DEUS ARRAKIS

With Deus Arrakis, Klaus Schulze was steering back his music to a former source of inspiration located in the Dune sci-fi saga. In effect, he had already released in 1979 the album Dune, and in 1978 a track named Frank Herbert, after the author of the novels. Even Hans Zimmer took its bass line for the soundtrack of the new screen version.

And the return trip ocurred at a sonic level too, since the familiar soundscape of scintillating sequencers plagued with mutating rhythmic patterns, drowned under droning and flowing synths slowly and majestically posing layers upon more layers, is still in place here. Of course, that soundscape suits perfectly to, lets say, an endless succession of sunrises and sunsets in Arrakis, the mysthic planet inhabited by mysterious people and gigantic worms going underground like express trains.

The first suite, Osiris, fortunately sounds more like the calm and extatic contemplation of that beauty, than like a struggle with worms.

The second one, Seth, seems to be devoted to a more "terrestrial" view, with a touch of human emotion added by the cello part, played by Wolfgang Tiepold. An oriental (mid-eastern?) mood pervades the piece.

The third one, Der Hauch des Lebens (the breath of life), features a more organic feel, with sounds reminiscent of air, water and earth, imprinted like watermarks in the instrumental (and now also vocal) sonic textures.

Evocative, yet I can not run with the idea that Klaus Schulze is just a shadow. Long run and lost, his presence persists. Kind of a great work this "Deus Arrakis" 2022. He held his spirit, and came with a record that is , far from his very commercial efforts to a close glimpse of his findings. Yes it sounds like a movie track, but it is not, it is a somewhat of a legacy ,the cello, Wolfgang Tiepold (cello from the archives), the kind that´s fresh & very much K.S. The flow of his sequences, his melodies, as told a great P.E. musician. RIP. (to be continued)....

It is a hard fact to see a legend of electronic music leave us this year. I really loved his work on the early Tangerine Dream albums, he just had a way of making musical landscapes at his whim, so hearing him leaving the world was pretty sad to say the least. However he was making an album before his death, and it's finally here. The last project of Klaus Schulze is a hard thing to say, but even after death, I guarantee this final work of Klaus Schulze will be as enjoyable as his other ones he has done in the past.

The album starts with Osiris, an 18 minute 4 piece suite. Klaus always had a sort of knack for creating a tranquil and spacey feel in his songs, and these aspects helped shape his music all these years into what we now know and love today. Osiris definitely continues the mantle of the spacey, sci-fi soundscapes. I also love how each part takes their time in exploring these intricate soundscapes. Each part feels distinct from one another, but they all share the same core composition. Speaking of which, the composition in this song is just very beautiful. Every little bit of ambience, feels, and technicalities all create a song that really drives home Klaus' work effort and what he did for a living. The cool tranquilities of the synths, the weird yet boundless keyboard playing, and the beautiful composition and mixing work really makes this song a master class of New Age and Progressive Electronic music. It is the beauty of this album.

The next track, Seth, is a 7 part, 30+ minute suite. Where Osiris was based in beauty, Seth feels sad and anxiety driven. It has a layer of mystery unkempt by chains of traditional feelings new age usually provokes. I really love this more gothic and surreal take on the notably happy and whimsical genre of new age, making it feel almost haunting. As much as it is mysterious and cryptic, it also feels very chilled in its direction. It has a great vibe going on, creating a beautiful and surreal soundscape that is as much as it is almost cryptic as it is beautiful. With how long the song is too, it really explores this weird and surreal environment to the furthest it can possibly go, making each part feel like pieces straight from either a horror film or a post apocalyptic love story. The fourth part hits the hardest with that violin. It feels almost like a funeral is being held in space. Sadly fitting due to what transpired earlier this year. However while it is sad, I do feel though of it being a comforting experience, one which brings a calming experience despite the cryptically arranged compositions telling otherwise. Something majestic in a new light.

And lastly is Der Hauch des Lebens, a 5 piece suite. This one is particularly intriguing since it goes for pure ambience. This song is a very chilling sounding song that feels almost otherworldly. The feelings I get here seem almost horror like, and with the whole space feel this whole entire album gives off, something ambient, vast, creepy, and deep fits perfectly with the feel the album gives off and I think is a pretty suitable closing for this album that I feel as not only one of the best in Prog Electronic music, but also one of the best this year. It really drives home how big and vast life truly is and whether we should fear it or embrace it, but with Klaus Schulze's passing, I feel as though embracing the unknown can be more rewarding then not.

I know this wasn't my longest review yet, but this album really is something special. It is ethereally beautiful in how it delivers its soundscapes perfectly and how Klaus managed to make this a texturally wonderful album enriched with magnificent beauty, cryptic feels, and cool vibes really shows a testament to how good his work is and how grand of a figure he truly is. I'd say this is a must listen if you want something different from this year and also if you want some great ambient and New Age music.

The project the Maestro was working on when he died, it's nice that his team and collaborators saw it to its completion and release.

1. "Osiris (Parts 1-4)" (18:28) though it starts out somewhat simply, almost New Age-y in its pace and sound palette, these are definitely Klaus Schulze key changes. Even moving into the second movement we get little change or development. As a matter of fact, it might be pointed out that there is considerable simplification and reduction of inputs until the introduction of a new, buzz-saw-like synth into the sequence in the ninth minute. Then, a few new chord/key changes from the baseline synth wash occur before we enter the third phase when the chord sequences begin to rise on the pitch scale and the floating saw-synth takes on a more prominent role. We also hear the addition of an oboe-like instrument and more layered weave of sequenced sounds moving around the soundscape. Cello seems to join in as well--though the long-held notes seem more synthesized than acoustic or electrified. The final section, Part 4, is the most dramatic and dynamic one minute of the whole suite! Overall, the song is pleasant but under-developed; the melodies and Schluzian key shifts alone can do nothing to make it anything special. (34.25/40)

2. "Seth (Parts 1-7)" (31:47) spacey old synths float through the airwaves for the first two minutes. The second part is just slow-moving waves of synth washes. The third and longest movement of the suite is made up of an upbeat click-and-pop rock-beat sequence with layers of other individual synths woven into the mix beneath which the synth wash chords shift, leading the music into interesting directions. There is an actual structure and repeating flow to this section which makes it feel like a song. The end of the third part finds the addition of some guitar-like sounds and other incidentals while the pace and chord-melody structure remain fairly consistent. For the fourth Part, we find all sequence and flow interrupted by the treated saw synth and cello playing within a field of space- radio noises. It's pretty cool but I don't get what it has to do with either the previous movement or the topic of Seth. Part Five is the second longest movement. It finds a 1980s synth sequence overriding and, eventually, replacing the radio-cello motif of Part 4--though the beautiful and plaintive cello does manage to remain and contribute significantly (and contrarily) to the effectiveness of this rather ambiguous motif. (Two themes being presented simultaneously, seemingly at diametrically opposed purposes, makes for an interesting if contentious listening experience.) Part 6 is, again, taking us in a different direction: this one back to gentle, slowly shifting synth washes over which some of those space radio noises flit and flash. After about a minute, the cello again joins in--this time sounding more effected by reverb, delay, sustain other engineering effects--and also supplanting the space-radio "bugs"--getting quite expressive and speedy the further we go into the movement. (It's quite exciting, this virtuous cello player!) The seventh and final movement, Part 7, is three minutes of saw synth and lower register treated-cello play. Very pacifying--as if trying to put its listeners to bed--though the rather sudden/quick fadeout is a bit disconcerting--as well as a bit of a surprise The contributions of the lovely cello certainly do make this composition more engaging and enjoyable. In fact, this piece, "Seth," feels far more symphonic in its form and intent than the opener, "Osiris." I like this one very much! (59.5/65)

3. "Der Hauch des Lebens (Parts 1-5)" (27:08) low droning note opens this before synth glass-bell-horn joins in with ethereal voices whispering around in the background. Three minutes of this Blade Runner-like soundscape changes to add more quotidian incidental sounds (like street and/or playground & circus/fair voices) while a more common organ-like synth delivers slowly morphing chords beneath. The end of Part 2 slips into a more eerie, sinister scape before the organ chords shift to a new, more ambiguously evocative progression. It's pretty but it's also cold, lonely, unsettling. Part 3 sees the appearance of a more typical KS computer sound sequenced in a way that any Berlin School devot'e would, all the while the gentle "organ" synth continues providing its soothing, if sometimes disconcerting chord washes beneath. It sounds very familiar ' la Laurent Schieber's SEQUENTIA LEGENDA work over the past decade. The longest movement of the suite, Part 3 also sees the development of more speed and dynamics as well as layering of other subtle instrumental lines into the musical weave. By the halfway point in the suite, we are feeling very much immersed in a classic Klaus Schulze piece of music--maybe even one going back to the late 1970s or early 1980s. A few sudden and usually quick "surprise" chords alert us to the "newness" of the piece, but, overall, we find ourselves feeling quite comfortable in the familiar weaves of Sancta Klaus. Part 4 finds us being stripped of all worldly fabric to leave us in the heavenly, love-affirming chord progression of the synth wash chords. In fact, it's so comforting that I find myself moved to tears. Such is the power of simple chords, especially those magical major and minor seventh chords, for therein are contained the summation and spectral range of the human emotional experience. Beautiful ' with just enough edge to remind us that we have not yet, in fact, left this mortal coil--that we are still committed to confronting the foils and spoils of our --which is precisely what the fifth movement does: it slowly brings us back from our heavenly, out-of-body Preview, gently depositing us back into the Earthly bodies to which we have volunteered our attention. Yes, this is the Breath of Life! And we were just taken on a guided tour down the River Styx, through Bar-do, to the Mists of Avalon, and back to Middle Earth! How masterfully Klaus (and his collaborators) have engineered our conscious experience through the purposeful manipulation of sound! Ingenius! No wonder we hold the Maestro's esteem up to such lofty heights! (52/55)

Total Time 77:23

What amazes me about this album of music is the demonstration of Klaus Schulze's skill: from the Understated (and perhaps, underwhelming) simplicity of the first suite, to the complex, mutli-part story-telling of the second, to the psycho-spiritual manipulation of the third. I am so grateful for this man's contributions to my life, to my love and appreciation for the possibilities of all things musical (and emotional). Three cheers for the King. Long live the King!

A-/five stars; a marvelous exposition of Berlin School Electronica from the master himself--a truly wonderful addition to any and all music collections.

One of the true pioneers of Berlin School progressive electronica and kosmische Krautrock with bands such as Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel and the jam session turned real recordings band The Cosmic Jokers, KLAUS SCHULZE's 70s works remain unparalleled in creative expressionism, in the realms of electronically produced ambiance and atmospheric alienation. If you count collaborative efforts, the man has released well over 60 albums and has gone down in history as one of Germany's most creative musical minds not to mention the #1 hero of atmospheric keyboard and synthesizer worshippers worldwide. It saddens us when our great heroes leave this Earthly plane and moves on to the next chapter of their consciousness journey but at the way too young of age of 74, SCHULZE passed in April 2022 just before this album DEUS ARRAKIS hit the scene in July 2022.

It was a long ride from early drummer turned synth-wizard to the end of his days but as legendary as his 70s output may remain, SCHULZE never rested on his laurels and continued to crank out and unthinkable number of albums during his career not only as KLAUS SCHULZE but under the assumed alias of Richard Wahnfried. SCHULZE teamed up with Pete Namlook for a number of ambient recordings in the 90s as well as Dead Can Dance siren Lisa Gerrard. After 50 years on the music scene his latest DEUS ARRAKIS proves that the man never lost his touch and could still magically conjure up some of the craziest surreal sounds right up to the end. This album's sixteen tracks is better thought of as three very long tracks. SCHULZE always loved ridiculously long album lengths and this one is no different. At over 77 minutes long, "Osiris" is a mere 18 1/2 minutes compared to the near 32 of "Seth" and the 27 of "Der Hauch des Lebens.

Nothing new under the sun here really. This is the same kind of ethereal escapism SCHULZE has been cranking out since his debut album "Irrlicht" which was released in 1972, a whopping half century before this final chapter (although i'm sure we'll be experiencing archival releases for years to come). Beyond words really in describing SCHULZE's work as his music seems divinely downloaded to eke out every possible emotional response at the exact right moment. DEUS ARRAKIS is no exception. Granted i haven't heard even close to every SCHULZE release but out of the 15 or so releases i have relished, i find his musical expressions to remain not only timeless but utterly unlike any other artist past or present. Hypnotizing, eerie and elegant, SCHULZE took his gifts to the grave but pumped out one last feast for his frothing fans before his untimely passing.

"Osiris" is basically a four part nearly 19 minute space ambient trip. Mellow and new agey, this albums starts out making you think SCHULZE has lost some of his mojo. After all he has cranked out dozens of albums. Perhaps he's all dried up. It takes a close listen to this sort of music to really appreciate the nuances. It helps to realize that DEUS ARRAKIS is the continuation of the 1979 "Dune" album in theme and the three multi-part themes evoke the emotive content. The simplicity of this first offering presumably reflects the sparse sandscapes that the Frank Herbert sci-fi film of the same name presented. ARRAKIS was the name of the planet in the novel and film. This "track" also expresses the calmness before the storm on a planet where there are many.

The real gem comes with "Seth," a seven part Berlin School instant classic which showcases not only SCHULZE's propensity as a composer, keyboardist, arranger, mixer and producer extraordinaire but also features a lugubrious yet magnificent cello performance from Wolfgang Tiepold. The "track" also features some excellent spaced out electronic whizzing, oscillating as well as other transistor circuity weirdness. Something of a mix of Berlin School and chamber hall modern classical, the track exudes the fingerprint of a master. Something of a slow oozing flow where the cello slinks across the vastness of sound, the "track" is vibrant and dynamic beyond words.

"Der Hauch des Lebens" is a five part "track" that employs a droning effect that sustains the beginning of this sprawling 27-minute opus. As part one feels like a gentle glide through vacuous space, part two finds ethereal wordless vocal utterances from Eva-Maria Kagermann hauntingly undulating through the sinuating sonicsphere like a cosmic mermaid navigating the astral plane. Slowly but surely the abstract ambience increases Berlin School key stabs introducing a more tangible melodic underpinning until in the middle of part three is the dominate aspect relegating the eerie ambience to the role of backdrop. Schools out (Berlin style) for part four where ambience rules once again with swirling synth loops pulsating about like jellyfish in the deepest recesses of the sea.

Although i have not heard much of SCHULZE's music of the last 30 years (i much prefer his earliest freakery), i'm still never disappointed when i dabble into any given era. One thing KLAUS SCHULZE proved was that you could retain quality despite a rather large quantity. To be honest, the fact that DEUS ARRAKIS is as good as it is a half century into this man's career is nothing more than outstanding. A true gift to the world has been taken but one thing is for sure and that is that KLAUS SCHULZE left in his wake more music than the average soul can endure. As far as a last call on this physical plane, KLAUS SCHULZE couldn't have hoped for much better as a farewell offering to the world. On DEUS ARRAKIS he effortlessly displays his electronica wizardry in perfect form with only death keeping him from continuing on. While not quite as engaging as some of his earliest releases, this final statement is something to be quite proud of for sure.

Deus Arrakis is Klaus Schulzes last album. I have been a fan of him since 1975, buying Timewind in the record shop, because of the intriguing cover (both front and back) and the long timings. I had not heard an electronic album before. I was deeply impressed and still am up to this day (maybe even deepler, since I have a keyboard rig like him, and he does amazing things with it). I first explored his backalbums, but they were really hard for me. Fortunately, I like them very much these days. Bought all albums and boxsets there after, and he is my most played hero. Now to Deus Arrakis, or maybe 'just before' it: The last 20 years I was not impressed by his output, mostly too much noodling and same chords repeated infinitely. But I am surprised with Deus Arrakis!

The first track 'Osiric' is very smooth, almost no rhythms but more arpeggiating. Quite nice chords he's using and a joy to listen to. The second track 'Seth', starts slowly and then has a peaceful rhythm. A bit repeating chords, but after ten minutes we go into other territory, great 'spooky' sounds. Then Wolfgang Tiebold joins in (from an old tape) and from there this is a really nice track, much in vein of the original Dune record. In fact, this as nice as those old days!

We finish off with a remarkable track. The mood was allready quite somber, and this track continues this. I think its fantastic. Great breathing sounds, great chords and great arpeggiators. Then, after 17 minutes, we get to the last sequel of Klaus, an amazing mix of what Klaus is/was. Beautiful stringpads, arp bubbles, great chords. It finishes off with some major chords and sounds really reminiscent of his Irrlicht and Cyborg organ drones. And then it stops... Everything is finished, the circle is round. Artistically this is an amazing album, the music on the first half is not groundbreaking, so 4 stars. Well done, Klaus. What a way to change cosmic address.

1. Osiris (Parts 1-4) 2 ethereal parts to get you started, 2 moments to wander with a bold sound, far from those primary ones of his productions of yesteryear; here it's cottony, melodic and of course minimalist; it's trippy, almost new age; part 3 suddenly goes up a notch before falling back into its hypnotic overloops and resuming the so characteristic syncopated tune; it is with the very short 4th period that we are entitled to the sensual and dreamlike rise, a quiet homage to the limit of the new age and its detractors; or how to spend 18 minutes without realizing it!

2. Seth (Parts 1-7) aggressive space attack, laser rockets come out of nowhere and graze us; 2 parts to make a passage between the stars, between the limbs of your cortex and we arrive at the dancing evolution of the album, a sound that JARRE himself would not have denied, yes the master who will look for fresh and popular tunes; watch out part4 and it's time for Wolfgang to throw austere notes from his cello; part5 and a radical change, a sound that will scratch on its instrumentations of the time, the one in which it was taken; the air between deep sadness and enlightening astonishment, just before believing in a God; next part and I find JARRE with 'Alice' for a stunning romantic-spleen piece confirmed by the even darker finale; meditative

3. Der Hauch des Lebens (Parts 1-5) changes location, instruments by offering a long monolithic melody with loop effects, with wandering spleen melancholy-divine darkness; a piece that comes and goes in your brain and there too the tertiary melody, the one that hooks us waits for the 3rd beat; it's something already seen and well done, it's above all dynamic enough to be guided; the last 2 parts are more languorous, the noises of a megaptera for example, sounds reaching deep within us, from him; remember that only he knew his advanced state with regard to the crab and there is no doubt that this last chapter could represent one of the passages to the musical beyond; the final climb makes you want to resume your flights for the umpteenth, for one last time? No, there will be eternal sweetness. A testament to the Berliner school that is much less expressive, much more intimate.