BODY LOVE (OST)

Timewind (1975) was a low point in Klaus Schulze's first ten albums, and Moondawn, released the following year, was somewhat of an improvement. With Body Love, Schulze again builds on his prior work, turning in a very good album which bridges the Timewind → Moondawn period and his golden-age triptych of Mirage, Body Love 2, and X.

Body Love is somewhat familiar in form, with the original LP comprised of two 10+ minute songs on one side and a one song 25-minute on the other. Side One is divided between "Stardancer," a rhythmic track including a drumkit played by Harald Großkopf , and the more pensive, rhythmless "Blanche." Side Two is given to "P.T.O.," which is similar in sound and tempo to "Stardancer." The twenty-two minute bonus track on recent CD issues, "Lasse Braun," fits stylistically with the rest of the album, although it's played in a noticeably lower register than the canonical tracks. It also has a lower tempo than "Stardancer" and "P.T.O." Großkopf plays on "P.T.O.," but the drumkit is low in the mix, and is only audible for a few of the track's twenty-seven minutes. This is followed by "Lasse Braun," on which Großkopf is absent. So the drumkit is heard only rarely in the last hour of Body Love.

(There isn't a drumkit on Schulze's first three albums, although Schulze is credited with playing "percussion." On his fourth LP, Picture Music (1975), Schulze plays the drumkit, and with that album he had nearly perfected his synthesizer-and-drumkit formula. After the drummer-less Blackdance (1975), Moondawn (1976) became the first to feature only Schulze (synthesizers, etc.) and Großkopf (drums). Body Love is the second, and the recipe works even better than it had on Moondawn. Body Love 2 (1977) was the final Schulze-Großkopf album, although Großkopf is heavily featured on X (1978) and also appeared on Live? (1980). In the 1980s, Schulze's go-to percussionist/drummer was Michael Shrieve.)

It's useful when evaluating a musical work to evaluate the composition, performance, and production (or sound) separately - - even though they overlap. It's especially difficult to segregate these three elements on a Schulze album. This makes it complicated to explain why I don't consider Body Love to be as good as, say, Body Love 2. While Body Love is very good, it isn't quite as engaging as any of his next three albums.

Nonetheless, I'd recommend Body Love to anyone interested in Schulze's 1970s work or to anyone interested in the "Berlin School" of progressive-electronic music. Four Stars.