Peter Kuhlmann [ˈkuːlmaːn] (25 November 1960 – 8 November 2012), known professionally as Pete Namlook ("Namlook" is "Koolman", a phonetic rendering of his real name spelled backwards) was a German ambient and electronic music producer and composer. One music commentator noted that Namlook was "... comfortably the most prolific and arguably the best of the new wave of ambient/house artists of the early 1990s". Namlook himself noted, "I think it's very important to enhance the notion of a global ambient movement, and to realize that a lot of music - which we didn't expect to be ambient is in fact very, very ambient. When you examine other cultures you discover that what we recognize as a very new movement is in fact incredibly ancient".
He was born in Frankfurt, West Germany. In 1992, he founded the German record label FAX +49-69/450464, which he oversaw. He was inspired by the music of Eberhard Weber, Miles Davis, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chopin, Wendy Carlos, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd, and most importantly Klaus Schulze.
Namlook released many solo albums, as well as collaboration albums with notable artists such as Klaus Schulze, Bill Laswell, Geir Jenssen (Biosphere), Gaudi, Richie Hawtin, Tetsu Inoue, Uwe Schmidt (Atom), Amir Abadi (Dr. Atmo), and David Moufang (Move D). By August 2005, Namlook and collaborators had released 135 albums (excluding re-releases, vinyl singles, compilations of existing material, and FAX releases beginning with PS, in which he personally was not involved in the music making).
Kuhlmann died on 8 November 2012, at the age of 51, after suffering a heart attack.
These are all of Namlook's project series on the FAX label, with the number of albums in each series. For one-shot albums, the title is given without a number after it.
(Note: These are only the CD releases. Vinyl singles and EPs are not included. There are no full-length LPs on FAX.)
This was a short-lived sub-label of FAX that was created to showcase a more classical side of ambient music. On these releases he goes by Peter Kuhlmann, his real name, rather than Pete Namlook.
Wandering Soul, with Alban Gerhardt
The Sunken Road, with Jürgen Rehberg and Lucia Mense
Pete Namlook discography at Discogs
Discography of his FAX recordings
FAX Lyrics - Samples &Quotes at the Wayback Machine (archived 2012-02-04)
2350.org - a FAX +49-69/450464 review site at the Wayback Machine (archived 2017-01-07)