Klaus Schulze Le Moulin de Daudet Please go to the Store to buy this item.

The final album up for scrutiny from the first batch of SPV Schulze re-issue's is the 1994 release, 'Le Moulin De Daudet'. It is a soundtrack album, (no don't switch off immediately. There once was a little known German group called, rather bizarrely Tangerine Dream – yes, l know, a silly name!! Some of their most enjoyable material was to be found on their movie soundtracks). Schulze recorded this material a little earlier in 1992 for this, a French movie. He worked closely with the films director, Samy Pavel who became obsessed with the music that Schulze was able to magic out of thin air to fit perfectly with the films rough cut sequences, (Samy Pavel having already utilized Schulze's music from the album, 'X' in a previous film). Schulze explains in the sleevenotes that the two of them seemed to have a meeting of minds whilst working together on this particular project, the music coming very easily to Schulze, Pavel the director giving Schulze a free hand to record whatever he felt was right.

The CD album is presented in a double gate leg card folder with all of the original artwork reproduced as per the 1994 release. Photographic reproduction of the cover art is presented here by high quality transfer. The enclosed 16 page booklet provides photos from the era,( including some nice snaps of his studio at the time of recording, a little something for all you tech heads out there to drool over), a section of interview with the great man himself in 2004, and also a two page write up about the making of the album. On the musical front we are treated to a 15.58min bonus track, ( all re-issues will be released with additional material, from the same era whenever possible). There are no great extended pieces here; the longest of the soundtrack cues being 6.56mins. I wont do a track by track analysis on this one as there are 21 pieces to cover, with motif's and progressions which return in several times and places as you might expect from a soundtrack.

Though Klaus had to set himself a sound palette to suit the visuals, the music is nothing if not vibrant, bursting at the seams with new idea's squeezed into each and every sound bite. Schulze tells us that the music was recorded, 'on the fly' in realtime which is quite an amazing feat considering that this is an album of such variety and depth. Indeed it could be said that this is not so much a soundtrack as a Schulzian musical exercise.

With the parameters set Klaus plays us a tale with a folkish edge, making his synthesisers sound subtle, but effective with a variety of textures. Sure the sequencers are there, but are held back in reserve and integrated with moderation, playing only traditional instrument sounds when added. The music purveys a sense of intimacy and immediacy, themes picked out with pizzicato strings, melancholy oboe and cello. Schulze tapping his way through a theme just as he does when playing over one of his real synth inspired moments, only here you can really hear all those little twists and turns which have kept Schulze in the electronic game for the last three and a half decades!! The odd kettledrum crash is thrown in as a cue point for the on screen action, (an excellent little tool that Vangelis has employed very effectively on countless soundtracks since the dawn of time).

Schulze's playing remains fluid, hammered out with a sense of conviction that holds your attention. Everything is bathed in a soothing wash of reverb as even some of the harder drum sounds drift away into the background. I'm thinking that this could so easily have been a Vangelis release, whilst there are also some surprisingly weighty moments here that tell us it could not.

The bonus on this disc comes in the form a rather up-tempo track; at 15.58min 'The Ion Perspective' is from a limited run promotional CD recorded in early 2004. Utilising the Alesis Ion synthesiser this is a promotional Schulze track that sounds like it was destined to be on an album rather than as a music fair giveaway. Sounding very much like the group Faithless from the very start the track moves along briskly, never exploding into the great anthemic dance track it could so easily have been. The trumpet lead swaggers its way through the piece looking for a direction, though to the very last seeming out of place as some wonderfully big synth sounds buzz around in the background which could have oh so easily taken its place.

'Le Moulin De Daudet' is everything you might expect a Schulze album to be, with perhaps an extra dynamic thrown in here or there to suit the visuals. OK, no great long extended pieces here, but given that this is a soundtrack l think that's perfectly acceptable. Overall, the production job on the CD is astoundingly good, ( which once again has me scratching my head over what went wrong with the 'Mirage' re-issue). The recording's clarity is excellent, due in no small part to the simple fact that most all of the musical cues recorded here were done in a single take, which is even more astounding.