PYROLATOR
Kurt Dahlke (born 29 April 1958) is a German musician and record producer. He is a founding member of record label/publishing company Ata Tak and has worked and still works in several bands. Dahlke is also known as Pyrolator. Several times he has been commissioned by the Goethe-Institut for workshops or concerts. On stage Dahlke operates his computer/synthesizer hardware by the movement or the pressure of the hands, with “Thunder and Lightning II”, two controllers built by Don Buchla. (More from Wikipedia)
Julie Jigsaw of Ja Ja Ja moved to New York in 1980, where she started her first band Group of Trees. After soaking up a lot of musical influences, including the thriving punk/new wave and hip hop scenes in New York in the very early 1980's, she ran into an album by German band Der Plan called Geri Reig. (She was attracted by the cover – as I often am myself – which had a robot Baby Jesus on it). Der Plan was an early synth pop band and one of the innovators of the scene that became known as Neue Deutsche Welle ("German New Wave"). She began a correspondence with Der Plan lead singer Moritz R. and got herself invited to Dusseldorf, where she stayed in the guest room at Ata Tak Records recording studios, downstairs from Der Plan bandmembers Kurt Dahlke (a/k/a Pyrolator) and Frank Fenstermacher.
Their self-titled album, Ja Ja Ja was released in 1982, also on the Ata Tak label. Kurt Dahlke (Pyrolator) and Frank Samba are in the process of remastering the album for reissue as a CD on a Japanese label. Their song “Katz Rap” was included on a 2005 German compilation album called Grlz: Women Ahead of Their Time; and a copy of the original 45 is included in the Cornell University Library Hip Hop Collection.
(February 2012)
