(Krautrock, Abstract) [LP] [24/96] You – Electric Day - 1979 (2011 RE), APE (image+.cue)

Summer 1977. Udo Hanten (* 1956) and Albin Meskes (*1952) meet (or the first time at an - exhibition in the Krefeld Haus Lange museum for contemporary art where some of Albin's paintings are presented. One of them will become the LP cover of the first YOU album you now hold in your hands. Udo is - at the time - one half of the synthesizer duo Briiker & Hanten.
Two years later. Udo Hanten has gone solo in the meantime playing live concerts (the "Muziek uit de Kosmos" show broadcasted in the Belgian radio on May 26th 1978 being the highlight) and working temporarily with Klaus Schulze.
Together with guitarist Uli Weber (* 1948. playing electric guitar in several local rock bands), he founds a new formation which soon gets dubbed YOU; the two begin recording their first tracks.
West-Berlin. Capital city of Electronic Music at that time. Udo Hanten and Ulrich Weber present in December 1978 their first songs at Peter Baumann's Pa¬ragon studio. They also meet Harald Grosskopf - then already some kind of drum icon of German electronic music. The former "Wallenstein" and Klaus Schulze drummer is a member of Ashra and plans - besides his band activities - to record a solo album. The three of them - encouraged by a conversation with producer legend Conny Plank - arrange a cooperation, since Grosskopf owns an invaluable tool for such an endeavour: an eight-track tape recorder. Udo Hanten contri¬butes the electronic instruments - synthesizers and sequencers - plus some studio gear and the three of them set up an electronic studio in Krefeld, Germany. First they record Harald Grosskopf's solo debut "Synthesist" followed by the first YOU production "Electric Day".
The legendary eight-track recorder - an ITAM 805 sporting eight-track tape heads mounted on a Revox A77 chassis -is a unit with its own history: it recorded not only the debut albums from YOU and Harald Grosskopf but also several records by Klaus Schulze (e.g. Timewind") and "Departure From The Northern Wasteland" from Michael Hoenig.
After completion of the Harald Grosskopf album in the so-called Spiegeltraum-Studio in spring 1979, recording of the tracks for the first YOU LP begins. In the meantime synthesist/designer Albin Meskes completes the band, which makes YOU a trio.
The basic tracks for "Electric Day" are laid down on the eight-track recorder; instruments used are the Minimoog, Micromoog, the SpaceMaster modular system, an ARP Omni, a Korg PS 3100 and - most important: the two ARP Sequencers.
Summer 1979. The YOU-trio drives to Frankfurt and meets in the Panne-Paulsen-Studio - some kind of „Hausstudio" of German electronic musicians - the three from „Ashra" (Manuel Gottsching, Lutz "Luul" Ulbrich and Harald Grosskopf). They just finished recording - their "Belle Alliance" album.
Harald now enters the YOU-production. The tracks from the Krefeld sessions are transferred to Eberhard Panne's 16-track Telefunken machine, having another eight tracks to record live drums and more keyboard and guitar overdubs. Harald reveals once more his talent, which only few drummers in the seventies have: playing tight and in sync to prerecorded sequencer tracks. Example: the drums on the title track "Electric Day" are a "first take" recording.
One kind of instrument to be heard on many YOU tracks over the years is first played here: Eberhard Panne owns an old, but functional Mellotron Mk. II.
Then the seven pieces of the new record are remixed with sound engineer Eberhard Panne in three days (and nights).
The first YOU-LP is released on the young Cain-Label. Cover design by Albin Meskes, photos by Holger "H-Ray" Heine (San Francisco). Due to copyright reasons Harald Grosskopf appears pseudonymously on the record sleeve - but all insiders recognize at once, who is hiding behind "Lhan Gopal".
As their first acquisition after the record release the band gets their own Mellotron: the YOU studio becomes home to a new „Novatron 400 SM", which will be heard on every subsequent YOU album.
The summer of 1980 sees filming of the video version of "Electric Day", scheduled as a supplement to the album. The promising attempt ends disastrously, the video crew resigns and the video footage disappears in Nirvana.