Highdelberg - Highdelberg

Guitarist Ax Genrich began his career in 1970 with a brief stint with German prog-kraut rockers Agitation Free. There he was able to develop his improvisational style, but was soon poached by Mani Neumeier to join Guru Guru.

Together with bassist Uli Trepte, Genrich and Neumeier enjoyed their first major successes and were soon regarded as the new figureheads of Krautrock, releasing Kanguru in 1972, a milestone in the genre.

After four years and four albums, Ax Genrich left Guru Guru because the string wizard had new plans. The first of these was called Highdelberg and became a kind of Krautrock supergroup project: Guru Guru's Mani Neumeier sat at the drums, supported by Kraan bassist Helmuth Hattler, guitarist Peter Wollbrandt and drummer Jan Friede, as well as the two keyboardists and electronic specialists Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius (both also of Cluster and Harmonia). Conny Plank was on the mixing desk.

Musically, Ax Genrich explored new frontiers, moving away from the improvisational style of the gurus and devoting himself more to a well-dosed mixture of progressive rock, pop and Kraut. It was not until 1994 that Genrich released his second solo album, Psychedelic Guitar, and he is still active today.