IN BLUE

Klaus Schulze released a dreadful album prior to this : "Totentag" was a nightmare from start to finish and the man surely needed to release a much better album to seal back the great respect from his fans. On top of this, I can't say either that his "Goes Classic" and " Le Moulin De Daudet" stuff were encouraging nor really worth the attention. In the meantime, Klaus also released three albums under the "Dark Side Of The Moog" umbrella. I'll review these after the "standard" work.

But the great man came back in shape; with honour and care. This album is a very good piece of electronic music as a Schulze's one ever ought to be. It is a great journey back in the early days.

Gone are those synthetic beats, gone are the classic feels. Back is Klaus as I like him.

This ultra long CD set opens on the longest track I ever have listened to: some seventy eight minutes of music (yes: 78). Before this, "Amarok" from Mike Oldfield was the longest one to my knowledge.

"Into The Blue" starts extremely quiet for a very long time: almost twenty minutes, which is already an epic but only an introduction here. But one has to forget all standard references when listening to this CD set. The start is maybe too long, but extremely tranquil and spacey. A splendid example of soft electronic mania. And I have to say that I'm quite a maniac of this sort of sounds.

"Into The Blue" is probably less melodic, less grandiose or impressive than most of the seventies great songs; but the feeling is pretty close to this period. It sounds as if, one does a giant step back into these fantastic moments for a while. Just the time to revive some great experience.

The second "song" almost starts in the same way. A long waking up, a smooth journey again onto the boundaries of our physical knowledge. Enough for us to try and imagine what' s up there (or what isn't).

What comes afterwards is pure delight?The reincarnation of the early "Ash Ra Tempel" has been reconstructed and the fantastic guitar play of Manuel Göttsching provides a deep sensation. Very similar as well as one could experienced with some mid seventies great TD albums.

"Serenade In Blue" is more delicate, more simple but as effective in terms of "trip". I had a good time today in listening again to this ultra long work to finalize this review. Since I have quite a lot of problems these days, it was a wonderful manner to send all my terrestrial feelings into the stratosphere and forget them for some time.

The third CD is not so interesting. It consists of three tracks of which only "Return Of The Tempel" is valuable. The long (over thirty two minutes!) "Out Of The Blue" is a repetitive song more in line with his work from the mid eighties, which were less appealing to me although the last ten minutes provide some good sensation and are again closer to the concept idea I have of the man's great work.

This "In Blue" is a fine trip back to ancient time. Therefore, and as a nostalgic of these days I rate this work with four stars (but it is maybe more worth seven out of ten). Mais quand on aime, on ne compte pas?