[Malte Müller]

Some nostalgia additions to my earlier post: End the 80s I was already a TV theme fan specifially but I didn’t knew what is available already. I can say that I learned this in 1988. At that time a private TV broadcaster over here released some LP compilations with tv themes which I became aware via tv advertising naturally (we only had a few programms back then). It contained partly original ones and partly more or less convincing re-recordings:
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/2121464-Various-SAT1-Presents-TVs-Greatest-Hits

It was produced by Edel Company here in Hamburg. Back then they were small, now Edel is a big player: https://www.edel.com/. You may have heard of the Optimal pressing plant for CDs and vinyl that belongs to them.

The back of that LP contained a small note that you could order a film and television music catalogue which certainly caught my attention. That was a mailorder section called “Cinema Soundtrack Club” the Germans here may still remember. Their catalogue was a thick long envelope form black and white catalogue with tiny font listing a paradise of releases I never knew existed that was send every month or so I think. This was my news source for years. Since I was still in school my actual deep dive into scores started more properly beginning of the 90s.

Later that section became an independent mailorder shop. I bought most of all scores from them that you couldn’t get in normal CD shops until it suddenly closed its doors about ten years ago. Via the catalogue I became later in the 90s became aware of the “Soundtrack!” magazine which I bought via them as well. Somehow I never really had FSM and have only two printed issues.
.
Mid/End 90s was probably the height of my film score fandom and I wrote even wrote handful of articles mainly concert reviews for a German fanzine The Limited Edition.

In the early 90s I learned that Hamburg actually had a soundtrack only record shop. That of course was the original Tarantula. Another paradise and not good for the budget (as they were also more expensive than the mailorder) 😉

Additionally I discovered that our public library actually had a specific separate location with a special film library on the other side of the city and that featured a great soundtrack section. That still exists as part of the main library location but the soundtrack section is sadly a pale shadow now only. Anyway, you know where I visited often since then.

Around that time I also started to look at 2nd hand shops every few weeks, those “raids” scanning shelf after shelf were fun and got even more regular when studying included a ticket for public transport of the whole city anyway.