EN=TRANCE

If you would except the dreadful "Aphrica", Klaus Schulze never released a poor album so far. But I was hardly thrilled with his studio production of the eighties to be sincere. Globally OK albums (which means three stars) but nothing from the other world (without play on words).

The title song reverts me to some ancient Klaus algorithm. Great synth layers, subtle harmony, fully instrumental, cold yet emotional. In one word: essential. Of course, you have to accept the simple and repetitive tempo; but this is deeply rooted into his great music.

I was quite charmed with this piece of music. It is of course not the first time that the man delivers a very good epic in the eighties ("Inter*Face" was another one), but usually there were only one of those per album.

What is different on this long set is that there are very good companions as well. "a Numérique" is another winner although less attractive and accessible than "En=Trance". Hypnotic, clean and tranquil, it gets more upbeat after a while, closer to his later work as well. The addition of a true drummer (why not Mike Shrieve) would have been a plus in comparison to these synthetic ones. But that's only a very small negative point.

And there's nothing to do: while I listen to the opening of "FM Delight", I am just ? delighted. It reminds me of the great albums from the seventies when emotion was at its peak, brilliance at his height and beauty close to perfection. Yes, it is that great!

The idea might sound simple, but the execution is superb. The melody is splendid. These keys are just too wonderful to be human! Great, great, great. Even if after the first third (some six minutes) these sublime lines turn into a more upbeat affair (but which still sounds very good).

The closing "Velvet System" is one of the most bombastic Schulze song. It starts on a slow tempo, but very quickly, the listener is brought to some sort of electronic-opera style of music (whatever it may mean). The second half is more conventional but still above the standard of the output from the great man in the eighties.

I haven't been so pleased with Klaus's music since "Mirage". This album deserves four starts in my own scale of rankings. A very good album indeed which I can only recommend to all electronic music fan but not only. Beleive me!