Ulrich Rützel

Ulrich Rützel (b. October 25th 1944) began his music career as Jazz musician (piano, lyrics) during the late 60s and later appeared as producer on many releases. In 1981 he founded the Erdenklang record label and the Erdenklang Musikverlag publishing company, initially in Hamburg, later in Eslohe, Germany.

In an attempt to widen the musical spectrum of the computer-acoustic label philosophy of Erdenklang, Rützel launched his sub-label Cross Culture in 1989 with emphasis on more global/world music fusion styles. However, Cross Culture soon became an Edition on Erdenklang rather than being a separate label, similar to the Silent Beauty Edition, which Rützel launched at around the same time. Silent Beauty is specialized more on New Age releases "guided by poetry and beauty". In 1998 Rützel founded CCn'C Records (short for CrossCulture and Contemporary Music) as successor of Erdenklang. After severe illness he sold all labels and his publishing company in 2005 to DA Music.