The endearingly demented diggers at Manchester’s Finders Keepers label have assembled a compilation of “progressive pop, Kosmische slop, Artschule psyche and post-rock readymades” from the catalogue of Eckhart Rahn’s Kuckuck label.

Rahn founded his imprint, which takes its name from the German word for cuckoo, in 1971. The visual identity of Kuckuck  – the distinctive cuckoo logo, typeface and  centre-labels – came from a design company in Munich called ConceptData (the above picture is a detail from the cover of Out of Focus’s Wake Up LP). Rahn concentrated on A&R and paperwork, enlisting the help of American DJ/producer Mike Sondeck; it was Sondeck who introduced American electronic composer Sam Spence (and his collection of Moog synthesizers, paid for – oddly enough – by the NFL) to Kuckuck. Spence would become one of the key players in the label’s unfolding story.

Finders Keepers’ Cloud Cuckooland compilation focusses on Kuckuck pre-1974, when it was very much a krautrock label. It is released alongside the excellent Sam Spence compilation, Sam Spence Sounds.

Tracklist:
1. Antiteater – Opening
2. Ihre Kinder – Stunden
3. Out Of Focus – See How A White Negro Flies
4. Sam Spence – Water World
5. Ernst Schultz – Paranoia Picknick
6. Sonny Hennig – 1000 Tips zum Überleben
7. Ernst Schultz – 10 Finger Blind
8. Ihre Kinder – Komm Zu Dir
9. Deuter – Der Turm
10. Sam Spence – Ringo
11. Antiteater – Memorn (Der Amerikanische Soldat)
12. Armegeeddon – Oh Man
13. Sam Spence – World As One
14. Dueter Night – Rain
15. Ernst Schultz – XY Lied
16. Des Teufels – Nichts
17. Antiteater- Intermezzo
18. Out Of Focus – Blue Sunday Morning
19. Ihre Kinder – The Dice
20. Antiteater – Trauer La Mandragola