KLAUS SCHULZE


Brief - I'll try. He started his solo career in 1972 with his first album
"Irrlicht" after being a drummer with the very early Tangerin Dream.

Irrlicht started his trademark style of long pieces that slowly build to a
climax. Later albums, like Timewind and Moondawn, introduced more
synthesizers, while his sound remained on the darker side. Timewind was
honored with the German "Schallplattenpreis", a price usually given only to
"serious" music. At that time (mid 70s) he had more success outside of
Germany itself, especially in France. German critics permanently attacked
him as a musician who supplied music that encouraged drug consumption, etc.


In the late 70s he added several master pieces to his credits: Mirage, and "X".

Mirage remains one of his most daring albums. Superficially it is an
extremely long and boring piece, but "bhelow the surface" sounds are
building and evolving, layers are being added, and images shape (Mirage
remains my all time favorite album). One has to actively listen into the
depths of Velvet Voyage, the first track, to find the genius and the
"space" within.

"X" is a very different album built around the same recipe, but this time
ustilizing real string instruments and classical influences, while creating
images ("picture music") he calls "six musical biographies". The
biographies focus mostly on people who were misunderstood in their times
(Kleist, Trakl, Ludwig II) and, I think, all ended their lifes in suicide.
Very dark, "teutonic" (Stephen Hill) music; a true classic which was just
honored with an entire program on Hearts of Space.

After "X", Schulze was looking for new ideas. "Dune" is a transition album.
The first track more in the Moondawn/Mirage traditon, while the second one
adds voice and a beat that foshadows his future, more rhtyhmic albums
(Audentity, Trancefer, the Wahnfried projects).

The mid 80s were a low in his creative career (my opinion), with few albums
and few new ideas emerging. His current style fist took shape on En=Trance,
but more so on Miditerranean Pads. Since then he's been basically reworking
the same samples into new shapes. He has finally earned recognition by the
critics even in Germany, and performs on stages of "serious music".

How to define this new style is a little more difficult. He has refined a
few of his old trademarks (long, slowly evolving pieces), added the
rhythmic beat more frequently to spice things up and to add drama. His
sound is a totally new set of samples, far removed from the sound of his
old analog sythesizers. Lots of voice, string, flute, piano, but less and
less of the real musician he used to value so much in the early 80s
(Tiepold on Cello, Brown on voice, Shrieve on drums...). I personally like
his new music a lot, and rank it close to my old favorites.


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Date: Wed, 4 May 94 13:38:47 +0200
From: Riccardo.Capobianchi@aar.alcatel-alsthom.fr (Riccardo Capobianchi)

Hi,
	I would like to get to know K Schulze music but I'm a
bit frightened by the enormous output he produced... Would 
anyone in this list be so kind to give me some suggestions about 
what to buy first? Also, did KS go through different "phases"
in its music, and what are those like?
I may add that I like Tangerine Dream works a lot, but almost
only their earlier and more spacey stuff (Virgin years, ca 72-83)

........................................................................
Date: Wed, 04 May 94 19:57:10 EDT
From: darszyla@aol.com

"Picture Music", "Timewind","X","Mirage","Dune" can probably
be considered as his best stuff (circa 1971-1979). They are very spacey,
analog textured compositions of extended length.

About 1980, K.S. made the transition to more crystaline, digital types of
timbres ("Transfer" , as an example). Through- out the '80s, he
experimented with shorter length pieces and soundtracks (i.e. more
structured) that did not live up to the quality of his earlier works.
Recently, he has blended a combination of his longer length earlier
improvisation styles with sampling collage techniques("Beyond Recall").
Fortunately, he has never fallen prey to the "rock band" mentality of
T-Dream's current music and has stayed relatively true to his original
visions. 


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