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Artist
Irmin Schmidt
12+ albums
krautrockexperimentalProgressive rockpsychedelicgerman
about
Irmin Schmidt (born May 29, 1937) is a keyboard player, producer and composer probably best known as a member of Can. Schmidt received a formal musical education and between 1957 and 1967 he studied under modern composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Györgi Ligeti. Between 1962 and 1969 he conducted numerous orchestras including Wiener Sinfoniker, Bochumer Sinfoniker, Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Norddeutscher Rundfunk Hannover and the Dortmunder Ensemble für Neue Musik, which he founded. Schmidt also worked as a musical director at the Stadttheater Aachen and taught Musicals and Chanson at the Bochum stage school. Schmidt also gave numerous new music recitals and was amongst the first German pianists to interpret the work of John Cage. His compositions" Hexapussy" and "Ilgom" were premiered by Radio Stuttgart in 1967 and 1968 respectively. During this period he also composed music for various film and theatre productions. His classical career was put on hold after a trip to New York in 1966 exposed him to emerging musical forms and ideas that led to him forming CAN in 1968. As the band's keyboard player, Schmidt's contribution to their groundbreaking career and the evolution of electronic music in general is formidable. When CAN was dissolved in 1978 Schmidt, relocated to the south of France where he established a studio and continued to compose and record over100 film and television scores, a craft he had already become familiar with both before and during his work with CAN. Th
