Name: Peter Mergener
Nationality: German
Occupation: Producer, composer
Current release: Peter Mergener's New Horizons is out via Spheric Music / Prudence.

If you enjoyed this Peter Mergener interview and would like to know more about his music and work, visit his official homepage.



You founded Software in a phase that came after the Berlin School and Krautrock. Albrecht Pilz said that you blew away the "muff of the scene" - did you really feel that way about the music back then?

No, I never experienced the Krautrock era as muff. It was a great time with German musicians who did something new and we didn't blow anything away.

Besides Tangerine Dream and Schulze, there were really great bands like Nektar, Guru Guru, Jane, Eloy, Epitaph, many others and last but not least Grobschnitt.

The first Software albums were released on IC Digit. Were there any contacts with the other musicians on the label? What was the "scene" like back then?

Klaus Schulze had sold his label IC at that time and the company was now called IC DIGIT, run by Mark Sakautzky (who ran IC Australia for Schulze) and Michael Weisser, who was later the sole owner.

I was in touch with Peter Seiler, Robert Schröder, and Mind over Matter. There was once a meeting in Worpswede, initiated by IC and DA-Musik, where some musicians were present, including Stephen Töteberg (Quiet Force) who later took over my part in Software.

It was a great opportunity to meet the other musicians of the label and to exchange ideas. I still think back on it with pleasure.

Since you were familiar with the music of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, what did you take away from them and how did you develop your music?

I was interested in the new sounds opened up by electronic music and experimenting. Yes, I was inspired of course by the idols of the time, like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze and I was definitely influenced by them to a certain extent.

[Read our Tangerine Dream interview]

But I didn't want to copy them. The idea was to develop your own style. At that time I didn't know what would come of it. It was just a hobby of mine, which changed drastically when I met Michael Weisser.

I can understand if you don't want to talk too much about Software, your duo with Michael.

No, I like to talk about Software, it was an important period in my life.

I would be very interested to know how the collaboration with Michael Weisser went back then - how your creative process was different from your solo work, for example.

Michael Weisser loved my demo cassettes back then. I would recorded music to cassette tape, rewound it, added more tracks and then recorded to tape again. That's how those first demo tapes were created.

Weisser archived them and later published them. This music formed the basis for an album like Chip-Meditation, for example, to which we added new material. We realised very quickly that we were on the same wavelength. If we hadn't, all these many tracks would not have come into being.



Michael is not a musician in the conventional sense. He didn't play the keyboard but he was a very strong generator of ideas and had developed this whole concept around the beauty of Hi-Tec, the use of then new computer graphics, and so-called Hi-Tec lyrics. So what he did was give the project its framework.

At that time we were of the opinion that it didn't matter who pressed the keys. It was our project, and we both contributed our share. Michael had also pre-financed machines in the 80s that I couldn't afford at the time, such as EMULATOR, TASCAM 8-track machine etc. They took us to a higher level in terms of sound and saved us the costs of having to pay studio rent in Bremen.

I developed individual multitimbral sequences, recorded them on cassette and sent them to him. He'd take a listen, then send me his comments and suggestions which I would then use to rework those sections. That way, the music progressed piece by piece. It was a constant exchange, there were phone calls, faxes sent and tapes discussed and commented on. We set a theme for the album as a whole and built the musical accordingly.

In the final stages, Michael came to visit me in the Eifel for a few days, where we had our studio. There we worked on the production and recorded the flutes, saxophone, guitar, vocals, voices etc. of our guest musicians, which Michael had directed. This way of working was our common thing and new in its conception. Without him the music wouldn't have been created like that and without me neither. That's how I see it today in any case.

Many people said at the time, "But you're creating the music, what is Weisser doing?” Later, I missed the collaboration very much. Somehow it's very nice to have something in common creatively with someone else.

I was fascinated when "Island Sunrise" suddenly became a kind of cult composition and was discovered by a young generation of listeners. Can you tell me a little bit about how you experienced that back then and how the vinyl reissues of Digital Dance and Electronic Universe came about?

I think the concept of Digital Dance (which has “Island Sunrise” on it) was well received. Michael was always looking for new graphics for the record cover, which were an important part of our concept.

So he came across the graphic Carlas Island. It shows an island, part of a so-called animation, the sun rises and sets, the moon comes and the moon goes, the waves move. That's how the theme slowly emerged to “create a synthetic island with very unique moods” which we tried to realise through an abundance of percussion sounds.



“Island Sunrise” is a very pleasant title and feels timeless. Winfrid Trenkler (WDR Schwingungen) said at the time that it was the perfect music for a ship of dreams. Demand was so great that Michael issued licences to the USA.

The company 100% Electronica re-released the music on coloured vinyl. Unfortunately we didn't even get any copies from them. But a fan got the records for me - yes, that's the music business for you.

It certainly seems to have created a potential new audience for your recent releases, including your latest album New Horizons. What was the starting point for the material on the latter?

In 2019, on the anniversary of the first moon landing, I released the CD Astronaut. After it had come out, I wanted New Horizons to stay with the space travel theme. So it's actually a continuation of Astronaut.



Over the many years of my work, I have dealt with various themes. Some of them were geographical, such as Africa, or Asia, another was a tribute to  creation. There were many more. With New Horizons, the desire arose to compose purely electronic music without guitars, saxophones, flutes, etc., and to compose out of enthusiasm, as I did in the early days.

I was inspired by the beautiful fantasy landscapes of my old companion James Webb, who was a great help in various technical questions – already back in the Software days when he would always accompany us to concerts as part of the crew. The cover picture is a fantasy landscape, a possible landscape on an alien planet.

This theme of the relationship between nature and technology is like a Leitmotif running through your entire oeuvre. What interested you about this topic in the 80s - and how do you see it today?

In the 80s, technology was always seen as somewhat threatening and so electronic music was also perceived as cold and alien. The general impression was that technology was composing this music itself – even though everyone knows that this was not the case. Using technology for the benefit of people is wonderful and nothing reprehensible.

That said, humans make music for humans and I think AI should not take over the part of humans, at least in composing. That aside, I am open to everything. After all, we electronic musicians are friends of technology and flashing lights.

Tell me about the instruments you used in the beginning.

The very first music I made was all controlled with the SQ 10, of which I had three. I ran them synchronously via trigger signals and used them to control the MS 50, MS 10 and MS 20. Later I added the Fricke digital sequencer and a Roland TR 808, all trigger-controlled.

Then I got the Korg Delta, the Vocoder, the Crumar String-performer and a Moog (Micromoog).

I would not have expected the 808 in particular, because it is often associated with techno - what did this music sound like?

A few tracks of it got released, you can hear some of the music I made with it on early SOFTWARE titles such as “Add Space to Time”. Techno did not exist then. I thought the TR 808 was great and I'm still annoyed today that I sold it at that time and bought a Yamaha RX 15.



Michael Weisser then added an EMU Emulator II+ so that we had new drum and percussion sounds, choirs etc ... It was really expensive at that time and cost 26,000 DM. But the device was amazing and later, I bought a second-hand EMU II+ HD myself, which I still use today.

Ataris are still on your list of studio equipment. Why do you still work with them?

I do also have PCs with different software, also an older Mac. But I simply get along best with the C-Lab Notator on my Ataris. It sounds old-fashioned, but for me Notator is still the best sequencer because it allows me to work pattern-oriented.

I know from many musicians that they miss it and regret that this programme is not available for PC or MAC.

With Klaus Schulze and Manuel Göttsching, two of the most important figures of the Krautrock generation have just passed away. What do you think has been lost with them? How do you see the significance of your own generation for electronic music?

Well, with such forefathers like Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching and Edgar Froese, important people of electronic music have gone. They are the point of departure for many musicians, without them this music would probably not have existed and I myself would probably never have taken this path.

[Read our article about the passing of Klaus Schulze and why the passing of the artists we love affect us so much]
[Read our Manuel Göttsching interview]

But when it comes to something like importance … You know, young people make their own music, it's different from ours, most of them don't know Schulze at all, so every generation has its own scene.

Of course it's nice when the younger listeners discover us and think we're great and maybe get inspired - it just goes on and on.

Music is not the most important thing in life. But it is one of the most beautiful things, a universal language.