Klaus Schulze Appreciation Thread

[EBES]

Sad that Schulze is gone but I've been listening to Moondawn per its featured album spot and really enjoyed it for all the reasons people have noted in tribute to it there. Glad I finally got around to trying to dig into his massive catalog.

[dropforge]

Another fun trip down memory lane. He's not there much but he's there (3:54, a few other spots too).

5:34-5:38 has a good tight close-up of Klaus.

^^ Also kind of fun is scanning the audience above for other future familiar faces (Michael Hoenig is there, probably a few others).

If I had a time machine, that's definitely one of the scenes I'd go hang in.

[Scott Bails]

One more that I haven't mentioned recently, but probably should...that last Ash Ra Tempel "reunion" of Schulze/Göttsching.

Is it even remotely similar to the original ART? Not at all...it's basically a late era Schulze album with Göttsching on guest guitar.

Is it a damn good late era Schulze album with Göttsching on guest guitar? Damn skippy it is, at least to these ears.

Ooooh, that is nice.

[battema]

Ooooh, that is nice.

Yeah...it's KS and MG in full-on chill mode. And there are some cool little melodic exchanges between them...the whole thing has an air of buddies catching up over drinks, firing up the gear and just doing what they do.

[dropforge]

As Alex DeLarge would say, "This is real horrorshow!" The final track from La Vie Electronique 4 (but it originally appeared in The Ultimate Edition).

[Trane]

[JKL2000]

I always thought this photo of Klaus from Julian Cope’s book Krautrocksampler was interesting. He’s so young here, and as I THINK Cope is trying to say in the caption, he looks pretty fucked-up. Like he’s tripping balls, frankly!

[Mister Triscuits]

^ That photo is from the back cover of Join Inn.

[Cygnus74]

Cool, and very interesting. Did you happen to meet or speak to KDM (Klaus D. Mueller) while doing that? Or to Klaus Schulze himself?

I didn't have any interaction with them. I used to work at InsideOut. I had left by that stage but maintained a good relationship and would help out from time to time with various projects. My specific role on the Revisited catalogue was re-writing the translated liner notes from a native English speaking perspective. So essentially the bulk of the information was there, I just re-wrote them so they were in correct English.

[Cygnus74]

That's really, really cool! I actually quite enjoyed the liners, especially some of the albums that were less familiar to me at the time, so thanks much for a great job

Thanks so much Battema!

[JKL2000]

^ That photo is from the back cover of Join Inn.

Oh, so it is! I don't think my CD has those photos on the back, but I could be wrong.

[smcfee]

Was running through X earlier but now that you mention it...going to line up Nostalgic Echo from 1976 (was originally on the Silver Edition, not sure which of the LVE releases it appeared on). No Harald on this one, but it's still pretty excellent classic KS material.

Ha, that's one of the rotating pieces of background music on my radio show.

My favorite piece from the box sets is "The Poet"... 50+ minutes of Moondawn-style Klaus.

[RichardGioaf.]

The Farscape album was created as a collaboration between Klaus Schulze and Lisa Gerrard. It's turned out to be a terrific, incredibly compelling album. And yes, "Liquid Coincidence 6" is probably the most beautiful thing I've heard from the field of electronic music / modern classical music!

[the winter tree]

I've always loved "Dune", "Timewinds", and "Babel". Babel was a collaboration with a pianist named Andreas. You can picture them building the tower in your mind's eye. Musical architecture :-) Then it all falls apart at the end.

[battema]

^^ Babel was one of the very last KS-related titles I purchased (along with the Drive Inn 1/2 release only just a few weeks ago!). Good, but I need to give it a closer listen.

The one I don't have, and am not sure I ever need to track down, is this one

[battema]

On the non-silly side of things...rolling on Irrlict at the moment. Not my go-to, but it does scratch a certain itch.

[Dave (in MA)]

I haven't even thought about Babel for years. I have it on vinyl and pretty sure I have a copy of it on my file server, so I'll have to put that in the listening queue.

[Hour Candle]

Please guide me through his 80's, 90's and onwards catalog. I have only Trancefer (and I love that!), the live The Dome Event and Shadowlands (again great!)from these eras. How about Audentity and the following albums after Trancefer? I'm certain I will get 'em all eventually.

[aith01]

Not sure how I was so oblivious, but I didn't realize until these threads that Klaus Schulze was in Ash Ra Tempel.

Seems I've got some homework to do...

[dropforge]

Agreed! This one is simply smashing. Actually I often reach for Picture Music from the shelf these days. This one and Blackdance.

Must give that a spin (just pulled it from the shelf). I prefer listening to the original three-track version, no bonus tracks.

[dropforge]

Please guide me through his 80's, 90's and onwards catalog. I have only Trancefer (and I love that!), the live The Dome Event and Shadowlands (again great!)from these eras. How about Audentity and the following albums after Trancefer? I'm certain I will get 'em all eventually.

Check out Angst (1984), which is a soundtrack. The first track, "Freeze," was also used in Michael Mann's Manhunter.

The music was created as a soundtrack for a thriller by Austrian director Gerald Kargl (1983). Rather unusually, the whole album was ready even before the movie was shot. Gerald Kargl actually wanted to adjust the images to Schulze's music and not the contrary. The result is a very weird film, completely centered on the music and the inner dialog of its main character played by Erwin Leder. The film deals with a schizophrenic killer just released from jail and freaking out while walking through a residential area, killing people in their houses, saying things like: "I actually could kill these people too... Is it necessary? Yeah, just to remain on the safe side". Klaus Schulze remembers: "It was such a crazy movie that I wondered whom they actually should arrest: the director or the killer..."

[battema]

Please guide me through his 80's, 90's and onwards catalog. I have only Trancefer (and I love that!), the live The Dome Event and Shadowlands (again great!)from these eras. How about Audentity and the following albums after Trancefer? I'm certain I will get 'em all eventually.

So I'm listening to Trancefer for the first time in years this morning, just to refresh my memory. If you like this, Audentity will probably be enjoyable as well. It's a little more energetic in places but also more experimental (but NOT in an early 70's kind of way). Dziekuje Poland gets a bit wilder since it's a live album.

I am assuming you have Transfer Station Blue by Michael Shrieve, but if you haven't: that's an easy one because it's heavy on the KS contributions.

I'll be honest with you, the later 80's albums are a blur for me and I've not listened to Inter*Face, Dreams or En=Trance in a long time. I did recently revisit Angst so I'll agree with El Drop, it's worth a listen.

So do you actually LIKE Dome Event? If so, I'd definitely suggest picking up the "companion" albums Royal Festival Hall 1 + 2, as well as the studio albums Beyond Recall and MIDIterranean Pads.

Starting with In Blue KS started to shift a bit and look backwards, more synths and less obvious samplers (still lots of ROMpler sounds though, i.e. subjectively sterile digital samples of analog synths).

Mentioned before from that period onward, I'm a big fan of Are You Sequenced, Tradition and Vision, and Kontinuum. The later Wahnfried albums are closer to KS than was the case in the 80's, but they are generally KS in darn good form. Ditto for the different Lisa Gerrard compilations; the studio album Farscape is great but I think the live album Rheingold is even better).

Oh...they haven't been mentioned much here, but if you like both that later KS stuff and you did early ambient music like Air and stuff from Pete Namlook, you might check out some of the Dark Side of the Moog series. I like them, although for me personally they never quite reach the level of amazing that their early mysterious, hard-to-find and almost-mythological status promised (somewhere Fripp is snorting and muttering about expectations under his breath but isn't quite sure why).

There are some good cuts in this thread that may help reference what you might like more or less along the way. I barely even touched on all the utterly incredible unreleased music (in remarkably great quality) from the five Editions that were ultimately re-released in the LVE series in far more affordable bite-size form.

Happy listening!

[dropforge]

I am assuming you have Transfer Station Blue by Michael Shrieve, but if you haven't: that's an easy one because it's heavy on the KS contributions.

I'll be honest with you, the later 80's albums are a blur for me and I've not listened to Inter*Face, Dreams or En=Trance in a long time. I did recently revisit Angst so I'll agree with El Drop, it's worth a listen.

I need to revisit Inter*Face, too. Dreams is pleasant. It's not going to blow minds, but it's pleasant. En=Trance sorta reminds me of Dreams, but not as good.

Starting with In Blue KS started to shift a bit and look backwards, more synths and less obvious samplers (still lots of ROMpler sounds though, i.e. subjectively sterile digital samples of analog synths).

Klaus's ROMplers and TD's workstations downgraded what could have been some very good material. If anyone disagrees, I'll be surprised.

[battema]

I don't hate those early digital samples when used well -- Wuivend Riet being my gold star example of best use -- but sadly TD and KS tended to go on autopilot. KS in particular with those "YOOO!" type samples and things...it's terribly dated to my ears now, and not in the good kind of way.

[dropforge]

I don't hate those early digital samples when used well -- Wuivend Riet being my gold star example of best use -- but sadly TD and KS tended to go on autopilot. KS in particular with those "YOOO!" type samples and things...it's terribly dated to my ears now, and not in the good kind of way.

Johannes has this magnificent ear for bitchin' tones. His judicious patch choices, especially those of his prized Jupiter, always elevated his lines and what remains is well above the ordinary. "Matjora is Still Alive" and "Zeit (for Stephan)" demonstrate that in spades! Those tracks hold up umpteen years later.

KS in particular with those "YOOO!" type samples and things...it's terribly dated to my ears now, and not in the good kind of way.

Oh, dayum. You are likely the FIRST person I know (on various message boards) who gets that! There's usually this air of hallowedness around these icons that prevents people from expressing how they really feel.