Why don't people talk more about Klaus Schulze?

From 87/88, so outside the feted period, but I picked up En=Trance the other day and it's marvellous. Fantastic 80s cover art too.

Moondawn is head and shoulders above most of his solo records for me. His first two albums as Richard Wahnfried are very classic, a lot of proto-techo/trance tracks in there.

I only have Body Love. If the porno it's meant to accompany is half as trippy as the music tries to be, it must be a film for avant-garde sex addicts.

cosign with En=Trance, that thing is really a pleasure

Funny, i was just thinking of bumping this threas yesterday!

Since eMusic has almost everything of Klaus's now, I got Timewind, Moondawn and X. Thus far have listened to Timewind three times, not yet breached the other two. First listen did absolutely nothing for me-- but it was while riding the subway (foolish). Second and third listens at the relative quiet of my desk won me over completely and now I can't wait to listen to MD and X.

Body Love and Picture Music sounded enticing on the inadequate basis of 30 sec. samples as well. Will go over and sample en=trance since youze guys are touting it.

I just got Moondawn, and it's brilliant. My old boss tried to get me into Klaus Schulze years ago; he's got everything they guy's ever done, but I didn't figure it then. This is terrific, though.

Search: any job with a boss who tries to get you into Klaus Schulze. My boss doesn't even look at me.

Yeah, nice guy. He got me into John Martyn, too.

My boss has tried to get me into Toby Keith a couple times.

"irrlicht" is the best. i also have "blackdance", "timewind", "picture music" and "moondawn", all of which are quite samey, hate to say it. good stuff but not quite as good as "irrlicht". i feel like the best from that era are probably "cyborg" and "x", the two i haven't picked up.

i also have "audentity", "body love", "dig it", "en=trance", "miditerranean pads". those are more in the vein of early 80s tangerine dream, very portentous synthesizer stuff, sometimes the best stuff borders on john carpenter territory. the worst is quite corny.

well, not "audentity", that's more of a ... well, it's hard to describe. it's sort of like very early IDM, just these clanking pinging fake jazz songs.

i highly recommend "angst" if you're into jan hammer / tangerine dream early-80s synth soundtracks. it's tough.

my boss is in a band.
i daren't go any further than that, but lets just say he has never heard of Klaus S.

you know what, though, i hardly ever listen to my schulze albums because i don't really have the attention span for it. once in a while if i'm REALLY in the mood to vegetate physically and mentally i'll sit down for a 2 hour tetris or zelda or metroid session and i'll put on the schulze as background music. most of the rest of the time i'm too active and can't give the music the consideration it requires.

Moonship is on the money

his records might not seem as special as they once did in the 70's, where a 25-30 minute vinyl record side of music that basically stayed in place and went nowhere really made the difference between stoned and Stoned. these days we're drowning in 74 minute ambient cdrs and 24 hour long mp3 streams. plus you kind of have to be in the mood for his noodly synth leads.

basically I hated these and most Tangerine Dream when I was growing up in the 80's, and loved Cluster. within the last seven or eight years I'd grown to love _so many_ of the 70's electronic records that I went back to the Schulze in a sentimental mood and found myself more sympathetic, but man these records take your time away

the reissue of moondawn adds a bonus track called 'Floating Sequence' with the initial recording session, before he added the synth leads, leaving just the sequencer and Grosskopf's drums. sounds pretty great without the noodles.

still, my pal Martin grew up on Schulze in the 70's and puts him on sometimes while driving, and there was one night where Timewind made for some really beautiful driving music, so...

basically he's worth checking out a bit, but if you find one of them not to you taste you shouldn't sweat it too much

I'm enjoying myself, but I expect I won't need more than 5 Klaus records.

Time-eating not a big issue for me as I spend much of my time listening to 30-50 minute symphonies, sonatas, etc. But sameyness much more of an issue, which I can see could be Klaus' weakness.

the Richard Wahnfried album is really good. as are everything i've heard on Schulze's label IC (Innovative Communication). i've got Double Fantasy's "Universal Ave" and Francis Monkman's "Energism". all three are epic, cosmic synth jams.

My boss has tried to get me into Toby Keith a couple times.

There are positively several ILXors who would find this way better than a boss trying to get you into Klaus Schulze. I love Toby Keith.

anyone picked up those "la vie electronique" sets? i am interested but dunno if they're worth bothering with.

Klaus Schulze performing w Lisa Gerrard. Tempting but I'm a bit worried that it's gonna be mostly new age fluff.

Oh definitely but (and this may be another sign of my increasing dotage) but I liked it.

http://www.myspace.com/farscape2008

The Schulze I would like to hear is the colaborations with Pete Namlook and Bill Laswell on the "Darkside of the Moog" series, but like most of Namlook's music it is pretty hard to find.

How times have changed.

I've only ever heard X and Mirage. Kind of felt he was overreaching a tad on X, not really focused and meandering all over the place, which I guess is probably the point. Mirage is fantastic though, 'Crystal lake' could be released on Warp now and I wouldn't bat an eyelid.

if you need a strong alarm clock the sound at the end of "Bayreuth Return" will wake you up for sure. actually, it should probably be adapted for use in warfare.

anyone picked up those "la vie electronique" sets? i am interested but dunno if they're worth bothering with.

I have #s 1-4 and have been obsessing over them for a week or so now.

I just picked up Body Love at a record swap last week. Been really enjoying it.

<3 (including toilet break)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvhxqZkZdJo

Schulze's music definitely sounds more composed and less free form jammed out than TD.

See, I don't get this at all, admittedly I haven't heard anything at all after "Mirage" and that's quite a large chunk of his discography I'm missing. Long periods of suck-it-and-see noodling seem much more common on his albums than on TD's - particularly a lots of aimless soloing where he shows even less melodic sensibility than the Dream! Maybe they're not more common, maybe they just go on for longer, where TD have 18 minutes tracks, he has 28 minute tracks, for no apparent reason - possibly a result not having someone around in the studio to say, "Love it Klaus baby, but I think we've got the idea by now, can you move on to something else now?" I think "Mirage" is my favourite of the albums I've heard.

Rheingold, with Lisa Gerrard, is utterly fantastic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSZL0DPmlkQ

Bought myself La Vie Electronique 5-8 this month - I think I'm gonna stop there, as I don't really expect to find the 80s material nearly as mind-warping as the 70s stuff. Plus, guest musicians are starting to pop up (drummers, saxophonists, even Arthur Brown singing), and that's not what I come to KS for. Gimme hour-long solo synth suites, or nothing.

I love me some '70s Schulze... I probably pull out Timewind and Body Love the most. I always get a charge when I find another Schulze in the used LP racks.

"Schulze's music definitely sounds more composed and less free form jammed out than TD."

In hindsight that probably wasn't an accurate statement but I think part of it is that Klaus Schulze's music, especially early on is just him. TD has a different vibe in that there are 3 members so that there are other lines cutting in around the pulsating sequencer lines building up the sound. In the early drone music, I think Schulze's music is less busy and it probably comes down to the fact it's a solo performance with some overdubs, where the Tangerine Dream is a trio putting down the base tracks.

Been listening to him quite a lot recently and... I still don't get it really. He's like Jefferson Airplane(!) in that regard, in that I keep listening to him/them in the hope that I'll be able to finally get what so many other people else seem to get, because it's exactly the sort of thing I usually like. Anyway, I keep picking up on the same faults, the pieces are too long - as I said upthread...

where TD have 18 minutes tracks, he has 28 minute tracks, for no apparent reason

... not just tracks, but sequences within tracks seem too long, not so long that they become perversely (or grimly) fascinating but so long (about one and half times too long) they become irritating, even when they start out good! Obv. his sense of musical time is out of kilter with mine. Also, no melodic sense, noodly soloing, RANDOM CHORD CHANGES, etc etc. "X" is pretty good though. Of course if Tangerine Dream had never existed I would probably appreciate him a lot more.

I've hit an impasse as well with him too - as you mention Tangerine Dream just feels more interesting, with compositions that make more sense and sounds that feel a bit fresher. I too love most of X (especially "Ludwig von Bayern") but find even the "good" albums like Timewind a bit of a slog (and he's a prick for ending "Bayreuth Return" that way). Maybe someday.

i think maybe i need to give this stuff another try

wish i could find affordable reissue of cyborg ...

i highly recommend "angst" if you're into jan hammer / tangerine dream early-80s synth soundtracks. it's tough.

fittingly angst is my new favorite

http://newage-music.ru/uploads/posts/2013-04/1366487319_b001.jpg

got the cyborg reissue yesterday ... don't sleep!

what is that picture from?

is there a sign on that dummy saying 'not to scale'?

what cyborg reissue? i bought one about 5 years ago and have noticed the prices have doubled in the meantime.

what is that picture from?

Here I guess: http://dangerousminds.net/comments/where_will_frank_zappa_faust_and_other_progrockers_go_when_tokyo_wax_museum

cyborg cd reissue (i know, CDs lol)

http://www.amazon.com/Cyborg-Klaus-Schulze/dp/B0142YXX94/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_1

oh, that is new, as in tomorrow 8) - "Audio CD (November 13, 2015)"

'currently unavailable' on amazon.co.uk, but there were some for approaching £30 last time i looked (like the irrlicht is on amazon.com) so reissues are welcome

all those 70s records are so freakin good

I interviewed Schulze (via email) for the new issue of The Wire and the response on the official KS website is maybe the greatest praise I've ever received as a writer.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DknJDOIU0AAQI2O.jpg

excellent!

Wow, really enjoying the 'Tonwelle' album he released as Richard Wahnfried in 1981. Very trance-y. Kind of like a more propulsive 'Dreamtime Return' with Manuel Gottsching noodling over the top (I like both those things). And it actually is Gottsching on the record too.

I was one of the unfortunate people who bought the not-actually-time-corrected "time corrected" 2xCD version so I've never actually heard this album the way it's intended to be heard

Wasn't there a rumor that Carlos Santana played on this? Likely started because of the involvement of Michael Shrieve, I assume

I've loved 'Time Actor' and 'Tonwelle' for so long, but never heard any Wahnfried albums from after that. Looking at discogs, I didn't even know there were so many others. Not completely enticed to try an album called "Drum 'n Balls" tbf

anyone picked up those "la vie electronique" sets? i am interested but dunno if they're worth bothering with.

― cut-off jeans, skinnydipping, and "getting weird" (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Tuesday, April 7, 2009 12:13 PM (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

12 years late but volumes 3-6 are the ones I remember liking a lot at the time. I can't remember if 5 or 6 was my favorite, must revisit, but it was one of those. Bumping this because I found a reasonably priced copy of the vinyl reissue of Vol 1 and, eh, I'm just not as much into the early, pre-sequencer stuff, I guess. I don't especially enjoy the pre-Phaedra Tangerine Dream albums either, though, so I may not be the key demographic for zero gravity proto-dark ambient