KLAUS SCHULZE

With "Dune" I concluded that 80's work of Klaus Schulze might be worth listening to. So I picked up this "Audentity" which contains almost 100 minutes of synthesizer music on a double vinyl, containing three side long tracks and one side filled with three shorter tracks. Klaus Schulze still collaborates with Wolfgang Tiepold on Cello which have been proven to be very succesfull (X, Dune). Michael Shrieve takes care for the drum computer and Rainer Bloss adds some "Glockenspiel" and soundeffects. Klaus Schulze is giving more sounds out of hand!

The opening side filling track "Cellistica" shows Schulze in a less abstract form then I'm used too. This is due to more clear melodies and the all flattening drum computers (no, I'm not too fond of these!). Because of some strange sounding "organs" and space effects this composition is still quiet listenable, but doesn't leave me too enthousiastic. The second side - which is filled with three tracks - I find almost unlistenable because of the first and third composition on this side. The first ("Tango - Saty") should have been funny, but I find it the weakest track I've heard so far by Klaus Schulze. The third composition I find quiet boring because of the drum computers in it. The second composition may be quiet good, like other reviewers have pronounced, but cannot save this side for me.

The third side is filled with another side filling track, named "Spielglocken". This composition I find a bit too predictable, because of the constant use of drum computer, which flattens the sound and lack of abstraction. The last side contains the last track "Sebastian im Traum". This I find actually the only compostion worth listening too. It is far more abstract, lacking any form of percussion or drums, and contains some nice glockenspiel and space effects. It also contains some more horrifying parts.

In total I cannot say I'm very fond of this double record. There is a lot of mediocre/ weak material on it and just one composition that stands out, but this one is still not one of Schulze's best works. Because of the huge amount of material on this album this could however be a nice addition for fans.

To my mind, Shadowlands being only Schulze's third personal creation in eight years should count as more than a simple fact. While unjustly counting out his particular new rise with Lisa Gerrard throughout the mid-00s (where the music was his authoring just as much, plus the whole new development was something very interesting to remark) or other "lone tracks", of less notice anyway, scattered at times, I guess there's a point to make in how different his interests and were (from distressing hiatuses to spirited attempts to keep things going, trying out new things or putting back on shelves his entire music from the past, collaborating often and openly or getting occasionally back to his solo concepts) in what is now almost a full recent decade that's quite hard to define.

So just three solo albums in all this time, only one of them (very) good and, it has to be said, it isn't this one. No, that'd still be Kontinuum from 2007 thanks to its retro spicing, its throwback to vintage sequencing and its overall greatly inspired dynamics. It's somewhat understandable expecting Shadowlands to be, in some way, just as significant. Sadly, should it actually claim any meaningfulness, it comes off as rather superficial and laid-back. It's a throwback itself, but less clear as to what. It could well stand as a closing chapter to all these recent years' music, should Schulze impress with something new next time around, but that's to be seen (and improbable, if you ask me).

Instead, one could be more rude as to say much of the album is a rehash - there is some talk about part of the material being of Contemporary Works-period or Gerrard sessions provenance, but I couldn't find much information on this, nor match up the compositions too well. The way I personally see it, it shooting in different directions would in fact be the one thing about this album that intrigues me, especially since some connections are stronger than others. A lot of the beats, samples or overall templates and flows of the music are of a recent nature, in ways certainly not novel or unheard before - hinting at his recent concerts or, indeed, sharing traits with some of the deeper, slowburning epics off CW -, while at the same time it makes me wonder why other frequencies, with more gusto or more electrifying (such as on KlangArt or even Rheingold) feel abandoned. Gerrard's singing creeps back in, illusory, lointain and enchanting, with additional vocals by Chrysta Bell and Juli Messenger from CWII's Virtual Outback. More present is Thomas Kagermann - also linking to a couple of CW albums (Ballett, Virtual Outback), his violin melodies and dazes mostly enclosing and vibrant. The weirdest feeling of all I get is how some concepts ("Tibetan Loops") or rhythms ("Licht und Schatten") would reach out to Wahnfried albums from the 90s, such as The Gancha Dub.

The album lasts two and a half hours if you include the limited edition 2nd CD (which is, of course, Schulze's idea of a "bonus") and it's balanced and well composed and mastered, but also directionless and disorienting, channeling through different states- something that would never bother me that much in his music, except that right here it lacks substance and it even feels like it disturbs its "shadowy" trances, highly expressive touches or mantra lentor through beat surrender. The bonus disc would be even more worthwhile than the original material, The Rhodes Violin certainly a fine (if not superior) complement to The Rhodes Elegy off CWII, I myself loving its initial resonances, both suave and mysterious. Apart from a few fragments that sound the wrong way, "smoothy" or too beat-driven, the entire album can be enjoyed moderately. Yet afterwards, there's not much to say.

Probably the peak in Schulze's entire career. This is one of those albums where everything just fell into place and sounds great. Right time right place, using the technology and ideas he'd built up during the previous five years. That's how long it took him to finally release a faultless electronic album.

If you can skip past the frankly awful sleeve you could be in for a treat here. 'Mirage' is very professional and precise in execution and in choice of keyboards. Schulze certainly knew what he was doing and exactly what he wanted by this point.

'Mirage' is quite similar to 'Timewind' from two years earlier - which itself is a superb album. Here though - the results just sound far more complete and accomplished. This is a very smooth and polished instrumental electronic recording with every bloop and bleep carefully inserted into the score. There's no hurry or urgency - things just develop at their own pace in huge waves of artificial sound.

I just love those old 70's Berlin electronic recordings . They're copied unashamedly today by the likes of 'Redshift', 'Free System Project' and 'Radio Massacre International' - all of which sound remarkably like 'Mirage'. They even use the same equipment to try and recapture that realism that digital technology fails to do.

A beautiful, clean cut and precise album which sits comfortably alongside 'Ricochet' and 'Rubycon' but without the heavy arpeggiator sound of the latter. 'Mirage' is probably more aesthetically pleasing and can be played late at night without neighbours banging and shouting in complaint.

One of the last great analogue electronic albums that is a match for anything Tangerine Dream produced 74-76. All that and not a guitar, bass guitar or drum to be heard!

Dune, the welknown desert planet, is the 11th studio album of Klaus Schulze; his latest work in the 70's dating in 1979. This record contains two major composition both clocking over 25 minutes. The first one is the titletrack Dune, whereby Schulze tries to set down his view about this lonely planet and the second one is a collaboration with psychedelic champion Arthur Brown called "Shadows of Ignorance". Wolfgang Tiepold collaborates on both composition with his Cello. He did already shown up on Klaus Schulze's previous release 'X'.

The titletrack is an abstract composition without repeating melodylines or drums and percussion. Schulze made me like this way of musical abstraction which is almost only found in the progressive electronics and/or film music. People who are not common with this kind of music almost always find it boring, like I did in first instance. But Klaus Schulze became a real eye opener for me in case of slowly progressive changing musical themes with or without a great amount of abstraction. It made me not only like the progressive electronics, but made me appreciate other artists (more) as well.

Dune begins with an theme which sounds like an advanced industrial, machinal society with a cold, but mystical atmosphere. The cello tunes in after some minutes and improves the lonely feelings, but expresses it in a beautifull way. The machinal sounds slowly dissappear and the theme becomes more mystical. The sound is quiet cold and expresses a harsh planet; my meaning of cold here is actually in a positive way. There are several changes in atmosphere, which I can almost not describe. In relation to some other works of Schulze like Timewind and Moondawn these changes are quiet big. No subtle - almost not hearable-, but real changes. The effect is a 30 minute instrumental story telling epic whereby the harshness and mystique of the advanced society of Dune play an essential role.

The second composition is a bit psychedelic, but a failed experiment with Arthur Brown on vocals. The vocals doesn't sound convincing and seems to be out of place. My main complain however is not the sang, but the drum computer which flattens the otherwise dynamic composition. Even Tiepold on cello cannot save this composition, although he is trying quiet hard to do so. This composition is quiet boring.

What we have here is a very good titletrack which will take most listeners to unearthy atmospheres and a booring second composition. The titletrack's duration is 30 minutes however and is for me essential Klaus Schulze; I prefer this aboth Mirage or Timewind and therefor I can legitimate a four star rating.

Up until fairly recently, I'd had immense problems getting into Klaus Schulze. Although owning many of his albums, it would always be starting with the widely praised `Timewind' that I would dig out to listen to. No matter how many times I tried, I always found it so light and uninteresting. I didn't like the fizzy sound effects and keyboard sounds, and the whole album would drift over me leaving no impression at all. At the suggestion of fellow Archives members Guldbamsen and Tom Ozric, I decided to try another of his albums. Going by the impact that `Blackdance' has had, clearly for me I'd started on the wrong album with `Timewind'.

`Blackdance' seems to be a hugely divisive and controversial Schulze album, with some listeners loving it and others truly despising it. Some find it a rare blemish in his golden run of 70's albums, even considering it a failed experiment by the artist. I can see why many listeners seem to find this album tedious, mundane and plodding, because I do too. I just don't find those as being negative aspects of the music. When I first heard it, I didn't know what to make of it. I don't think I actually liked it, but I found it hugely fascinating. On that first listen, it made far more of an impression on me than endless replays of `Timewind' ever managed. I remember even freezing up, lost in the eerie and unpleasant music coming from the speakers. There's not many albums that make me feel like they completely change the temperature in the room, but this was one. Since then I've truly given myself over to the album, and in many ways it has come to haunt and torment me. Yet I find it's edgy darkness and isolation somewhat comforting. It has also disturbingly become something of a favourite of mine to play at work, a moody and ponderous soundtrack to the quieter moments in my life.

The opening 17 minute `Waves Of Changes' is a very unmelodic and relentless piece, initially built around cold, buzzing and shimmering synths that wrap around a tense acoustic 12 string guitar pattern. It grows more frantic as a menacing beat and ethnic percussion blur with distorted organ and moog. This track is very dramatic, even threatening, with lots of tension and a hypnotic air that reminds me of a spacier and more mysterious version of the Vangelis album `The Dragon'. It feels like you're stuck in a dream, being chased over and over by an unknown danger. You sense a perceived threat, and your instinct is to run.

The freeform and intangible `Some Velvet Phasing' is a somber synthscape full of alien waves of glacial keys fading in and out. Entirely devoid of any percussive elements or beats, it's a vague, morphing and very abstract electronic piece that floats around in you in quite an unsettling manner. It's a very depressing piece that is oppressive and suffocating, making me feel so much isolation and unhappiness. Frequently sad, even depressing, and altogether consuming.

The side long `Voices Of Syn' is a sprawling gothic-tinged and morbid electronic ocean. Beginning with haunting wordless moaning vocals, you listen closely trying to work out what language the vocals are in, or make out proper words, but it's an impossible task. It's like catching something out of the corner of your eye, then turning to look only to find nothing there. You listen closely trying to make sense of the vocals, but they're so vague and alien, with the operatic male voice solemn and mournful - the true wailing of a soul in torment. It's backed by a heavily treated spectral organ that just enhances the funereal and other-wordly tone of the piece. Pounding monotonous beats enter about 6 minutes in, and they push down hard on the listener. They blend with the out-of-tune ghostly treated organ and icy synths that seem to last an eternity before ending on a whirlwind of harsh and morose electronic noise. Time ceases to hold any meaning when you become lost in this track. It's one long nightmarish and repetitive drone to drown in.

I find the bleak painting on the front cover particularly disturbing and unpleasant. There's something very cold and hallucinatory about the alien figures and desolate desert landscape that compliments the music perfectly. It's especially commanding on the LP version.

`Blackdance' is impossibly dark, immersive, abstract space music. Even if it leaves me feeling drained and dejected, I love connecting with the album so personally and deeply, that it makes you truly feel alive. If you respond to it favorably, it's the sort of album to spend your whole life discovering and surrounding yourself with. This album has also helped me get into other Schulze albums in the way that `Timewind' never could.

Alternatively creeping and comforting, a stunning and maddening work of dark art, `Blackdance' is the type of music wonderful endless nightmares are made of.

The last truly great release from the German godfather of electronica - and arguably his best - 1978's double-sided 'X' album marked the culmination of a fabulous decade for the former Tangerine Dream drummer. With all ten albums leading up to 'X' (bar, perhaps, the avant-garde dronery of 'Blackdance') proving singularly brilliant in their own unique way, the 1970s was a truly fertile period for Schulze and it seems fitting that he would end this golden period with one of his most ambitious projects. Featuring almost two hours worth of material spread out over six lengthy tracks, and with each track based on a particular historical hero of the Teutonic synth wizard, 'X' is a truly magnificent labour-of-love featuring a vast array of analogue technology (synthesizers, mellotrons, sound effects, tape relays, banks of keyboards etc). The subjects for 'X' are drawn mainly from the worlds of classical Germanic music and literature, and include philosophiser Friedrich Nietzeche, Austrian poet Georg Trakl, classical composer Friedemann Bach, former Bavarian king Ludwig 2nd and German novelist Heinrich Von Kleist. The one exception to the otherwise Germanic cast is the addition of American author Frank Herbert - best known for writing of the epic sci-fi opus 'Dune' - and whose trademark novel would become the focus of Schulze's next album, 1979's 'Dune'. Schulze claims to have a stylistic theme running through each composition, yet with each individual piece stretching around the twenty-minute mark, 'X' simply becomes is a highly-complex and never-ending sprawl through the psychedelic possibilities of early electronica. Like contemporary electronic artists Tangerine Dream and Edgar Froese, this is music very much for those listeners with the patience to enjoy it, with layers of highly atmospheric artificial sounds, industrial noises and throbbing, phaser-laced keyboard washed gently bubbling away underneath Schulze's slowly-unfurling synth-led rhythms and melodies. Like his very best work ('Timewind', 'X', 'Irrlicht') 'X' proves a thoroughly hypnotic and intensely mystical experience - more a continuous soundscape than a series of tunes - yet one that never loses its momentum. Describing 'X' in it's entirety is a difficult enough task; listening to it is an almighty quest into the unknown. Fans of Schulze will, of course, know exactly what to expect; new listeners are advised to take their time, as multiple listens reveal the true sonic beauty of Schulze's gloriously anti-commercial music. His last great work, 'X' is a true sensory experience and Klaus Schulze an artists quite unlike any other. Highly recommended. STEFAN TURNER, FRANCE, 2012

Released in between the two porn soundtracks for Body Love, Mirage is Klaus' most critically acclaimed album next to Timewind. Like that album there is no drums or percussion here. One of the reasons why there may be no drums here is that when this album was being recorded in early 1977, Klaus' brother Hans Dieter died of cancer. He taught Klaus how to play drums and Mirage is dedicated to him. The death of his brother, who was an idol to him, most likely had an effect on why this album sounds so cold and moody. Granted, Schulze rarely made music that you made you want to smile and tap your feet, but on Mirage there is a detached, icy winter-like feel that sounds even more gloomy for Klaus than usual. Generally the music here is ambient and New Age-y with some symphonic elements.

The first track "Velvet Voyage" you can listen to in it's entirety on PA. I feel it's the weaker of the two pieces and is not a great introduction for somebody who has never heard the music of KS before. The version on the latest CD release is slightly different to earlier versions. It starts out very quiet with sounds that resemble the 'seagulls' in Floyd's "Echoes." Almost sounds like the soundtrack to a scary movie for awhile. Slowly it morphs into more sci-fi sounding territory - spacey yet soothing. Then it settles into more of a New Age vibe. Around halfway the music becomes both more spacey and symphonic, almost hypnotic at times. Klaus eventually starts to solo over the hypnotic sequencer pattern. It basically stays this way until the end when you get more hypnotic sequencer and choir-like sounds. Very spacey conclusion.

"Crystal Lake" is the more interesting of the two tracks. A bell-like sequencer pattern lays the foundation for other keyboards to pile on top of it. Starting before 5 minutes the sequencer pattern keeps getting transposed back and forth to different keys. The music now is symphonic and dramatic and Klaus does some soloing. As he solos the music becomes less tense as it floats along. Later the sequencer pattern gets transposed back and forth again. Gets more New Age-y in the middle. Some icy sequencers sparkle as the music becomes more spacey. Klaus does some soloing as the music gets more subtle. Things get spacier as Mr. Schulze does some spacey soloing and a hypnotic sequencer line appears. The track ends this way with choir-like sounds being added.

I'm not a big a fan of Mirage as some people are. While better than the majority of what he did after X, it's not as strong as the previous three albums or even the first two. I also don't think it is a great place to start with this man's music. Newbies should go for Timewind or Moondawn instead. Mirage is a good album but it's not exactly typical of his style or is the most interesting thing he has done. My final verdict would be a 3.5 but I don't feel this is strong enough an album to deserve 4 stars. So 3 stars it is.

This is the album I'm sure a lot of people, myself included, expected to hear from Klaus Schulze in 1979, after his monumental double-disc, career peak album "X". Instead, the veteran synth-wizard threw his fans a curve-ball, collaborating with singer Arthur Brown for the "Dune" album, and afterward dulling his cutting-edge style by embracing the brave new, dumbed-down world of digital technology in the 1980's.

Fast forward three decades, past a lot of sub-standard efforts showing the once-influential electronic music pioneer more or less treading water. I wouldn't say this '07 album completely recaptures the zeitgeist of the 1970's (an impossible aim anyway: those days are long gone). But for the most part it displays all the subtlety and sensitivity missing from too much of Schulze's contemporary output, recalling the Golden Age sound of albums like "Mirage" and "Body Love" without trying to mimic them.

The awkwardly-titled "Sequenzer (from 70 to 07)" opens three long, interlocked tracks of drifting, pulsating soundscapes. Like the album title itself, the name of this opening cut suggests a linear path from Schulze's early analog masterpieces, but after so many lean years it's actually a retrograde broad jump worthy of Jesse Owens. The conspicuous lack of electronic percussion is a particular bonus, allowing the music to find its own rhythm without any artificial help.

Unlike the work of other students in the so-called Berlin School of keyboard noodling, the music here isn't hamstrung by a lazy reliance on unimaginative programming. It's all the little details between the sequencer patterns that make the piece so hypnotic: rising to the foreground, fading and overlapping, and finally drifting into the 20-minute "Euro Caravan", a more dynamic workout (after the slow, ominous build-up), with sampled near-eastern singing and a stronger rhythmic core.

The more than one-half hour long "Thor" doesn't quite summon the expected thunder of its namesake deity. But it does achieve a pleasant, trance-like repetition, despite the arbitrary end to its lively, somewhat too long middle sequence, with almost ten minutes of surplus ambience still pending.

In all, a welcome return to excellence. But I have to wonder if the album works as well as it does only because our critical yardstick has shrunk in recent years. Maybe it's worth remembering that Schulze was approaching his 60th birthday when this album hit the streets, so: not too shabby an effort for a sexagenarian survivor of the kosmische revolution.

Klaus Schulze and Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard had apparently wanted to collaborate for some time, but it was only in 2007 that they were able to get together and produce Farscape, an expansive double album cramming the full length of its 2 CDs with Klaus's spacey keyboards and Lisa's ethereal vocals. The combination works far better than I expected it would, and it easily manages to fill two full CDs with excellent material - certainly, few other musical acts could put out an album quite so long which remains interesting right up to the final chord - and I'm particularly impressed at how well it fits both into the context of Klaus's own discography and into the sort of musical territory Gerrard explored with Dead Can Dance.

As much as I respect him as a pioneer of electronic music, I have to admit that by the end of the 1970s Klaus Schulze's material had become more than a little samey, and for the subsequent decades there seemed to be little improvement or variation. (His habit of apparently releasing every scrap of music he recorded didn't exactly help, flooding the market with mediocre Schulze albums which until recent reissues buried the gems in his back catalogue under their oppressive weight).

Kontinuum seems to be something of a return to form. The lead track of the album is the impressive Sequenzer (From 70 To 07), which seems to be intended as a summation of his career from its dawn to the present day. And It kind of works, since it begins sounding like a vintage piece from his early career and bit by bit incorporates more modern equipment and techniques to bring the listener to the present day. With two more epics of a standard suitable for his great pioneering albums of the 70s rounding off the album, it's a brilliant reminder of what Schulze can achieve if he puts his mind to it.