Berlin School

The Berlin School of electronic music, or just Berlin School, was a development of New Age Music electronic music in the 1970s, shape

The Berlin School of electronic music, or just Berlin School, was a development of New Age Music electronic music in the 1970s, shaped by Berlin-based artists like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel. The style is characterized by soaring electric guitar or synthesizer melodies in high-register accompanied by complex, shifting sequencer bass lines. The lead soloist's warm, human improvisations were counterpoint to the cold, robotic precision of the bass-lines. Sound effects such as wind, and washes of Mellotron choir, flute, or strings were often added for color. Most works were instrumental, vocals were used sparingly.

Vintage Berlin School tracks typically ran about twenty or thirty minutes, filling one side of a vinyl LP. The genre was so thoroughly identified with the long form that a general shift to shorter pieces in the 1980's seemed to herald the death of the movement. After the coming of the compact disc "retro" artists were no longer limited by the need to flip over a vinyl record. Some newer works run continuously as a single track for almost 80 minutes.