Schulze, Klaus - 1979 - 1024-Live At Stokvishal, Arnhem

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Richard Wahnfried - 1981 - Tonwelle

This 1981 album, on CD for the first time, is something of an enigma. The cover proclaims the music to be "composed by Klaus Schulze," failing to make it clear that Richard Wahnfried is the famous German electronic musician Klaus Schulze operating under a pseudonym. The album consists of four lengthy tracks, 13 to 18 minutes, mainly exercises in fusing high-energy synthesizer music with wailing acid-rock lead guitar heroics. Amphetamine sequencers, metallic synth chords, merciless drum machines, monster guitar riffing, palpitating basslines, and vocals on "Angry Young Boys" (sung by Arthur Brown of "Fire" fame) make this an endurance test for all but the most die-hard heavy rock aficionados. The saving grace here is the high-speed but fluid drumming of Michael Shrieve who shines on "Druck (Pressure)" (a Musical Starstreams feature), which sounds like it came from the 1986 album Transfer Station Blue.

		1		Schwung [Momentum]	Schulze, Wahnfried	17:04
		2		Druck [Pressure]	Schulze, Wahnfried	18:35
		3		Angry Young Boys [*]	Schulze, Wahnfried	13:27
		4		Rich Meets Max [*]	Schulze, Wahnfried	14:00

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Schulze, Klaus - 1975 - Picture Music

Though recorded in August 1973 (shortly after Cyborg), Picture Music was not released until January 1975. The album contains two side-long mantras of electronic meditation, "Totem" and "Mental Door." The first begins with a quiet bubbling of bells (very similar to Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells") that is soon pushed into the subconscious by a series of percussive blips and synthetic splashes, accompanied soon after by occasional wisps of ghostly synthesizers. Not until the end of the piece do the percussive pinpricks relent, yielding to a wash of effects and the austere energy plasma sounds that marked Tangerine Dream's work from this period. The sum effect of "Totem" is frankly underwhelming -- both the improvised nature of the music and its limited sonic palette are likely to draw the fire of electronica's critics, although as a focal point of meditation the piece is not without merit. "Mental Door" is more agitated in tone, led by a sinister-sounding keyboard that ensnares the listener like a snake charmer. The frenzied drum playing that appears midway through is fairly impressive, but like Vangelis' Hypothesis, the music's avant-jazz overtones haven't aged especially well, and aren't exactly conducive to meditation (which would seem to be Klaus Schulze's main attraction). Picture Music is more percussive and limited in scope and effect than the work of Tangerine Dream, a vantage point from which many may be approaching Schulze's work. The album has been re-issued a number of time over the years (resulting in two different versions of cover art), including a digitally remastered compact disc available as a Dutch import.

		1		Totem	Schulze	23:34
		2		Mental Door	Schulze	23:03

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