Search - Klaus Schulze :: Virtual Outback

Klaus Schulze
Virtual Outback
Genres: Dance & Electronic, New Age, Pop

Track Listings (2) - Disc #1
1. The Theme: The Rhodes Elegy
2. Chinese Ears (bonus track)

CD Details

All Artists: Klaus Schulze
Title: Virtual Outback
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Revisited Records
Original Release Date: 1/1/2008
Re-Release Date: 3/4/2008
Genres: Dance & Electronic, New Age, Pop
Styles: Ambient, Electronica, Trance, Techno, Dance Pop
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 693723057026

Synopsis

Product Description

In 2002 Klaus Schulze released the second part of his box set series Contemporary Works . Virtual Outback is the first of five CD's from this set, which was only available online and has been sold out for a long time. Virtual Outback is now available with a new booklet including updated liner notes and the bonus track 'Chinese Ears', which Klaus recorded for the China Millenium Show in Beijng.

Klaus Schulze first attracted attention as a member of the German progressive rock band, Tangerine Dream. Following the release of their debut LP, Electronic Meditation, he departed for a solo career. Klaus' recorded work typically features extended pieces sometimes filling an entire album built around computer-generated synthesizers and other specially programmed electronic effects. Klaus Schulze remains a cult figure in the United States, where the bulk of his prolific output has until now been available only through the import bins. He is widely considered an avant-garde mainstay as well as a founding father of both the new-age space music and electronica genres.

CD Reviews

Karl von eckartshausen

Cruising through the ether | Arica / Chile | 07/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Von eckarsthausen is my favourite German writer on life s truths . K Schulze is my favourite german music maker after learning about him back in 2002 ( yes , im very contemporary as far as KS is ] .

Virtual outback is from the contemporary works - II - Box set from 2002 . It was a limited edition box , that started off with this extremely strong CD . This CD includes an intriguing bonus track ' Chinese ears ' .

The centerpiece is Rhodes elegy . 64 or so minutes of pure , strong , well crafted e music that could be produced these days . Peaceful at times , ethereal . Jammy and spacey . it is a fine musical proyect of KS , and i salute him on that .

Thanks

"

Elegiac Schulze

Steve Benner | Lancaster, UK | 03/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"'The Theme: The Rhodes Elegy' is probably one of the most beautifully hypnotic pieces Klaus Schulze has ever produced. From its opening minimal two and three note phrases (played in a software synthesised copy of the Rhodes Electric Piano -- hence the title), through an elegiac oboe tune that gradually develops over a growing electronic percussion pulse, the piece swells and calms repeatedly over some 65 minutes in all, each time re-emerging with slightly different instrumentation and melodic material as various guest musicians make their contributions to its progression. Easily the most structured of Schulze's large-scale works, this track is utterly beguiling from start to end and can be regarded as Schulze at his absolute best.

First released in 2002 as part of the "Contemporary Work 2" collection, 'The Rhodes Elegy' originally had a CD to itself. For this re-release, however, it has been paired with a previously unreleased work, 'Chinese Ears', part of a failed Millennium project intended for performance in the People's Republic of China. By contrast with 'The Rhodes Elegy', this track is brash, abrasive and overly rambling; the two works generally make for uncomfortable bed-fellows and personally I would have made do without the additional 15 minutes of make-weight material on this CD. The closing track really does spoil the main piece, in my opinion, leaping in as it does almost before the other has died away, and certainly before one has had to time to draw breath and recover from its effect. This is, of course, nothing that a bit of CD-player programming cannot fix but remains an annoyance nevertheless. That one niggle aside, however, this release comes close to faultless.

Schulze fans who missed out on the "Contemporary Work 2" release will simply have to have this release. Anyone else with the slightest interest in electronic music from the German 'Krautrock' school ought to have it also, so, what are you waiting for? Go for it!"