Who ever appreciates jazz as an art form, won't be able to ignore the release from kosma back in 1996. his debut album entitled "universal," is real 90's fusion, composed, arranged and recorded by the berlin musician and producer, roskow kretschmann, one of the most talented around and meanwhile best known for his part besides extended spirit in the production for the jazzanova releases and remixes.

On "Universal", melodies are not simply brought in as mere sample fragments in order to then roll them through the track as a loop, but rather are composed and played in live. roskow works mainly with electronic equipment, yet his tunes always sound organic wich gives them the impression of being live recordings. A real good tune takes time. it needs to mature and be laid aside to be viewed again. only in this way tunes emerge, that can be called timeless.

The Re-Release of this early INFRACom! classic contains two bonus tracks (Regenaration & Microcosmos) not part of the original album back in the days. Both titles have only been released as exclusive titles for a compilation in the past.

His debut album "universal" is almost three years old now. Regardless it has not lost any of it's quality and could as well be released today and thats what we intend do with this re-release.

Biographie

The musical foundation of Kosma, a.k.a. Roskow Kretschmann, goes back to the year 1987 as he began to build a name for himself as a Hip Hop producer in the Berlin underground scene. With the album "Rock da Most" he had already immortalized the first German Hip Hop releases on vinyl. In addition he was a collaborator at the Berlin Hip Hop label Juicefull Records. 1991 saw his departure from the label job as well as from the production of Hip Hop tracks. With the opening of the borders to Eastern Europe his interest in the Eastern European jazz scene increased, which clearly had an influence on his work. An additional influence comes from his love for the American label CTI and Bob James, to whom the song "Atlantis" from his debut album „Universal“ is also dedicated.

Deep listening jazz fusion album curiosity from berlin thats turning a few heads right now. -ID-Magazin Jan.´97-

Infracom´s KOSMA look to further seal Germany´s nascent nu-jazz scene with this excellent debut -Muzik Jan.´97-

Kosma mutates percussion and effects on the computer. The result is an alien jazz; Miles Davis meets Future Sound of London -Mixmag Jan.´97-

"I have always found Bob James to be good, but then along came Roskoe
Kretschmann a.k.a. Kosma! -Rainer Trüby´97-