still play the quad sound with the appropriate decoder.

On the album’s back cover liner notes, Göttsching stated: “The incredible career of the electric guitar since the beginning of Rock n Roll times and my personal experiences on that instrument within the last six years gave me the possibility to lead the guitar to a new way of performance – electronic music.”

Göttsching’s music went through a profound shift when he discovered minimalist composers Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Göttsching himself called Inventions a “minimalist experiment”.

Allmusic reviewer Mark Richardson remarked that Inventions for Electric Guitar was reminiscent of fellow krautrockers Tangerine Dream’s music from the same period, namely the Phaedra (1974) and Rubycon (1975) albums