Reichel was born in
Hagen, Germany.[3] He began to teach himself violin at age seven, playing in the school orchestra until age fifteen. Around the same time, he began to play guitar and became interested in
The Beatles,
The Rolling Stones, and later,
Frank Zappa,
Cream, and
Jimi Hendrix.
He left music in the late 1960s to pursue font design and typesetting. He returned to music in the early 1970s,[3] when he recorded a tape of guitar music. This recording was sent to the jury of the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt, where he was asked to appear in a special concert for newcomers. Discussions with Jost Gebers, the founder of
Free Music Production, led to the release on his debut album, Wichlinghauser Blues (FMP, 1973).
During the 1980s and 1990s, Reichel recorded solo albums and duets with Rüdiger Carl,
Tom Cora,
Eroc,
Fred Frith, and
Kazuhisa Uchihashi. He was featured in 'Crossing Bridges', a 1983 music programme based around jazz guitar improvisation, and broadcast by
Channel 4[4] He was a member of the September Band with
Paul Lovens, Rüdiger Carl, and
Shelley Hirsch. He also worked with groups led by
Thomas Borgmann and
Butch Morris. The record labels
Intakt, Rastascan, and
Table of the Elements released some of Reichel's albums, compensating for the limited distribution of FMP.[3]
In 1997, he was named one of the "30 Most Radical Guitarists" by Guitar Player magazine. He died at the age of 62 in Wuppertal, Germany.[3][5]
Invented instruments
Reichel constructed and built several variations of guitars and basses, most of them featuring multiple
fretboards and unique positioning of
pickups and
3rd bridges.[6] The resulting sounds exceeded the range of conventional
tuning and added unusual effects, from odd overtones to metallic noises, to his play.
His
daxophone is a single wooden blade fixed in a block containing a
contact microphone, which is played mostly with a bow.[6]