10. Brian EnoAnother Green World
His work with Roxy Music was known to Harmonia, especially Dieter Moebius who was a big fan. I was not that fascinated, but then because Moebius kept on playing it I sort of understood it at some point. Brian Eno came to this Harmonia concert in 1974. We were introduced and he joined us on stage. It was not a very special jam but it was a polite musical exchange. He told us about how much he knew about our music, that he was talking with David Bowie about Neu!, Can, Kraftwerk, Cluster and Harmonia. We were impressed! Did I mention that Harmonia was utterly ignored at the time? It was one of the biggest distances in perception, I loved Harmonia, and the audience fell asleep. I was totally convinced that this was good music, important music, and the audience in Germany more or less just ignored us!
When Brian Eno told us that we were listened to and understood on the other side of the Channel by him and David Bowie, that was great news for us! It didn’t really pay the bills, but it gave us hope! In 1976 Brian called and asked whether he could come to visit us, he was on his way to record Low with David Bowie, and then of course we said yes. The band didn’t exist any more, Harmonia had fallen apart, but we didn’t want to let him down! We spent twelve inspiring days talking, drinking tea and recording music without the intention of recording an album. It was a very pleasant episode, and I’m very happy that after 20 years when the music was lost in his archive, Roedelius found at least one tape and we were able to release [Eno and Harmonia LP] Tracks And Traces.
