Klaus Schulze Vanity of Sounds (Reissue)

Now who said that this re-issue business wasn't going to be any big thing…………. wrong. Having just received a copy of 'Vanity of Sounds' l first of all noticed that it's number 84 in the series!!!! This means that if the re-issues are released at their current rate of say twelve or sixteen per year, we will still be sat here doing retrospective reviews until 2012 at least!!!

Onto the album itself and rest assured that this is a CD that's gonna' be snapped up like discount thermal underpants at the South Pole by Schulze devotee's. 'Vanity of Sounds' was originally released in the year 2000 forming part of the now deleted 10CD collection, 'Contemporary Works volume 1' ,( which also acted as a debut release for Klaus on his newly founded Rainhorse label). Sadly no bonus tracks are to be found on this one due to the fact that Klaus had already completely filled the CD with music leaving no room for any new additions. This fact shouldn't concern many of you as l'm sure that most, (myself included) will regard the whole album as a bonus in its own right now that you don't have to buy a whole expensive box set just to hear that one true solo Schulze CD,( the remainder of the set being predominantly a collaborative work).

'Vanity of Sounds' is a thoroughly modern sounding outing from Klaus presented here in a gatefolded card slipcase with inlaid quality transfers of the artwork, the accompanying 16 page booklet containing many photos of Klaus from the era with his 'big wall' of modular synths. He doesn't really tell us much if anything about the making of the album itself in his short write up in the sleevenotes which is abit of a shame, so lets move on to the all important music.

The title track at just over seventeen minutes gets things off to an excellent start, instantly reminding me of Otarian in its sonic stylisation. It's a majestic sounding piece with a rhythm that skips lightly by at the five minute mark continuing throughout the piece. There's no great compositional development in the track, there is however a great deal going on in the mix that you may miss at first listen. Lots of little resonant tweaks and all kinds of minor alterations in the percussion department hold the listeners attention. As a track l have to say that it's all alittle unSchulzelike, maybe he'd picked up some minor influences from his collaborative friends along the way!!! In any case, a 'sound' compositional piece building very subtlety to an intense level that just gradually creeps up on you. Those unmistakable chord progressions being the only great give away that tells you it's Schulze.

The first track then segues into, 'Sacred Romance'(23.12). Early on a good beefy undulating little sequence gets things off to a flying start,( which stays with the track for it's complete duration). An awkward sounding electric lead guitar sample improvises away in a very picky manner in the opening section. The drums playing an important part in this piece as they strike on and off the beat in a laid back cyclical fashion. Mid track everything is stripped down to that undulating sequence alone, but l'm getting the feeling that the track is lacking that little something that it needs to pull the whole thing together. That something arriving in the form of a nicely filtered analogue sounding lead which cuts in dancing its way over the newly augmented sequence. The drums return before the soloing switches to acoustic guitar in the last four minutes. It's a development l suppose, but not enough to make me feel that more couldn't have been done with the track to give the impression that it might be leading somewhere. As it is leaving me with the feeling that maybe it's more of an overextended bridging section lacking the poise of the more vibrant title track.

'The Wings of String'(14.47) is without a doubt gonna' be the highlight of the album for most all of you SMDers,( and if not, why not? Whats wrong with you?). A suitably strange garbled intro leads into a modulated low key arpeggiation which is soon pushed off centre stage by a big big resonant bass which plays a slow plodding sequence sounding like Chris Franke has dropped in for a spot of therapeutic sequencing!!! By the four minute mark we are flying as a high register 'Logo's' style arpeggiation pushes the piece into a whole new dimension,( l'd better just check those sleevenote credits again to make sure it's not Chris Franke!!!). Immediately l'm sat here thinking "isn't this just the kind of thing T.D. ought to be doing these days???". The percussion remains restrained throughout with little accents thrown in here and there. All sounding abit dark and cinematically subversive l could be listening to the work of Dominic Scab, but again there's no great development of ideas here in the latter part of the track, channels being faded in and out of the piece and that's about it, shame. No doubt many of you will be reaching for the replay button though.

Now how's this for a weird intro, 'From Words to Silence'(23.26) kicks off with the sound of very heavily vocoded voice reciting Shakespeare's 'To be or not to be' speech from Hamlet as a mid paced contemporary drum sequence ticks over!!!!! Weird……you've got it. The rhythm becomes alittle more complex and at the same time intense as the vocoded voice becomes almost subliminal and fragmented during the mid section of the piece. With twelve minutes left some sonic blasts clear the musical air for just the string chords to swim around and l think we're into that territorial area known as ambient. A beautifully melancholy analogue synth picks out a solo harking back to the halcyon days of the seventies, it's quite simply fabulous ending way too soon. The improvisational voice changes to a hollow sounding synth in the closing minutes as faint synthetic swashes are to be heard in the background, how very relaxing this all is.