Klaus Schulze In Blue (Rerelease) Please go to the Store to buy this item.

I take it Klaus had been listening in on Dave Law's rants about CD's total playing times when this set was put together, now featuring as it does three and a half hours of music!!! Klaus also mentions in the sleevenotes that the original recordings were not remastered by himself or that anyone else down the production chain should have been tampering with his music, which is good news indeed after all the little glitches and imbalances of the first batch of re-issues.

As for the original release of 'In Blue', it marked a true return to the studio for Klaus, doing synth music in his own inimitable style with a total disregard for any tracks that may run anything under a week in length!!!! With the fans in mind Schulze produced an album that pandered to their needs. The album, sounding thoroughly modern, certainly has classic Schulze stamped all over it, the epic tracks presented here having a rather grandiose, but ambient feel to them. Further to this, Schulze threw Manuel Gottsching into the mix for good measure,(for a spot of plank spanking along the way), instantly assuring the albums success in the process providing the listener with 2/3rds of Ash Ra Tempel to enjoy if nothing else!!! A sure fire hit for most any fan.

'In Blue' was originally a double CD album released in 1995 which is now re-issued with not just a bonus track or two, but a whole extra CD of live recordings, the 'In Blue' set now spanning three discs!!! The re-issue is presented in a double gate leg card folder with all artwork reproduced once again utilising high quality inlaid transfers. The enclosed 16 page booklet provides photos of Schulze from the era, a section of interview with the great man himself in 2004, and also a two page write up about the making of the album.

The 'In Blue' set is not an overly complicated affair, its themes, motifs and rhythms rising to the surface in various guises throughout the first two discs. The foundation of many of the pacier sequencer sections being derived from the same basic sequence line. Careful placing of these building blocks various providing us with over two and a half hours of thrilling music. Music which puts a foot equally into both ambient and upbeat territories.

'Into the Blue' (78.25) gets things off the ground. It's a single track subdivided into five other titled sections which play as one continuous piece,( this being a common trait of the other tracks on the album). The blue theme unravels before us with languid ease as synth strings and pads plot out the soundbed upon which all else will be built. Klaus weaves around the stately calm with the sound of fretless bass, until at the 12 minute mark, Bam!!! He hits you with the albums secret weapon, a beautiful cathedral choir set of samples, which have been worked upon to fit the music perfectly. It lifts the track completely as it mixes with the synthetic backdrop. If Schulze is regarded as the Pope of the electronic world, this most surely has to be a favourite hymn.

Unannounced the 20 minute,'Blowin' the Blues Away' arrives, hammering out it's own course over the continuing chords with an edgy sequence and percussives breaking the ambient mood. Kettle drums strike as Klaus picks out leads with harp, woodwind and brass, at times veering dangerously close to that Jan Hammer/Miami Vice sound. 'Blue Moods' returns us to the feel of the opening section acting as a kind of bridge into, 'Wild and Blue' which for the next 35 minutes has the sequencer/percussion interplay returning with a greater sense of urgency. A picked bass note and more aggressive sounding drums dance across the soundfield as Schulze plays out a lead line with sampled saxophone. The whole mood becoming a more weighty affair – loud and punchy, not unlike his work on En=Trance.

At the halfway mark, Schulze surprises us again by switching to a typically Chris Franke type polyrhythmic sequence, Klaus now taking up the lead with sampled guitar. A slight refrain follows, nothing really dying down until we hit, 'Out of the Blue', a short 3 minute section designed to close proceedings.

In goes the second CD for, 'Return of the Tempel' . A 44 minute opus featuring Manuel Gottsching on guitar. The first 9 minute section, 'Midnight Blue' has both Klaus and Mr. Gottsching doing their level best on the guitar front, strumming away, performing a kind of warm up/prelude to the 28 minutes of the section entitled, 'Return to the Tempel'.

Not a million miles away from the pacier sections of disc one, things don't take too long to get into gear. Manuel sounds ready to get into some serious guitar heroics immediately, but has to hold back as Klaus's steady keyboard developments require more time to take shape. By the eighth minute we're really motoring along, Klaus using a sampled saxophone once more as a lead against the guitar work. The Frankesque sequencing pops up again amidst proceedings whilst Manuel takes care of things wailing and screaming his way to the close of the piece on electric lead guitar. 'Blue Spirits' serves to calm things down again whilst the final section, 'True Blue',(1.40) winds events up in a way so bizarrely that it's only a guy like Schulze that can really get away with this kind of synthetic tomfoolery.

Without a break, 'Serenade in Blue',(34.19) segues in, reprising themes from the more relaxed moments of the disc one set, like an alternative, more laid back mix. With the exception of the kettle drums, the rest of the percussives are more restrained. Only in the third section, 'Blue Hour' do the drums become a little heavier, but by the time the 5 minute closing section, 'Serenade' has run its course the choral samples are just beginning to sound a little tired and over used. One of the greatest albums Vangelis never recorded? Well maybe……………… all very anthemic.

Quickly onto the bonus CD of live work. Three tracks, 53 minutes. The first of the tracks,'Musique Abstract(live)',(7.02) has a distinctly bootleggy feel to it as Klaus dispenses a little wit with the audience introducing this encore piece. The second track,'Return of the Tempel 2(live)',(13.51) is an excellent piece of modern electronica. Drifting string pads moving into a more rhythmic section featuring tons of riffs, percussives, dramatic filtering FX and Mr. Gottsching on guitar. All in all sounding like an electronic funk jamming session by the time it ends. Where's Herbie Hancock when you need him???

'Out of the Blue 2(live),(32.20) seems like an inappropriate title for this piece as its not remotely like anything from the original 'In Blue' album set. Not that l'm complaining for one split second though as what we have here is a live recording of 'Cellistica' from the 'Audentity' album. It's a brilliant recording of brilliant music, but with no audience interaction at either end of the piece it sounds just like a chunk of studio work, it sounds that good!!!!!