Sam Spence Sounds

Born in San Francisco in 1927, Samuel Spence is a peculiar piece in the complicated krautrock puzzle. As an American ex-pat working in a community of German rock musicians in the early 70's, Spence shared his alien status with the likes of David Johnson and Malcolm Mooney (Can), Carole Muriel (Brain ticket), Maria Archer (Embryo), Bill Barone (Wallenstein) and the band Sweet Smoke. While in Munich, Spence was introduced to Eckart Rahn who owned the Kuckuck label. The pair discussed the idea of recording an album of electronic music which would appeal to ambient and experimental enthusiasts who were searching for cosmic sounds after the rise of krautrock bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. After the release of two moog-fuelled singles including a cover version of Focus's 1972 hit single 'Sylvia', Rahn agreed to release Spence's debut LP of synthesizer based pop music which would sit amongst his eclectic Kuckuck roster, which also included the minimal electronic pulses of Deuter, the experimental field recordings of Ernst Schultz and the avant garde releases of Peter Michael Hamel and Terry Riley. Having continued to expand his successful career in symphonic music Sam would, by the end of the 1970's, return to orchestral film music seizing further opportunities to work as a composer recording over 500 cues for films made by the NFL.