Any Klaus Schulze fans out there?
Posted by: Simon-in-Suffolk on 05 January 2014
I recently started to discover Schulze's music. I guess it's Electronica meets Musique Concrete if that's not an understatement.. However many of his albums are massively expensive on CD or LP and many only available second hand if you can get them at all. So this also instantly raises an appeal.
I see his music has been occasionally mentioned on these forums over the years..
So for any Klaus Schulze fans out there can you recommend a path through his discography and why?
Simon
Stone me Simon - big subject!
Firstly, price. Schulze's early back catalogue was remastered and re-released by SPV's historical label Revisited. They had access to Schulze's archives and so each re-issue came jammed with first rate additional material as well as beautifully mastered.
They also did a similar job with Popul Vuh and, to a lesser extent (because there was less archive stuff to get at) with Amon Duul 2.
Sadly, the subsidiary went bust a tear or so ago and as a result the Schulze stuff has become ruinously expensive.
The first solo album after leaving Ash Ra Tempel was Irrlicht, which is his most experimental krautrocky album. Thereafter it's sequencers set to stun for several years. From my point of view (I love that sort of stuff) you can't go wrong up to and including Audentity (the SPV Revisited release of that is a double, with the additional disk being even better than the original in my opinion).
Other stand-outs for me are Mirage, X and Body Love (soundtrack to a Swedish bongo movie, though you'd never know it) though they're all great if you get with the sequencing thing.
A bit different is Dune. Side one is more like a Tangerine Dream track from the time and side two features Arthur Brown (yes that one) declaiming away over the music. It's very Marmite. I like Marmite.
After Audentity (1983) he lost me, through no fault of his own, though the move to digital synths didn't help. Until this year.
I heard the release (on a Russian label) of his mid-70s collaboration with guitarist Günter Schickert. It's brilliant and for the first time this is available from the original tapes and not a hiss-drenched boot (which is where this clip is from)
Then someone thrust Shadowlands at me, which he released this year. I was dubious, as I'd heard it was rather lifeless. I was wrong, though it's not really like old school Schulze, more ambient, and with some wordless vocalisations from the likes of Lisa Gerrard (with whom he's been doing a lot of work recently).
It's excellent. There's a double CD version still available that's well worth getting.
As ever, you'll find a zillion differing opinions that will disagree with me 
Then there's Ash Ra Tempel, Cosmic Jokers, and Go....but they are different stories altogether.
Hi Simon,
i've purchased a couple of KS albums along the way, X, and Mirage, lucky vinyl purchases while they were at bargain prices a few years ago. I particularly like the eeriness, passion, and direction the music goes, fascinating music.
The LP subject here should be irrelevant, it's musically superb but imo it lends itself to CD and digital formats so one can enjoy without interruptions of getting up to flip records over which can break ones trance so to speak, and not to mention the raw grittiness of the poor vinyl pressing on my X double album.
I suppose the vinyl availability of KS’s musik is a throwback to the 70s when the LP was the chosen format of the time, just hope CD offerings have been lovingly mastered with respectable sonic Qs...
Nice write up by Gary above, seems like I’ve got two of Klaus's better albums but I’m looking forward to exploring more of his work on CD.
Debs