E2-E4

<i>E2-E4</i>

E2-E4

1984 studio album by Manuel Göttsching

This article is about the album. For the chess opening, see King's Pawn Game.

E2-E4, released in 1984, is a solo recording by German musician and Ash Ra Tempel founder Manuel Göttsching. The album consists of one minimalistic, hour-long electronic track that Göttsching recorded in one take using a sequencer, with improvised keyboards, metallic percussion, and guitar playing.[3]

Quick Facts E2-E4, Studio album by Manuel Göttsching ...
More information Review scores, Source ...

The album is named after the most popular[4] opening chess move 1. e2-e4 (which is expressed in long algebraic notation). A noteworthy pun on E2-E4 exists—when expressed in standard scientific pitch notation, the harmonic range of a guitar's strings extends from E2 (82.407 Hz) to E4 (329.63 Hz).

Influence

Pitchfork and The Guardian named the album one of the best of the 1980s for its important role in the development of house and techno music of the late 1980s and early 1990s.[5][3] Though inspired in part by New York's Latin club rhythms in addition to minimalists like Steve Reich, Göttsching was surprised when he learned that people danced to the track.[3]

The song became a hit at New York's Paradise Garage dance club.[3] Sueño Latino sampled E2-E4 on its 1989 song "Sueño Latino."[3] The album also would be an early influence on ambient techno works by Carl Craig, the Black Dog, and The Orb.[6] In 1994, Craig released a remix named "Remake" under his alias of Paperclip People. Basic Channel released a "Basic Reshape" remix of "Remake", which would be included on their compilation album BCD under the name of "e2e4 Basic Reshape."

Track sections

Original vinyl presses of the album gave the following titles and approximate times on the cover. Original presses (and various reissues) sectioned the album into two halves, giving Side 1 and 2 durations of 31:38 and 23:00 respectively. Later digital editions simply have one track with a 58:39 running time.

More information No., Title ...
More information No., Title ...

Personnel

References

  1. [1]
    Bush, John (2011). "E2-E4 - Manuel Göttsching | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  2. [2]
    Richardson, Mark (14 September 2016). "Manuel Göttsching: E2-E4". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  3. [3]
    Naylor, Tony (August 30, 2013). "Manuel Göttsching: the Göttfather". the Guardian. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  4. [4]
    Keene, Raymond; Levy, David (1993). How to Play the Opening in Chess. ISBN 978-0805029376.
  5. [5]
    Pitchfork Feature: Top 100 Albums of the 1980s
  6. [6]
    Rietveld, Hillegonda (2010). "Infinite Noise Spirals: The Musical Cosmopolitanism of Psytrance". The Local Scenes and Global Culture of Psytrance. Routledge: 74.
Stub icon

This 1980s electronic music album–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article E2-E4, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.