Immense and calm just like the Mediterranean sea
andrei turcu | cluj-napoca, romania | 03/26/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Another masterpiece from this titan! The music is so easy, relaxing and refreshing (the 1'st movement), becomes divine in the 2'nd movement (which is one of my favourite--> notice the brilliant digital processing of human voice which sounds celestial, from another world, like a mysterious soprano born to sing only this few notes!). After more that 20 years of carrer (this was in 1991) Schulze does not grow old, but takes advantage of the new technology to enrich his sound."
Klaus Schulze in a Mellow Mood!!!
Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 08/21/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"German electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze ushered in the '90s with "Miditerranean Pads", his 16th solo album. For this project, Klaus adopted heavy usage of sampling alongside percussive and orchestral elements. In comparison to his classic work in the 70s, "Miditerranean Pads" has a more subdued sound but is still full of aggression. The musical style heard here would become the norm for Klaus until the mid to late 90s when he would adopt a more rhythmic techno approach.
The disc includes only three tracks but each of them are extremely lengthy and together are like one piece. The opening track "Decent Changes" runs for over a half-hour and runs at a moderate tempo throughout. The lush atmospheric sounds and sampled orchestral elements add a warm relaxing mood to the piece.
The title track is the album's shortest at 14 minutes. Here, there is no rhythm just heavy orchestrated sounds alongside operatic sampled vocals courtesy of Klaus's wife Elfi Schulze. This track brings to mind the music of Wagner and/or Richard Strauss.
The final track "Percussion Planante" runs for 25 minutes and features various sampled percussion sounds in the foreground. In addition to the percussion, an aggressive piano line is also up front here alongside more orchestral sounds and a slightly funky bassline.
While it is not in the same classic status as "Timewind", "Moondawn" or "Mirage", "Miditerranean Pads" is still a fine effort. The entire album is like a symphony with two extended allegro movements (Tracks 1 and 3) and an adagio in the middle (Track 2). The newly remastered reissue includes enhanced artwork, rare photos and commentary from Klaus Schulze himself. While there are no bonus tracks, the track "Decent Changes" is two minutes longer than what was on the original CD and the sound quality on the entire disc is amazing.
"Miditerranean Pads" finds Klaus Schulze moving from synthesizer wizard to serious composer and in my opinion, he did an excellent job here!!!
Recommended Schulze from the '90s!!!"