Klaus Schulze Live @ Klangart CD1

Compact Disc / 4 tracks / 70.13 mins

People who thrill at seeing a musician surrounded by bank upon bank of knobs illuminated by LED's will love the artwork as you get page after page of it (24 full glossy ones to be precise). Both pictures and music are taken from his recent KlangArt Festival performance in Osnabruck.

The first track is rather appropriately called 'Breeze to Sequence'. We get garbled chattering vocal samples amidst all manner of twittering cosmic effects. The rhythm comes in on the back of an explosion which then merges with a sequence which has Klaus' signature all over it. Ethereal pads provide a tranquil backdrop to the pulsations as they mutate. The style will be familiar to what you will find on his recent works but there are frequent moments which takes me back twenty years. The sequences and rhythms subside from time to time to give the lead lines plenty of room to let rip, at times sounding almost manic and at others becoming rather tender. We growl straight into 'Loops to Groove'- initially rather demonic sounding then a slow loping rhythm strikes up- it hits the spot perfectly taking you along in its relaxed groove. A lovely melancholy lead joins it sounding like a cross between brass and strings. Its kept relatively low in the mix and has an exquisite delicate quality to it but even so it demands your attention. With six minutes to go we get some female wailing effects which I could have done without but they stay around for a very short period and are replaced by some excellent understated lead doodles which make an ideal compliment to the laid back mood.

As we drift into 'From Church to Search' everything changes, cosmic effects and chants create a very atmospheric beginning. A high hat line splashes over the top and complex rhythms form around everything else. Its like being in a church but only vaguely concentrating on the proceedings whilst your mind darts this way and that. With ten minutes to go everything descends to calm then the high hat returns providing some structure around which the track reforms. One of the lead lines does sound rather Cello like but Wolfgang Tiepold is only credited on the second CD (though he does appear in the artwork on the first) so I will assume that it was synthesized but there do seem to be three lead lines weaving around each other- maybe just Klaus being extremely clever. During the last four minutes we get the chants returning fitting in nicely amongst the delicate and carefully woven backing. We then get a wall of deep pads which replace everything else and take us to the end. A light breezy sort of skipping sequence immediately propels 'I Loop You Schwinderlig' forwards. A bright rhythm joins it in typical Schulze style. Its as if light is sparkling over boiling water with rainbows being seen through the rising steam. This is a track that is full of energy and yet the host of pulsations and beats are kept under tight control giving a feeling of space rather than clutter which adds to its subtle beauty still further. After a bit the mind becomes mesmerized as you are taken into a state of trance. More detail is added during the last ten minutes of this twenty eight minute monster but even so I did think that it went on a tad too long but this is only a minor quibble and I know that many a Schulze fan could listen to this sort of thing forever. (DL)

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