Monday's Long Song

Back in 2013 some tapes resurfaced from the depths of the Cold War, music commissioned by the East German state and created by the composer Martin Zeichnete. The music was for athletes from The German Democratic Republic to train to, warm up and warm down tracks, an artistic and sporting programme that began to prepare athletes for the 1972 Olympics and ran through to 1983. The tapes were released under the title Kosmischer Läufer: The Secret Cosmic Music Of The East German Olympic Program and caused an internet sensation, krautrock from behind the Iron Curtain, extended synth workouts and motorik drums, tumbling keyboard melodies, driving basslines. This one, Die Lange Gerade (translation The Straight Line) is a thirteen minute excursion into the program, Zeichnete's music never running out of ideas, wild synths and forward motion. Fantastisch.

Die Lange Gerade

The truth behind the tapes is perhaps a little more prosaic. Almost immediately people began to say the entire thing was a hoax, the program and Zeichnete never existed and that the music was really the work of Edinburgh musician Drew McFadyen (a member of The Magnificent, an Edinburgh based electro- rock band).