goodbye, manuel göttsching (1952-2022) the first time i heard ‘e2-e4’, i must have been 17 or 18 years old, scrolling endlessly through forums and peer2peer sites. back then, i mostly spent my time like this, in front of my computer, either making or searching for music. i wanted to know everything, and i found so much joy in the idea that i could, every day, find something that might change my life. ‘e2-e4’ was one of those discoveries. simply put, at that point, i had never heard a one-hour piece of repetitive electronic music. one basic rhythm, two chords. radical, yet so logical and fluid to the ear. ‘e2-e4’ has followed me since. it had informed the way i look at music both spiritually and aesthetically, whether it be in terms of sound design (i only figured out a few years ago that the percussion sounds i could only describe as ‘aquatic glass’ were from a pearl syncussion) or the nature of the music itself, ambient, heavily sequenced, angular, psychedelic and largely improvised. direct from the soul, made possible by machines. i had shared with a few friends my dream to meet him, to ask him how to perform it, so that ‘e2-e4’ could live on, the same way we do with classical music or jazz standards. i wish i had taken the time. maybe we’ll find a way, if we listen carefully enough. now go listen to ‘e2-e4’, and every other record of his, under his own name or as ash ra tempel and ashra.