Sad news out of Berlin today in the announcement from Nasoni Records that founder Hans-Georg Bier has passed away. With Nasoni as his vehicle since 1996, Bier has been an instrumental figure in shaping the modern sphere of the heavy underground both in and out of Europe. Working with bands like Colour Haze, Vibravoid, Sula Bassana, Siena Root, Weltramstaunen, Causa Sui, Samavayo, Los Natas, Terraplane, Deadpeach, Stoned Jesus, Arenna, Space Invaders and countless others, his efforts contributed massively to the aesthetic of modern heavy psychedelia and particularly its loyalty to classic foundations in organic sounds and vinyl presentation. Under his tutelage, Nasoni Records became an absolute “can’t miss” label: all you needed to know going into a new release was that if Nasoni approved enough to put it out, it was going to be worth hearing.

I’ve said on multiple occasions that I consider Nasoni among the finest imprints worldwide, and their catalog over the last 21 years stands as evidence to back me up on that. In 2014, Dr. Rainer Präger’s From Farm to Space chronicled the accomplishments and releases of Nasoni, and the fact that the book (still available) included a limited-run 7″ with exclusive tracks from Wo Fat and The Re-Stoned emphasizes how completely unwavering the passion of the label has been. Bier, who reportedly suffered from long-term heart problems, was never anything but kind in my limited direct dealings with him years ago, and clearly someone for whom the music was paramount and everything else secondary.

The fact that Nasoni has never strayed from its initial principals and never forgotten to look forward to new fostering new bands and an ever-broadening reach is a huge part of what has made it so special as an imprint, and as listeners, we should be thankful to have had Bier at the helm for as long as we did. His accomplishments will continue to resonate for years and decades to come.

On behalf of myself and this site, condolences to the friends, family, colleagues and to fellow fans of Nasoni Records. This is a significant loss not only on practical terms for the company Bier founded, but for Europe’s heavy psych underground as a whole, but in his honor, it’s all the more crucial to press on and keep the turntables spinning.

Rest in Peace, Hans-Georg Bier.

The announcement as posted on Nasoni’s website follows here:

We deeply regret, having to inform you that the founder of Nasoni-Records, Hans-Georg Bier, has passed away just recently.

However, the Nasoni Label is going to live on and will be continued in Hans’s entire sense, philosophy and terms.

One fifth of a century of Nasoni records — this is certainly a reason to celebrate and also a good opportunity to look back at the beginnings and the history of the label.

In 1996 the music industry started the attempt to eliminate the traditional vinyl LPs with the introduction of the newest fad called CD — this encouraged us with our rebellious minds to start our project to reach out to all friends of analogue sounds and release outstanding music on vinyl.

We were sure that there were plenty of humans who would prefer the exciting and adventurous trip into the underground to the easy available junk from the surface of the mainstream scrapyard. These people shared also our view that every now and then a bit of surface noise on a record is still better than the irrelevant offers of 16 or 24bit audio and sampling up to 44000 Hz. At that moment in time nobody was even thinking about the next abyss and the coming horrors of the not so far away future — where people would happily listen to hollow and tinny sounds of a mumbling Mickey Mouse singer from a portable telephone!

If in 2096 somebody pulls a Nasoni record from the shelf and cannot help a sympathetic smile turning up on his face — then we know that our fight against the dark forces of the digital age was not in vain. This label was and still is the honest attempt to document and emphasize our love for music.

Nasoni Records website

Nasoni Records on Thee Facebooks

Tags: Berlin, Germany, Hans-Georg Bier, Nasoni Records, Sad shit

This entry was posted on Friday, April 14th, 2017 at 9:58 am and is filed under Whathaveyou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.