Michael Rother

Dreaming Michael Rother

Aside from his soundtrack work and a few remixes, Rother didn't record until early 2020. As Germany entered lockdown amid the 2019 coronavirus pandemic.

Rother, spurred on by his empty schedule, the quiet rhythms of isolation and the melancholy he felt at being away from his Italian partner, instead decided to construct a new album. The process was intense.

There were scores of embryonic tracks from the Remember sessions to develop, to which his friend Thomas Beckmann had originally contributed some co-mixing and electronic beat, but Dreaming is very different to its predecessor. Crucially, Remember featured no guitar, while these new pieces are smothered in it: melodic lines harking back to Flammende Herzen, EBow drones reminiscent of Katzenmusik, crunchy rhythm parts that suggest Harmonia's more experimental moments, and even a nod to Brian Eno on "Fierce Wind Blowing". Most of the guitars on Dreaming were tracked in one pass, with Rother almost unconsciously composing the lines as he recorded.