Uwe Nettelbeck

Uwe Nettelbeck (7 August 1940 – 17 January 2007) was a German record producer, journalist and film critic. He was best known as the creator and producer of the German krautrock band Faust and changed the face of German rock music in the early 1970s. and was the father of film director and screenwriter Sandra Nettelbeck.

Biography Uwe Nettelbeck grew up in a middle class family at Lake Constance in south-west Germany. He attended lectures in German literature at the University of Göttingen but did not sit for a degree. At the age of 20, Nettelbeck began submitting reviews to , a monthly film magazine, and their quality led to him becoming chief film critic for . In 1962 he met author, film producer and actress, Petra Krause at the Oberhausen film festival; they later married and moved to Lüneburg Heath near Hamburg.

Faust

In 1969 Nettelbeck was approached by a Polydor Germany A&R man with a request to put together an underground band that would tap into the then burgeoning "German rock" scene. Nettelbeck found two small rock groups, Nukleus and Campylognatus Citelli which he merged into one, and with funding from Polydor, converted an old school-house near the village of Wümme, between Hamburg and Bremen into a studio. Nettelbeck then started experimenting with the band to try to find "something new".

During the same period Nettelbeck also produced two albums for Anthony Moore on Polydor, which led to the formation, with Peter Blegvad and Dagmar Krause, of Slapp Happy. Faust played on Slapp Happy's first two albums, Sort Of (1972) and Casablanca Moon (1973), which Nettelbeck also produced for Polydor. Polydor rejected this version of Casablanca Moon, leading to its re-recording; it was not until 1980 that Recommended Records released the original version as Acnalbasac Noom (Casablanca Moon backwards).

Polydor was also not happy with Faust So Far and demanded more commercial music from the band. Unwilling to compromise, Nettelbeck signed Faust with a fledgling record company in London, Virgin Records. Part of the deal between Nettelbeck and Virgin was that he would give Virgin his tapes of the music Faust had been working on since So Far "for nothing" and that Virgin would release a record priced as low as possible.

Nettelbeck was the inspiration and creative force behind Faust in their early years. He designed their striking album covers, and convinced Polydor to release the group's first two albums on its distinguished classical label, Deutsche Grammophon.

Record production credits This is a selection of albums Uwe Nettelbeck produced, the dates referring to the year they were produced. Faust: Faust (1971) Anthony Moore: Pieces From the Cloudland Ballroom (1971) Anthony Moore: Secrets of the Blue Bag (1972) Slapp Happy: Sort Of (1972) Faust: Faust So Far (1972) Slapp Happy: Acnalbasac Noom (1973) Faust: The Faust Tapes (1973) Faust: Faust IV (1973) Faust with Tony Conrad: Outside the Dream Syndicate (1973) Faust: Munich and Elsewhere (1986) Tony Conrad: Outside the Dream Syndicate (30th Anniversary Edition) (2002) Faust: Faust IV (UK Bonus CD) (2006)