CDs 2016… Onwards

During the Bell Musik days I began to co-operate with Werner Kohlhammer, a sound engineer and close friend of Klaus for a great many years. When the association with Bell Musik came to an end I began contacting numerous UK record labels in an effort to get one of them to continue with the Wunderlich re-issues / compilations. Not only were none interested, many didn’t even offer a reply...which was not surprising when most of the Marketing and Research Managers appear to have not long left school or University. About to give up on the exercise I came across the NOT NOW MUSIC label, and noticed that they specialised in a large spread of music genres. My e-mail to them revealed that for some time they had been looking to the possibility of licensing some Wunderlich recordings to add to their extensive catalogue.

Some months earlier Werner Kohlhammer had indicated to me that he’d found some boxes of reel to reel tapes when clearing the Wunderlich home studio, but had no idea what they were, except that they had been recorded straight to a Studer tape machine in 2 track stereo format. As all of Klaus’s commercial recordings were produced on his 8 track Studers using 1” wide tape, these standard quarter inch tape copies were unique. The dates on the boxes were the only clue, and it would appear that prior to all his UK Tours he would record, for timing and tune placement purposes, his proposed tour concert ‘programme’. There is no question that Klaus would never have allowed or even considered these tapes to be worthy of commercial interest, but in agreement with his widow, permission was given for these 1995 ‘rehearsal’ tapes to be released in 2016. ABSOLUTELY WUNDERLICH is without doubt the nearest thing any Wunderlich fan will experience to being present at one of his concerts...minus the applause! Klaus plays the majority of the tracks on this double CD in lengthy medley format. No edits, no gimmicks and I suspect not a note of music in front of him. For the very first time, this is the real Klaus Wunderlich.

This release was quickly a couple of months later with another double CD: THE GREAT POP ORGAN SOUND OF KLAUS WUNDERLICH which comprises of 37 tracks taken from 19 LPs, the majority of which are from his New Pop Organ Sound releases of 1975 – 1989. It is hoped that continuing sales will encourage NOT NOW MUSIC to consider eventually releasing the other UK ‘rehearsal’ tapes.