Musik, Kunst & Kultur
Instrumental Lounge
Beiträge & Artikel
Instrumental Lounge - Instrumental music radio show
About the radio show Instrumental Lounge
The radio show on Free Radio Wüste Welle features pop orchestras, big bands, jazz, light music, popular classical music, and easy listening. Instrumental music without words every 14 days, here on Free Radio Wüste Welle.
About instrumental music:
In pop music, instrumentals are rare; only about 1% of all titles published in Western countries are instrumental. Nevertheless, there are many such productions. The most successful period for this music was from the 1960s to the mid or late 1980s. During this time, instrumentals were very popular on ARD radio stations and also on television as background music for program previews. The composers and musicians were commercially successful. Often, however, the pieces were played in the programs but rarely were titles and performers mentioned, so that composers and performers largely remained in the background. This is also confirmed by this Spiegel article from 1976. Unfortunately, the ARD radio stations no longer play instrumental entertainment music since private commercial radio stations began broadcasting. They mostly play music that most people want to listen to.
Unfortunately, public broadcasters have also adopted this trend toward musical simplicity, even though they do not have to prioritize ratings. Rather, they are supposed to cover the entire (musical) variety, which they no longer do.
Instruments on the radio revitalize musical diversity
In the so-called smooth jazz and the new instrumental genre, there are still many new productions and successful artists, some of whom also give regular concerts, especially in the USA.
Instruments are by no means just background music or elevator music or Muzak.
The best studio musicians played on the recordings. There was a lot of experimentation in the sonic area, so that spectacular recordings were usually created with a lot of time and effort, which are of a high technical and qualitative standard. This sound could not be achieved at concerts, which is why many of these bands and orchestras were pure studio projects.
Programm description Intrumental Lounge Radio Show:
Instrumental Lounge (instrumental music, i.e., without vocals) is a radio show with instrumentals on Free Radio Wüste Welle. The focus of the show is on the instruments, the sound, and the melodies.
Well-known and lesser-known titles from the last 50 years, as well as rarities from bands, orchestras, and soloists from the areas of pop, easy listening, new instrumental, guitar music, funk, fusion (also known as jazz rock), and smooth jazz. The difference from classic jazz is that it is more melodic and features less improvisation.
The program has fixed sections such as classical music, film music, cover versions, as well as special programs on a certain topic/genre, new releases, and specials on a group or band with interviews.
You can listen to older interview programs here.
Always with bands from Baden-Württemberg as well as titles that were recorded in music studios in the region, e.g., the legendary MPS Studio Villingen, where easy listening titles were recorded alongside jazz.
Many easy listening productions were also recorded at Bauer Studio in Ludwigsburg and at the Musicland Studio in Albstadt.
Musicians from classical jazz who have also recorded productions in the melodic genre, such as Klaus Wagenleiter, Klaus Peter Schöpfer, Dusko Goykovich, Klaus Weiss, Peter Herbolzheimer, or Kurt Edelhagen. The passionate jazz musician openly admitted: “Our business is dance music. We have to make a living from dance music so that we can play jazz.”
The genre is not available on German-speaking or European radio stations, neither on public nor private commercial radio stations. Only exclusively and uniquely on Wüsten Welle.
The Instrumental Lounge at Wüsten Welle mainly plays instrumentals from the 1960s to the 1980s and re-releases, as well as smooth jazz from today. Here you can listen to older interview programs.
There is a similar program from Scotland on the also-free Radio Six International, The Lively Lounge. Here the focus is on pop instrumentals from English-speaking countries and many rare older recordings.
Until 2016, the radio program WDR 4 had a weekly instrumental program called Spielplatz or Zauber der Melodien, hosted by Suitbert Kempkes.
Typical artists played here in the Instrumental Lounge include:
James Last Paul Mauriat Franck Pourcel Raymond Lefèvre
Norman Candler and his Magic Strings Gerhard Narholz Hans Ehrlinger
Helmuth Brandenburg Kai Warner Max Greger und Max Greger jun.
Werner Drexler Berry Lipman Dave Daffodil Syd Dale Addy Flor
Richard Clayderman Nicolas de Angelis Jean Claude Borelly
Herb Alpert Rondo Veneziano Horea Crishan The Spotnicks
The Shadows Blonker SWR Big Band Klaus Wagenleiter
Klaus Peter Schöpfer Ralf Illenberger Stephan Diez Jörg Reiter
Dieter Reith Mezzoforte Acoustic Alchemy Peter White
Earl Klugh Lee Ritenour Larry Carlton Chuck Loeb Bob James
Fourplay Michael Lington Dave Koz The Rippingtons Spyro Gyra
Dave Grusin Klaus Brendel Charly Horneman Heli Schneider
Birdy Mike Moore Company Sky Cusco Yanni
Brilliant Musik Werner Tautz und Heinz Kiessling Alan Hawkshaw
Information about many easy listening artists can be found on this highly recommended website:
Musikbox Lexikon der instrumentalen Unterhaltungsmusik
