Klaus Wiese

Who was Klaus Wiese?

Klaus Wiese was a veteran e-musician, minimalist, and multi-instrumentalist. A master of the Tibetan singing bowl, he created an extensive series of album releases using them. Wiese also used the human voice, the zither, Persian stringed instruments, chimes, and other exotic instruments in his music.

Wiese is considered by some as one of the great ambient or space music artists such as Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Michael Stearns, Constance Demby, and Jonn Serrie. His musical style is much more appropriately compared to the organic soundscapes of drone and dark ambient music, such as Oöphoi, Alio Die, Mathias Grassow, and Tau Ceti.

He was a briefly member of the krautrock band Popol Vuh in the early 1970s where he played tamboura on the albums Hosianna Mantra and Seligpreisung. Eventually Wiese would move away from krautrock to his own version of long tone ambient music by the 1980s.

His music has regularly been featured on nationally syndicated radio programs such as Hearts of Space and Star's End.

Wiese is known also for his collaborations with Al Gromer Khan, Mathias Grassow, Oöphoi, Tau Ceti, Sam Schlamminger, and Ted de Jong. He collaborated with Deuter on his "Silence is the Answer" album in 1980 and East of the Full Moon in 2005.