Solitaire

by Linda Kohanov
 
The brainchild of German keyboardist Elmar Schulte, this recording entity is based in the small town of Paderborn, yet draws inspiration from foreign landscapes, particularly the wide open spaces of the American Southwest, Scotland, and Norway. Schulte named the group, in fact, after his admiration for the music on Desert Solitaire, an album by American synthesists Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny, and Michael Stearns (see listing under Roach). Solitaire's dark, textural pieces and occasional ethnic rhythms are a marked contrast to the sequencer-dominated heritage of the '70s German electronic school popularized by Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze.