Harald Blüchel (born February 19, 1966) is a German

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

ian who is mostly known under his alias Cosmic Baby. Blüchel is also well known for his participation in

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

acts such as

Energy 52 Energy 52 was a trance project of German DJ Paul Schmitz-Moormann (DJ Kid Paul). The project was supported by Cosmic Baby ( Harald Blüchel), who produced, co-composed, and remixed tracks. The project is best known for the 1993 track "Café de ...

with Paul Schmitz-Moormann and the Visions of Shiva with

Paul van Dyk Matthias Paul (; born 16 December 1971), known professionally as Paul van Dyk () is a German DJ, record producer and musician. Van Dyk was the first artist to receive a Grammy Award nomination in the newly added category of Best Dance/Electron ...

Biography and musical career

Blüchel was born in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

, Germany. At the age of 6, Blüchel started taking classes in

classical piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. He began studying at the

Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg The Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg (formerly ''Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg'') is a music conservatoire based in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. The conservatoire has a secondary building in Augsburg. The Hochschule The Hochschule für ...

one year later. His favourite

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

s soon were, amongst others,

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

and

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

. In 1976, he discovered

and took an interest in playing the

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

. At the time he was listening to

bands Bands may refer to: * Bands (song), song by American rapper Comethazine * Bands (neckwear), form of formal neckwear * Bands (Italian Army irregulars) Bands () was an Italian military term for Irregular military, irregular forces, composed of nati ...

such as

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

and

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...

. Blüchel continued his studies in music. In 1986 he moved to

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

and entered into

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

to study

audio engineering Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound * Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of soun ...

, and also entered into the

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the second largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research uni ...

to study composition. While living in Berlin, he met producer Kid Paul. In 1988 he started to compose and take side in

techno music Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

and

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

. In 1991, Blüchel first appeared as "Cosmic Baby" in live acts. That year he signed with trance label MFS, where he released his first

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

'' Stellar Supreme'' in 1992. In 1992 he also paired up with Paul van Dyk for the project "The Visions of Shiva" under which name two

EPs An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

came out, ''Perfect Day'' (1992) and ''How Much Can You Take?'' (1993). The two then later went their separate ways. In late 1993, Blüchel left MFS and signed onto Logic Records, a

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

owned by BMG. At the beginning of the 1990s, Blüchel formed Energy 52 with Kid Paul. In 1993, Energy 52 released "

Café del Mar A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargile ...

", which is considered to be a

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

classic and one of the most

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

ed songs in electronic music. In 1994, Blüchel released his

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

"Loops of Infinity", which stayed in the top 30 of the German

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

for three months. In April 1994 he released his second album '' Thinking About Myself''. He later also created a soundtrack for ''Futura'', a musical dance act. This soundtrack features some material from ''Thinking About Myself'' and was released under the name Cosmic Inc. in 1995. Another soundtrack, ''Musik zu Andorra'', for the

stageplay A play is a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than mere reading. The creator of a play is known as a playwright. Plays are staged at various levels, ranging f ...

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

'' by

Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity (social science), identity, individuality, Moral responsibility, responsibility, morality, and political commi ...

, appeared in 1997. Blüchel decided to become a music publisher and founded Cosmic Enterprises in 1994; he then created his own label Time Out of Mind Records in 1995. The third full-length album '' Fourteen Pieces'' was released in 1996, the fourth album ''

Heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

'' followed in 1999. Throughout the late 1990s, Blüchel would perform as a DJ in the United States, Mexico and other places around the world. Blüchel later started collaborating with Christopher von Deylen. Together they released two albums as Blüchel & Von Deylen in 2004: ''Bi Polar'' and ''Mare Stellaris''. After this, Blüchel began releasing works under his real name, more

ambient Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film * ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...

-like, minimalistic and experimental than his works as Cosmic Baby. The albums that appeared in the following years were part of the "Zauberberg" ("Magic Mountain") trilogy. Meanwhile, Blüchel also made a comeback as Cosmic Baby with the release of the album '' Industrie und Melodie'' at the end of 2006. Scooter mentions Blüchel and his Energy 52 partner, Kid Paul, in their 1994 song Hyper Hyper, during which lead singer H.P. Baxxter reads out the name of numerous DJs.

Discography

;As Cosmic Baby * '' Stellar Supreme'' (1992) * '' Thinking About Myself'' (1994) * '' Fourteen Pieces — Selected Works 1995'' (1996) * ''

'' (1999) * '' Industrie und Melodie'' (2006) * ''Works 1996.1 — Somnambul'' (2007) (for download only) * ''Works 1996.2 — Hundeherz'' (2007) (for download only) ;As Harald Blüchel * ''Die Toteninsel (Zauberberg-Trilogie Teil 1)'' (2006) * ''Caged (Zauberberg-Trilogie Teil 2)'' (2007) * ''Electric Chamber Music (Zauberberg-Trilogie Teil 3)'' (2009) * ''No Ordinary Moments'' (2020)

References

External links

Official website
* *
Blüchel & Von Deylen official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bluchel, Harald German electronic musicians 1963 births Living people Musicians from Nuremberg Berlin University of the Arts alumni German electronic dance music DJs