jürgen müller

Science of the Sea

**warehouse find - a handful of pink vinyl copies** 'Science Of The Sea' is a total find, presenting a precious vinyl reissue of Jürgen Müller's practically unheard 1982 ode to oceanography and the magic of synthesizer music. As his story goes, in 1979, Jürgen, a self-taught amateur musician studying oceanic science at the University of Kiel, travelled with a film crew to document a mission testing sea-water toxicity a few kilometres offshore in the North Sea. As ever, necessity was the mother of invention, and the experience proved so memorable that he was impelled to create a soundtrack to the footage and his own recollections using some electronic equipment borrowed from friends and a local school. Armed with nothing but a faint memory of piano lessons as a child and - perhaps to be expected for a German student in 1979 - some awareness of (undisclosed) avant-garde electronic composers from the early '70s, Jürgen set about creating this lush suite of twelve marine-themed vignettes, plainly channeling his thoughts, moods and emotions into what could be quite easily called a prototypical, deliciously frothy form of "New Age" music. It simultaneously triggered ambitions of becoming a film composer and lead to the creation of his publishing company - Neue Wissenschaft. He wrote the album in his spare time off from studying between 1981-82, finally releasing an edition of 100 copies which largely ended up in the hands of friends and family, with only a few reaching prospective clients and relegating it to the sea of privately pressed synth music. The titles such as 'Traumfolge Einer Qualle (Dream Sequence for a Jellyfish)', 'Unter Weiten Welden (Vast Worlds Beneath)' and 'Einsame Reise (Lonely Voyage)' already imbue a sense of wonder before you even hear any of the material. The music itself is equally charming, recalling the graceful figures of Roedelius but transplanted from the rolling countryside to a glinting North Sea which has provided inspiration for so many others, in so many ways. The original tapes have been remastered by Brad Rose and will at long last find a home in the wider world thanks to this beautiful new pressing.