Soundtracks of Eastern Germany's Adventures in Space

During the 70s, socialist equivalents to Western Germany’s science-fiction series "Raumpatrouille Orion" or "Star Maidens" have seen the light of space. Now for the first time films like "Eolomea", "Signals" and "Stardust" are featured on this present album. The highlights from their original scores -spiced by exquisite titles from a long gone & obscure Amiga tribute to Sigmund Jaehn, the first German in Kosmos!(...) can be found here.
Enjoy soundtrack-world-premieres featuring spacy music by the well-known composers Karl-Ernst Sasse & Guenther Fischer plus Amiga 1969 hit single "Kosmos" plus lots of dialogue highlights and sound effects! With the CD comes an additional medley of former GDR pioneer-hymns and more dialogue parts.

Believe it or not - the communists liked space-operas, too.
Of course: The eastern bloc created milestones in science-fiction like the novels of Stanislaw Lem or the films by Andrej Tarkowskii ("Stalker", "Solaris") which – not at last – were responsible for the boom of this genre. But who knows about the DEFA-equivalents of Hollywood’s more entertaining sci-fi series or Western German tv-serials like "Star Maidens”? Well, here we go: This is exactly what "Kosmos!” is about!
Despite being determined anti-capitalistic, the DEFA science-fiction movies also (carefully) criticized the so called "real-existing socialism” in the former GDR. In contrast to the more action-orientated productions from outside the eastern bloc, the essence of these films could be summed up in the question of how socialist ideas can be realized in "space-communities” far away from earth.
With Karl-Ernst Sasse and Guenther Fischer (from their scores to the popular DEFA-western movies -> ASM 002 and ASM 008) the two most dominating composers of filmmusic in the GDR are responsible for the extraordinary soundtracks to these movies. Opposite to their western movie scores, their music for the science-fiction movies was pretty different from what you are used to hear in the "capitalistic” science-fiction movie. From strictly-avantgardistic orchestral sounds over electronic experiments to cosmic waltzes, beat guitars and influences of "Krautrock”. Thereby it sometimes sounds so fresh as if it has been produced in some new-electronic sound-laboratory right these days. Somehow strange sound the titles from the Amiga-LP "Die Erde dreht sich linksherum!" featuring e.g Stern-Combo Meißen and the Guenther-Fischer-Quintett.

The vinyl comes with deluxe gatefold cover, the CD with 12 page booklet. Both contain detailed English and German linernotes, film biographies, some lyrics and many film stills.

Press

moviegrooves.com: "listening to this collection is like taking a fascinating long and weird intergalactic journey"

scorebaby [12/01]: "...moody and grandiose orchestral sections."