X

X was Klaus Schulze's his tenth album, and second double LP. There are a number versions on CD; the first one I bought had only a 5:25 excerpt of "George Trakl." The standard, as far as I'm aware, is the Revisited Records "deluxe edition," released in 2005 as REV 005 and rereleased on the MIG label in 2016. It contains not only the full version of "Trakl," but a bonus track as well. This is the edition I'm reviewing here.

And I'll start this review by stating my opinion that X represents the absolute pinnacle of Schulze's music.

As I'll discuss in a bit, X varies substantially from Schulze's prior albums. But there's more variety within X than on most of Schulze's prior albums - - and only partly because it's a double album. More significant is the wider array of synthesizers used by Schulze and the inclusion of more guest performers than usual. After using prerecorded strings on his first two albums, Schulze only employed a drummer (Harald Großkopf) to accompany him on most of his next seven. On X, Großkopf plays on five of the six tracks, and fully half of the album features live strings, including an orchestral ensemble on "Ludwig II. von Bayern."

The second and third tracks, "Georg Trakl" and "Frank Herbert," are the only two that are somewhat similar to each other - - they have similar tempos, and these are the two pieces that rely the most on parts played by sequencers. "Friedrich Nietzsche," the opening track, also contains a fair amount of sequencing, but it's more integrated with the drumming as part of a rhythm section.

Had X consisted only of these three synthesizer-based tracks, it would be a very good, one-disk album that would have followed logically from its predecessor, Body Love Vol. 2 (1977). What makes X a great album, though, are the final three pieces.

"Friedemann Bach" features tom-toms (played by Schulze himself) and what I believe is multitracked violins (played by B. Dragic). "Bach" is at times mysterious, and at other times sinister. The closing track, "Heinrich von Kleist," is also the dénouement of the album's arc. Its opening chimes are echo those of "Ludwig," but it immediately descends into an enigmatic chords, resembling the aura of "Bach." But it's soon clear that "von Kleist" won't become either of these pieces. It feels considerably slower than most of the rest of the album; Großkopf doesn't appear until 23 minutes into this 29-minute track. Especially in its second half, "von Kleist" makes use, sometimes heavily, of the Mellotron, and a Cello is also featured.

Had X consisted only of the pieces I've already discussed - - tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, it would be a five-star album. And yet that doesn't include the highlight of the album, "Ludwig II. von Bayern." A somewhat bizarre blend of synthesizers (including a Mellotron choir), drumkit, and string-section phrases stolen from Vivaldi (apparently Op. 3/11 RV 565), "Ludwig" is a phenomenon which I lack the vocabulary to adequately describe.

At least in song-based pop and rock music, most double album would be improved by being edited down into one-disk albums. That's not the case with X, on which Schulze takes whatever time he needs to develop each piece - - the tracks range in length from about 10 to 30 minutes, with an average duration of 23 minutes. These exceptionally long runtimes are necessary for different reasons depending on the track. As is typical for Schulze's music, much of X is based on nuanced repetition or drones. And in general, the pieces on this album require substantial time to evolve.

X was Schulze's tenth of thirteen albums released over an eight-year period on Brain, a subsidiary of Polygram (his first album was originally released on Ohr, but that seems to be another story). It was apparently successful from a commercial standpoint - - certainly, in 1978, Schulze was in the midst of a very successful period as a recording and touring artist. X probably wasn't a big risk, but it did represent a break with his recent works. For some reason - - maybe he realized that his 1976 and 1977 albums were beginning to sound more and more alike - - he created an album which made significant use of live strings and the Mellotron. And he made the change all the more stark by putting the novel pieces all together as (roughly) the second half of the album.

Interestingly, Schulze's experimentation accelerated after X: one side of Dune (1979) included cello, while the other, shockingly, contained solo vocals. And with Dig It (1980) he began an entirely new phase, switching to digital synthesis. So the brilliance of X was confined to one album.

No album is perfect, but X is a masterpiece. However successful it was commercially, it was phenomenally successful as art.