Akasha Project

Akasha Project is the electronic music project of sound artist Barnim Schultze. It is based in Germany and begins performing under the name in 1989, with Schultze working as a freelance composer and musician of electronic music from 1994. Early tracks appear on various compilations in 1996 and 1997, and the first album under the Akasha Project name, MDMA Tuning, is released in 1998 on High Society. That album is developed with music researcher Hans Cousto.

Music, method and collaborators

The project focuses on tones taken from nature and on their perceived effects, using electronic production and overtone structures derived from diatonic intervals. It works closely with Hans Cousto, the Swiss mathematician associated with the idea of octave-based frequency conversion beyond normal hearing. Akasha Project presents its performances as ritualised frequency and synchronicity, using modal electronic overtone music.

Schultze meets Cousto in 1995, receives frequency calculations for the MDMA molecule, and later performs concerts on the sound of MDMA with Cousto at the Aquarius Festival in Hamburg in 1997. The project also stages performances and lectures with him from 1998 onwards. In 2005 it premieres the sound of hydrogen with Cousto at Transit Station Berlin, and in 2006 it presents the sound of LSD-25 at the Congress Centre in Basel for Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday.

Releases and related projects

After MDMA Tuning, Akasha Project releases the double album Scent of Life in 1999, Always in 2000, and Cosmic Ambient Garden in 2002, all on Insolation. In 2003 it issues three albums on Planetware Records: Emerald Earthwave, centred on the Earthly year; Vermillion Daystream, based on the Earthly day; and Purple Mind, linked to the Platonic year. Further releases include Cosmic Colors in 2005, a re-release of Cosmic Ambient Garden in 2007, and H2 The Quantum Music of Hydrogen in 2010 on Klangwirkstoff Records.

Schultze also takes part in other work under the name SADJA Project in 2009. In 2000 he co-founds the collective for the science of frequencies and the Brain Entertainment Laboratory (B.E.L.) with B.Ashra, Tommelon and Ricky Deadking (Eru). B.E.L. releases The Sound of THC on Insolation as a chilling CD.

Live work and recognition

Akasha Project performs widely as an electronic live act in galleries, festivals, parties and clubs. Its timeline also notes a finalist placing in the Art of Engineering competition run by Ferchau Engineering in 2008.