The music we have for you today is either the product of one of the strangest tales you will ever hear or an elaborate hoax perpetuated by one Drew McFayden, formerly of Scottish band The Magnificents. We may never know.
Ten years ago the Unknown Capabilities label released the first volume of what it called "The Secret Cosmic Music of the East German Olympic Program 1972-83". Since then four further volumes of this 'rediscovered' music have been issued, with the most recent volume coming out earlier this year.
You can read the full story here, but in brief we are led to believe that the music was created by a man called Martin Zeichnete and that it was done at the insistence of the East German authorities. We are told that they believed it would help to get their Olympic athletes in the right mental state to win (presumably as a back-up just in case the copious amounts of drugs they were pumping into the poor sods didn't do it).
Quite how these secret recordings ended up in the hands of a record label in Edinburgh that had not previously released any records we may never know. Just as we may never know why there aren't any photos or videos of Herr Zeichnete, just a single interview transcript. Perhaps he is a recluse. Or perhaps he is a figment of Mr McFayden's imagination. Maybe it doesn't really matter if you like the music.
Here is a track apiece for Volumes 1 to 3. You can find all five of them on Bandcamp along with a few 'name your price' downloads.
"Tonband Laufspur" - Kosmischer Läufer
"Morgenröte" - Kosmischer Läufer
"In der Stadt und auf dem Land" - Kosmischer Läufer
To round things off, some more running music from the 1970s. Or if you think the Kosmischer Läufer story is a hoax, here is a video that has no relation at all to the rest of this post.
Music post of the day, nay, week anywhere in the blogosphere. I hope this is a true story.
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