I've been tied up with work since August, but I have started a new project. Definitely (and probably obviously) inspired by Tangerine Dream/Froese/Schulze kind of stuff. This one is still a work in progress, but thought I'd share as-is.
Gear: AJH VCOs, Doepfer SEM, QPAS, 4ms DLD, SynthTech E352, Lo-Fi Junky, Milky Way, Data Bender, Prophet Rev2, Behringer VC340, Warm Audio Jet Phaser, guitar, etc.
I thought there were some kind of trippy headphone moments in this one. A friend of mine may add some drums eventually.
Thanks for listening! Hope you enjoy. No worries if you don't dig it.

...and Bandcamp if that's your thing:


Yeah, I dig it. Good stuff. Drums would work out nicely. 👍


Loving this @farkas, gonna relisten with headphones later... more please!


Thanks so much, @troux and @mowse. I appreciate the support!


I totally dig it! That was a really good listen. Going to play it again. I love the pads from the Rev 2 - I really do love mine.

My recent long piece was a good experiment in the long form, but it still doesn't approach where I want to go. This is closer. As you say, this is in the Tangerine Dream/Schulze style. I am struggling to conceptualize multiple separate sections that all marry into one long form, but maybe I am overthinking the transition requirements. Cheers!


Thanks @TumeniKnobs. Totally agreed on the Rev2. I love that thing. On this track, I combined a Rev2 pad with the VC340 voices and strings, and then faded in a split signal going through an external effects pedal chain.
As far as sections and transitions, that's definitely the "work in progress" part of this track and my project as a whole. I'm just experimenting with a bunch of raw semi-unrelated parts and seeing how I can fit them together like a jigsaw puzzle. In the end, I hope to make all of the transitions more natural. I'm used to one-track, one-take improv stuff, so it will be fun to practice mixing techniques and EQing the finished collage of multiple tracks.
Good luck with your project!


Hi Farkas,

Do I dig it? Yes Sir! :-) Great track and oh what a nice moment that is at 2:45 where you really show those Berlin School musicians what real electronic music is about! ;-)

Wow-oh-hoo! This is some serious shit! Lovely that sequence, it keeps on going, I am sitting on the tip of my chair and... and... I am totally speechless! This is so good, this brings me back (in a good way) to the end of the 1970s and 1980s where those Berlin School people still knew how to make music ;-) Yet you managed to dip it in a modern sauce that gives it just that extra bit(e) what we needed then in the 1990s and onwards were no longer decent music (with perhaps some exceptions) have been made!

So Covid-19 rules are disappearing here slowly in Europe, when did you say you were planning to come here for a concert tour?! Use this style and you conquer all the European electronic music fans! Thanks a lot for this very exciting experience and kind regards, Garfield.

P.S.: Thanks a lot for mentioning and using your VC340 vocoder again. Decent use in the beginning of the track, nice touch! I am going to press the play button again, this deserves some serious listening...

Edit: Removed typo.

For review reports of Eurorack modules, please refer to https://garfieldmodular.net/ for PDF formatted downloads


Thanks so much @GarfieldModular. You are far too kind.
I am moving more and more in the Berlin School direction. As I assemble some pieces I'm really happy with, I will be glad to share them with you. I'm also starting to collaborate a bit with a drummer who is a huge fan of Jaki Liebzeit and the 70s era of German rock and electronic music. Hopefully some cool experiments will come out of that.
My friend in Leipzig has tried to convince me to play in some electronic music venues or festivals the next time I visit. I would feel silly if I looked like Rick Wakeman surrounded by synths on stage (haha), so I would probably just take a small portable rack if I ever decide to do something like that. That's probably a few years away though.
Seriously, thanks for listening to this demo. I'm pretty passionate about that era of and style of music, so your feedback really means a lot.


Hi Farkas,

That's great news that you are more and more moving into the Berlin School direction :-) Sounds to me that there is lots of good upcoming stuff coming from you, yeah! He, he, yes besides electronic music, German rock aka Kraut-rock (I am fan of Grobschnitt, complete idiots but they make idiotic good music in a fun way) is fantastic too. These Grobschnitt guys are now fathers and didn't do much however recently (meanwhile some years ago again) they went on tour together with their sons! I missed those concerts, which is a pity. I hope that wasn't a one-time thing and hope they will somehow continue.

If you are ever going to play in Germany, please let me know, I will try to visit you then. Leipzig is "the other side" of Germany for me from a travelling point of view, so it might be challenging but I will give it a try then!

I am curious to your future works possibly together with your drummer's friend, can't wait for a jam of you two and see how that works out :-) Thank you very much for creating pleasant and enjoyable music and kind regards, Garfield.

For review reports of Eurorack modules, please refer to https://garfieldmodular.net/ for PDF formatted downloads


Really nice - has me wondering how to make something similar on my system ...


Really nice - has me wondering how to make something similar on my system ...
-- gumbo23

Thanks @gumbo23. I have had almost zero time to work on music since August. I do still plan on sending you some sounds to work with at some point though. I'm hoping to have a bunch of free time in December.
Take care!


Hmm...you're missing a couple of other Berlin schoolers...

First up has got to be Manuel Gottsching, who began with the VERY trippy band Ash Ra Tempel and then went on to create a major part of the early template for techno (ie: "E2-E4"). Hands down, 100% recommended.

Then there's the SPIKY Berliner, Conrad Schnitzler. He was more aligned with the grittier, proto-industrial side of things, which shouldn't be a surprise as he was on the first TD album, and the first few Kluster albums ("K Cluster", basically...they changed the first letter to the more anglicized "C" after Schnitzler left). But for a serious dive into his work, grab the several "Funktion" albums, all of which are titled by different colors ("Funktion Gelb", "Funktion Blau", etc).

And the last I would recommend in that style has got to be Popol Vuh's first two albums, "Affenstunde" and "In den Garten Pharos". After those landmark electronic-based albums, Florian Fricke gradually shifted to acoustic instruments but continued to make brilliant music along the same lines as previously...just minus the electronics. Fricke technically isn't Berlin school, as Popol Vuh was based out of Munich (along with the Amon Duul groups, which Fricke drew on for later Popol Vuh lineups).

There's more...a dive into Bureau B's catalog is a great way to tackle the various different Krautrock flavors: http://www.bureau-b.com/


Love all of that stuff. Coincidentally, I was listening to Ashra's "Correlations" album on the way to work this morning.


Congratulations Farkas!
This is a great track and thanks for sharing it.

This piece is quite satisfactory as it is here.
Yes, why not introduce some drums... eventually...
But by adopting an opposite and more minimalist approach, one could also imagine concentrating on the essential. Perhaps wishing to minimize the introduction and conclusion pads (with for example an Eq a little more tightened towards the mediums, a volume just a bit less high, even a very light bit crushing).

The main sequence is very charismatic in itself! This is the main character, the hero, the one on whom all the attention is going to be focused, and therefore the light and the contrasts can be further maximized. This is all very subjective, of course.

This sequence has a beautiful dynamic, a full and almost carnal sound, a dense and silky grain (there is deep black, then all the nuances... until flashes of light; the AJH Vcos ?). The whole is carried by balanced melodic variations, with neither too many nor too few gaps (in my opinion). This sequence is neither too repetitive, nor too scattered. Like a life form with its own coherence, like the wandering of a black bear, with its distanced, disillusioned, but powerful and wild look.

The more distant or external sounds that surround it remain in their proper proportion, like a slight reaction of the environment that does not interfere with the freedom of movement and expression of the main role. A living environment that knows how to remain discreet. Music is an ecosystem.

The sequence is also the 'Unique Artistic Proposition' (in analogy with the USP of marketing, 'Unique Selling Proposition'). It is the one that triggers the adoption, the favor for the track. Her departure at 11:25 is a success: surprise, the animal has disappeared... we are left alone in its natural environment, and it has run away.

BTW, it's interesting to mention the Berlin influences in this track. But if I were you, I wouldn't hesitate to say loud and clear that this music (like most of your work) is ‘Ohio School’, or ‘Erie School’, as you like :))

You're American (ok, Ohio, Midwest), but Germans (or French like me) can't be in your place. Nor the other way around. Globalization hasn't gone that far yet... thankfully. I feel more the vast spaces of North America (and maybe the Appalachian region) than the streets of Berlin in this track.

I'm currently enjoying Johno Wells' work a lot, for example : he's so Southern California... and among the giants: Kraftwerk, so German, and Pierre Henry, Eliane Radiguet or Jean-michel Jarre, so French.

You, you are yourself. And it's perfect like that.
So, long live the Ohio School!

'On ne devrait jamais quitter Montauban' (Fernand Naudin).
https://soundcloud.com/petrus-major/tracks


Thank you so much for the feedback and support @Sweelinck. This really means a lot.
You bring up a great point about the sense of place coming through in our music, whether intentionally or not. Our musical heroes are just a small part of what influences our artistry, and as much as I love the music of Berlin, Manchester, NYC, or Rio de Janeiro, I will only be able to authentically express what it sounds like to be in this Midwestern place. There are two pioneering Ohio electronic/synth-punk bands (Devo and Brainiac) that I always thought sounded so out of place for the landscape and culture of Ohio, but I realize as I'm getting older that they are exactly what Ohio sounds like.
Again, thanks for taking the time to listen and respond. Hopefully, the next time I share something I will have my ideas fleshed out a bit more. I really love this idea of capturing the local environment and "zeitgeist". :)