Keller & Schonwalder
The Reason Why... Live at Jodrell Bank
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(Excerpt from track 'Firewalker')
OK, first comment, this is a stunning CD recorded at our last concert at Jodrell Bank this year. After these gigs I often get comments that it was the best concert ever held there but on this occasion the opinion seemed fairly universal, it was a magical evening. Keller & Schonwalder would have played all night (actually I had to virtually drag them off stage so the Jodrell Bank staff could go home) and there wasn't a bum moment. There was easily enough music there for a double CD and this is my only gripe. It should have been a double CD, every moment was essential, nothing should have been left out. What we have here is the first section and the second and third encores. The unforgivable bit is that the second section has been ignored yet this was probably the best bit of the concert! And the first encore was ignored and that was the best encore! When you listen to this CD you will be in for a treat but if you could only hear the rest of it, ahhh! A more minor gripe is that it would have been nice to keep in some of the banter with the audience because these guys are good entertainers and it was rather funny (Germans do have a sense of humour!). Unfortunately it would have required an audience recording incorporating and this might have been too difficult. OK I've got that off my chest I will review what remains - still a classic.

Right from the very first seconds this CD screams class. The ethereal floating waves of sound are simply beautiful. We get some NASA samples giving the whole thing a cosmic feel but what really does it for me are the perfectly timed only faintly melodic additional washes of sound and sympathetic flutey synth lead lines which are caressed over the top. Space music simply doesn't get any better than this. The feeling then changes slightly, the lead lines being extremely Schulzian at his most subtle. They grab hold of you and drag you into the midst of the gentle sound-pool underneath. At just over fifteen minutes the first sequence comes in, fast, mean, head nodding stuff. It seems to come in waves then settles down to a satisfying throb. The thick melodic pads played over the top are simply majestic. This is retro heaven- but with attitude! The sounds and secondary sequences just get better and better. They somehow manage to keep all this power under control, God knows how. Its also about this time that you will probably wonder how the music they left off could be even better than this awesome offering! A rhythm is then added and now Klaus Schulze at his most blistering comes to mind. At thirty six minutes in we start to wind down as the sequences gradually sink lower in the mix, finally disappearing at about the forty minute mark leaving a few minutes of gentle but meticulous drift which takes us to the interval.

On the night we were running rather late so I gave them ten minutes for the second encore (remember the first is ignored on this CD) which they promptly told me would be twenty minutes because there were two of them. It of course ended up being even longer than that but really they could do no wrong that night. From the start we get a mixture of TD's 'Encore' atmospherics and a grandiose organ sound making it seem like we are in a roofless cathedral as we stare up at the gently moving stars. A slow moody sequence starts up and the organ sound fades away. The lead line is melancholy and the slow plodding sequence creates an almost thoughtful frame of mind. Sounds of thunder give a feeling as if we are on the edge of apocalypse.

The next lead line they use is again very reminiscent of Schulze but could even the master come up with something so emotionally spot on? Things become hypnotic and trance like so much so that you don't even hear the piano lead until it has already been around for a minute of so it just slots into the natural rhythm of the track so perfectly.The third encore begins with a massive metallic sounding drone from which the celestial organ emerges and it is that instrument which dominates this short seven minute track. This is basically a slow number devoid of rhythm or sequence and is more like the sort of thing you might hear whilst leaving a church. Some would say rather appropriate for finishing a day which is as close as I am likely to get to a religious experience.

This has nothing to do with the CD but those who attended the concert might like to know that the artists were so drained after driving the best part of a day to get here then almost immediately setting up their equipment and playing for two hours that they couldn't drive any further thus crashed out in Jodrell Bank car park for the night! That's what I call dedication.

In the booklet Detlef and Mario explain why they called this CD 'The Reason Why....' It is a great title and also sums it up for me. This sort of music is the reason why I run SMD and put on the concerts. (DL)

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