Kosmische Musik: History and Key Facts

Kosmische Musik ("cosmic music") is a music genre of 1970s German electronic music which makes extensive use of synthesizers and incorporates themes related to space or otherworldliness; it is also used as a German analogue to the English term "space rock". The term was coined in 1971 by Edgar Froese and later used by record producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser as a marketing term for bands such as Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze.

The term is often used synonymously with krautrock, though it often rejected the rock music conventions of krautrock groups. It was coined and in regular use before "krautrock" and was preferred by some German artists who disliked the English label. The style was influential to the development of new age, progressive electronic, new musick, post-noise and ambient music. In the 2000s, American post-noise musicians such as Emeralds, prompted a wave of millennial interest in 1970s kosmische Musik, inspiring a musical style known as neo-kosmische.

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