MIRAGE

Klaus Schulze's 70s albums are nothing short of amazing. All navigating around the realms of Electronic, ambient, and space music, Klaus Schulze has released has released many albums that were incredibly influential to the electronic music scene as they were also quite enjoyable.

Mirage is my absolute favorite from his albums. It has all that I ask for in an album of its kind. It compiles of two extensive pieces of dark, haunting ambient electronic music that gives you a very wintery feeling. As Schulze pointed out in the liner notes that the record reflects themes of ice, winter, stagnation, and death. One can tell these themes upon listening to this album even though there are no lyrics as the atmosphere can convey the dark emotions that are layered on here but not in the way you might get from a dark ambient album but instead a rather soft and more trancing way .

This album has the typical Schulze track format (two side-long tracks that go on for over 25 or so minutes) and in this case each track has six parts each that are merged into one long track.

With synths, sequencers, organs, and various electronic instruments, Mirage is a multi-layered wave of ambience that is much more abstract than Schulze's other releases (maybe except for Irrlicht) which makes it a little less accessible than his other popular albums like Timewind or Moondawn. Both tracks are generally slow in speed and they gradually change by adding more and more layers of sound to the mix. The first track, "Velvet Voyage", starts off with about 8 minutes of space drone and slowly starts growing an electronic sound while still maintaining a strong spacey flavor. It does feel like a journey as the title implies. "Crystal Lake" is a more electronic piece that keeps building up until the middle where it gets to a long ambient section up until the last few minutes then it gains speed as well as the electronic sound and the sequencers that were in the beginning and builds on that until the song fades out in the end.

Mirage is usually regarded as one of the most notable electronic music albums of its time, but for me it's the ambience that really makes this album work. It gives it the emotion and depth which makes the album so great for me. It is surely one of the best albums I have heard and it's a must-listen for any fan of progressive electronic or ambient music.

Further reissues have a 20 minutes long bonus track, "In Cosa Crede Chi Non Crede?" which is a different and more extended mix of "Destination void" (the final section of Velvet Voyage). It's a bit rough in terms of sound quality, but a great track nonetheless that captures the same atmosphere of the album tracks as it was recorded around the same time of the album. I find the intro to be similar to the song "Blanche" from his previous album, "Body Love" but maybe that's just me.