The short version
- WAVES was a German fanzine for electronic music, made by fans. Four issues came out in 1992, number 11 in February to number 14 in October, and this piece reads all four.
- Everything moved by post. Articles arrived in a set computer format, and ordering a record or suggesting a name for a new album took nothing more than an address.
- Tangerine Dream's Rockoon was savaged by two reviewers, and Jarre's eclipse concert in Mexico appeared only as news of its cancellation.
- One reviewer hesitated over whether Kitaro's Dream belonged in the "News from Japan" section at all.
February 1992, the first page of WAVES number 11. The editorial opens with a goodbye. Torsten Zimmer, who had started the magazine with him, no longer had the time, and Chris Höppner would carry on alone. Höppner asked contributors to send their pieces in MS-DOS or Atari ST format if they could, plain text with no layout. He was also looking for someone with a PC who could scan text for him. In the last years before the internet, this is how a fan magazine got made: through the letterbox.
What we read
WAVES called itself a "Fanzine für Elektronische Musik". The first issue came out in 1990, so 1992 was its third year. The Internet Archive holds 21 issues from 1990 to 1994. The 1992 run appeared in February, April, July and October. The April editorial announced that WAVES would now come out every three months, and that a monthly news sheet was on offer for readers who paid the extra postage. The magazine carries no licence statement, so we quote it briefly and reproduce no pages.
Schulze: his manager's Spanish tour diary
Of our five, Schulze is the name WAVES printed most in 1992. A two-part interview ran in issues 11 and 12, and he was on the cover of number 12. The better read, though, is a short tour report in that April issue, written by KDM, introduced as Klaus Schulze's manager.
It starts with a clock. The concerts had been confirmed in writing for 10.30 at night, and when he checked from Berlin beforehand he was told yes, that was right. Then he spotted a handwritten note on a box office that had not yet opened: 7.30. Two days later in Madrid, street posters told the same story. KDM took a taxi back to the hotel and woke everyone up, including the roadies, who had driven the truck all night and were sleeping through the afternoon. In Seville they turned up for a 1pm press conference and found the mayor handing out medals to police officers. At the last concert the promoter forgot to bring in the PA, and Schulze was on the phone sorting it out himself. Somewhere in the press conference story, KDM slipped in a line: "KS ist schließlich nicht Mick Jagger." After all, KS is not Mick Jagger.
It ended well enough. Between 400 and 1,000 people came each night, and six television crews turned up for the first four shows. Then the punchline. The record company's statement for half a year showed that Schulze's last four albums had sold eleven copies in Spain, all four combined.
Issue 11 also reviewed 2001, a compilation sold only through the 2001 record chain. The chain's catalogue billed it as the only CD Schulze had compiled himself from twenty years of work, and it runs about 78 minutes. Reviewer Martin Zimmer called it a must for collectors and a good first buy for newcomers. His one complaint was the sleeve, which he found simply dull.
Tangerine Dream: the Rockoon reviews
Two people shared the Rockoon review in issue 12. The first had played it again and again, hoping to find something good, and failed. The promised "humanisation" of the sound had not happened; it was eleven short tracks, one after another. He went as far as saying Edgar Froese should draw a line under the project after more than twenty years. The second reviewer summed it up in four words: "Eine äußerst kalte Maschinenmusik." Extremely cold machine music. All that was left, he added, was their unmistakable metallic sound.
Further back in the same issue, in the small ads, the first reviewer's name turns up again. He was selling CDs, and Rockoon was on the list. Twenty marks, postage included.
In July, issue 13 looked at Tyger, a 1987 album reissued in 1992 on Relativity. The reviewer liked the new sleeve and booklet much better, since they finally named the band members and the singer. The title track, though, had been given a new rhythm, and the change made it worse.
Jarre: the concert that never was, and the rumours
Issue 11 explained why Jarre's Mexican concert had not taken place. The plan was 11 July 1991, in front of the pyramids at Teotihuacan: a first set at midday, during the total eclipse, and a second that night. Jarre announced it himself, in Spanish, in Mexico City at the start of April, and it was called off about two weeks before the date. His label, Dreyfus, blamed technical problems such as moving the equipment.
In issue 12, the Jarre news is mostly rumour. Borrowing from an English Jarre fanzine, it listed possible venues in Brazil, Glasgow, Sydney and Tokyo, and even talk of one concert in several European cities at once. Then it drew its own line: "Wie gesagt, es handelt sich um Gerüchte." As we said, these are rumours. The same column reported a one-kilogram box of chocolate from a French company, with a picture from one of his concerts, numbered and signed. Issue 13 said Jarre was working on a new album and still looking for a title; readers could send suggestions to a Paris television programme. The same issue reported that the English fanzine Destination Jarre had closed.
Introducing a new French fanzine in October, issue 14 wrote: "Manchmal könnte man meinen, daß es mehr Fanzines über Jarre gibt als über Elektronische Musik allgemein." Sometimes you might think there are more fanzines about Jarre than about electronic music in general.
Kitaro and Vangelis
In issue 14, a reviewer signing herself Brigitte admitted she hesitated before putting Kitaro's Dream under "News from Japan". He lived in America, played in America and released his records in America. "Kitaro fast schon ein Amerikaner?" Almost an American? No, she decided; the music was still Japanese. The last track, "Agreement", is sung by Jon Anderson. In the same section another reviewer put on the Japanese import Lady of Dreams and was caught off guard. Instead of the synthesizer sequences everyone expected from Kitaro, a string orchestra opened the record.
Vangelis appears in WAVES that year only through other people. In issue 12 a reviewer spotted a CD on a department store's bargain table with the name Vangelis in large letters, and underneath, in small print, "performed by A Close Call", a group nobody could identify. In issue 14, Michel Huygen of Neuronium, based in Spain, said Vangelis had invited him in 1981 to jam with him at Nemo Studios in London.
How to listen
- Play Rockoon from start to finish, and check whether the cold that two reviewers heard in 1992 is still there.
- Follow it with "Symphony of the Forest", the opening track of Lady of Dreams, which is also on Dream. That is where a reviewer waiting for sequences got strings instead.
Where to get it
The records WAVES reviewed in 1992 are still around on CD. Twenty marks, postage included: that was what one fan asked for Rockoon in a small ad that spring.
