"Klaus Schulze’s Live is a stunning musical journey over the best era of analog EM"
CDI 1 Bellistique 21:20 2 Sense 51:00 CDII 1 Heart 30:53 2 Dymagic 29:21 3 Le Mans au Premier (Bonus Track) 17:58 SPV 78832 DCD - REV 076 (150:32)
Manikin Records – MRCD 7008
(Berlin School) (V.F.)
Ouf !! Those who find my reviews a bit too long will want to cut out my head. But how can one be short of words in front of such a monument? This LIVE by Klaus Schulze is more than just a live album. This is a first anthology that harmonizes the most creative analog era in EM, which subtly directs its musical structure towards the sharper rhythms of the beginning of its digital era, while digital music is in its infancy. A double CD for two worlds that merge on a delicate paradox that only a visionary like Schulze could create in the most electronic harmonies. Recorded at the height of the electronic minimalism movement in Berlin in 1976, the CD 1 begins with a shower of applause lasting more than 90 seconds. Schulze the conqueror dominates the art and his audience does it well. We hear a Klaus Schulze, alert and dreamy, flooding his field with minimalist rhythm by sulphurous synth solos that get lost in the nebulous mists of its structural changes. All the material of the sequencers movements which have marked the measures of Timewind to X, is present there. A superb collection that shows the genius of a single man at the controls of an array of synths and sequencers. And in a context where those instruments were analog and designed for improvisation, it shows again Klaus Schulze's genius and know-how.
Bellistique attacks the sense of hearing with an aggressive sequencer and percussion samplings with sharp and jerky strikes. Early, the synth becomes monarch and draws an unbridled melody where solos contort in an improvised musical exhilarating. The rhythm is furious, and no one falls asleep because Klaus Schulze brings the nuances needed with subtle modulations in the tones that shape an ambivalent structure. Even on this remaster, one can feel the reshaping of the C-90 tapes working, as he recorded each of his concerts, to reform the Bellistic finale on a space sea where cosmic breaths flood the bows of violins designed and modulated with the Mellotron by the creator of X. As on Manikin Records, this new edition of LIVE offers the integral of Sense, an epic title of 51 minutes which embraces all the spheres of the repertoire of Schulze who at the time worked on Body Love. Harald Grosskopf's work on drums is impressive, but what impresses the most is the performance of Schulze himself. Alone, he fills our ears. Not just in tones but in creativity. And it's not the retouching in the studio that make the album better, because those who own the bootlegs of this era are able to see the versatility, the subtlety of structures and the genius of Schulze's compositions. As far as I am concerned, Sense is the ultimate reference in the field of EM from this era. No other artist has been so far in the design and interpretation of musical structures as Klaus Schulze.
Recorded in Paris and Amsterdam in 1979, the CD 2 plunges us to the sharper sounds of the mellotrons, orchestras and sequencers with carillon percussions. With its thin atomic pulsations embedded in a veil of a mellotron that intensifies its opacity, Heart's dark, floating introduction may seem long. This movement is important in the history of EM, because it is the precursor of several velletic movements with planing harmonies. I am thinking in particular of Steve Roach and Michael Stearns. The sensitive modulations of this opening are transformed into a stratosphere of strata with a Klaus Schulze who loops his solos in a hypnotic and haunting atmosphere. The second part of Heart unveils a Schulze at the crossroads of its similar floating art, towards the more rhythmic one and animated by a more digital essence. Glockenspiels, percussions and bass-drum as well as a Mellotron flute with Arabic essences, the fusion is perfect and shows this quiet rise of the German musician towards Dig It, Audentity and the superb Dziekuje Poland. Musically very interesting with its long minimalist career, Dymagic is the first collaboration between Klaus Schulze and Arthur Brown. This amazing union finds all its magic on a crazy upward race of the sequencer and its unbridled rhythm. Brown is on the pace and follows Schulze admirably in the darkest corners of the madness of his crushed and unruly rhythms. His voice is powerful and imbued with a disproportionate passion, equal to the structural contortions of a title with the amazing intersections of the sequencer. This new edition offers a bonus title recorded at Abbaye de l'Epau, France, November 10, 1979. Very inspired by the atmosphere that reigned there, Klaus Schulze delivers a good floating ode with a cosmic fragrance of an unheard serenity. A superb movement that floats with tenderness on good rhythmic modulations for an ascent to a much more lively structure. According to the booklet, this is the first part of the concert. The other part would be available on the reissue of Dune. Does KDM have the Froese Syndrome? It seems obvious to me that he's trying to get even more money out of Klaus Schulze's fans by offering an incomplete title with a fade out that a 15-year-old teenager is able to do in the middle of an aggressive synth solo. At trying to do much you indeed end up doing too much. That being said, it doesn't spoil the magnificence of this superb double cd. Once again, Revisited Records puts all the gum into it by offering a nice booklet that complements Schulze's great story. If you own the edition of Manikin Records, this reissue is not a necessity ... except for the booklet. You've been warned...;-)
Sylvain Lupari (August 29th, 2007) *****