GOES CLASSIC

The liner notes of this unimaginatively titled CD says that Klaus Schutze and "expert computer programmer" Werner Eggert were trying to reinterpret classical music for a younger audience. The notes also try to set this collection apart from the similar attempts by Walter/Wendy Carlos and Tomita.

While it's pleasant enough, and the selection of music is not terrible, I don't see the album as accomplishing it's established goals.

The arrangements of the pieces don't sound updated or original. Except for a very few novel sounds, the synthesizer patches sound like basic programs and samples found on many mid- level synthesizers of the early nineties. The recordings sound too much like a synthesizer trying to replicate an orchestra, rather than reinterpret. The innovative sounds that made the seventies Schulze albums enjoyable are nowhere to be found. It makes me wonder what the "expert computer programmer" was doing.

Nonetheless, the album makes good background music. While the synthesis does not capture the excitement of a live orchestra, Schulze manages to keep the recording from sounding robotic.