Search - Klaus Schulze :: Essential 1972-93

The best overview of a very prolific career...

06/24/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Klaus Schulze, veteran of the first incarnation of Tangerine Dream and the 'kosmische musik' trio Ash Ra Tempel, has had quite a career over the decades. This double CD set starts during his tenure with the latter act, with the solo + orchestral music of "Irrlicht", and ends up 20+ years later with an excerpt from a live concert at Cologne Cathedral. Throughout, one can hear Schulze's music as it develops from the typical drone/electronic/buzz of many of the early German experimentalists, through his sequencer-driven trance workouts, and into a complex and very expressionistic late period where he paints with a broad and dramatic musical brush. The only flaw here is that the works, as they appear here, are chopped up; to really appreciate Schulze's work, it really needs to be taken in full doses. In excerpts, it's sort of like taking the 'neat parts' of, say, a Beethoven symphony as being 'suitable listening'."

Wildly uneven, but worth owning

J.M. Leonard | wheaton, il. United States | 03/12/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Like most "Best Of" compilations, "Essential" contains stuff that is truly great and some pieces that had me scratching my head. Myself, I find the first disk markedly more satisfying. ( which is the seventies pieces, what does that tell ya? ) Unlike the previous reviewer, I always felt Schulze's music usually runs far too long, so I wasn't too taken aback by these "excerpts". ( which is what many of these pieces are.) The pieces which make this purchase worthwhile are the opening five minutes of "Irrlicht"(Startling! ), "Floating",( beautiful ) "Ludwig Von Bayern" ( WOW!)"Freezing"( beautiful and haunting ) "Stardancer" and "Sounds and Silences" Others fall short like "Miditeranean Pads", which starts of quite nice, but the synthesized voices sound TOO much as such and don't evoke the tropical paradise it tries so hard to do. "Death of an Analouge's" funeral march is twice as long as needed and gets tiresome. The final track is an allegedly "live" chaotic mess which sounds like was composed on the spot to force everybody out of the auditorum with bleeding ears. But, like I said, about half this stuff is worth keeping, but I can think of full albums which are more satifysing, namely "Entrance" "Dune" and "Mirrage", none of which are featured here."