Klaus Schulze

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Biography

Klaus Schulze (born 4 August 1947) is a Germany|German electronic music composer and electronic musician|musician . He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried . He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades.

History

1970s

In 1969, Klaus Schulze was the drummer of one of the early incarnations of Tangerine Dream for their debut album Electronic Meditation . Before 1969 he was a drummer in a band called Psy Free. He met Edgar Froese from Tangerine Dream in the Zodiak Free Arts Lab|Zodiac Club in Berlin in that time West-Germany. In 1970 he left this group to form Ash Ra Tempel with Manuel Göttsching and Hartmut Enke . In 1971, he chose again to leave a newly-formed group after only one album, this time to mount a solo career. In 1972, Schulze released his debut album Irrlicht (album)|Irrlicht with organ and a recording of an orchestra filtered almost beyond recognition. Despite the lack of synthesizers, this proto-ambient work is regarded as a milestone in electronic music. The follow-up, Cyborg (album)|Cyborg , was similar but added the EMS Synthi A synthesizer.

Since this point, Schulze's career has been most prolific, and he can now claim more than 40 original albums to his name since Irrlicht . Highlights of these include 1975's Timewind , 1976's Moondawn (his first album to feature the Moog modular synthesizer ), 1979's Dune (Klaus Schulze album)|Dune , and 1995's double-album In Blue (Klaus Schulze Album)|In Blue (which featured one long track called Return To The Tempel with electric guitar contributions from his friend Manuel Göttsching of Ash Ra Tempel). In 1976, he was drafted by Japanese percussionist and composer Stomu Yamashta to join his short-lived "supergroup" Go (band)|Go , also featuring Steve Winwood , Michael Shrieve , and Al Di Meola . They released two studio albums ( Go (Go album)|Go in 1976 and Go Too in 1977) and one live album ("Live from Paris" recorded in 1976 and released in '77) which went on to become a cult favourite.

Throughout the 1970s he followed closely in the footsteps of Tangerine Dream, albeit with far lighter sequencer lines and a more reflective, dreamy edge, not unlike the ambient music of his contemporary Brian Eno . It is to be noted that some of his lighter albums are appreciated by New Age music fans, despite the fact that Schulze has always denied connections to this genre.

Klaus Schulze had a more organic sound than other electronic artists of the time. Often he would throw in decidedly non-electronic sounds such as acoustic guitar and a male operatic voice in Blackdance , or a cello in Dune and Trancefer . Schulze developed a Minimoog technique that sounds uncannily like an electric guitar, which is quite impressive in concert. Schulze often takes German events as a starting point for his compositions, a notable example being on his 1978 album X (Klaus Schulze album)|"X" (the title signifying it was his tenth album), subtitled "Six Musical Biographies", a reference to such notables as Ludwig II of Bavaria , Friedrich Nietzsche , Georg Trakl , and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach . His use of the pseudonym Richard Wahnfried is indicative of his interest in Richard Wagner , a clear influence on some albums like the aforementioned Timewind .

1980s

In the 1980s Schulze moved from analog to digital instruments, and his work accordingly became less experimental and more accessible. Although the switch to purely digital recording and instruments is evident in the style of Dig It (Klaus Schulze album)|Dig It (1980) It was not until the release of Trancefer (1981) that the shift in style became evident. Trancefer was far more obviously reliant on sequencers than previous recordings, and the resultant effect transformed Schulze's style from gentle melodic journeys to an ever-growing crescendo of music consisting of multi-layered rhythmical passages. This is particularly evident in the Trancefer 's first track "A Few Minutes After Trancefer", although the second track "Silent Running" is more reminiscent of Schulze's earlier works.

This newer style can also be found in Schulze's next release Audentity . Both "Cellistica" and "Spielglocken" are composed in a similar, sequencer based, style as Trancefer , but this is certainly not the case of all of Audentity 's tracks, indeed "Sebastian in Traum" hints towards the Operatic style to be found in some of Schulze's much later work. The predominance of sequencing can also be found in the follow-up live album '' Dziekuje Poland Live '83|Dziekuje Poland Live '83 , although it should be noted that many of its tracks are re-workings of those to be found on Audentity''. Schulze's next studio-based album Angst (soundtrack)|Angst (soundtrack to the Angst (1983 film)|namesake 1983 film ) moved away from the harshness of sharp, heavily sequenced style of the 3 previous albums and, once again, had the more "organic feel" of earlier recordings.

Another highlight of this era was En=Trance with the dreamy cut "FM Delight". The album Miditerranean Pads marked the beginning of very complex percussion arrangements that continued into the next two decades.

In 1989, German band Alphaville (band)|Alphaville released their album The Breathtaking Blue , on which Klaus Schulze was both a contributing musician (partially) and the album's producer.

1990s

Starting with Beyond Recall , the first half of the 1990s was the notorious "sample" period, when Schulze used a wide variety of pre-recorded sounds such as screeching birds and sensuous female moans in his studio albums and live performances. Sampling was such an unpopular diversion that when In Blue (Klaus Schulze Album)|In Blue was released in 1995 without samples it was hailed as a return to form. The decade also saw the release of copious amounts of previously unreleased material, of varying quality, in several limited-edition boxed sets. Some live recordings were discovered on pristine but forgotten reels of tape which had been used to provide echo in concerts.

2000s

Recently Schulze began incorporating elements of jazz and european classical music|classical music , working with more contemporary electronic dance music such as trance music|trance , and creating two opera s, the second still awaiting release. Also, in 2005 he began re-releasing his classic solo and Wahnfried albums with bonus tracks of unreleased material recorded at roughly the same time as the original works. In the last several years, Schulze has produced albums and staged numerous live appearances with Lisa Gerrard .

2010s

With the release of his fortieth album ( Big in Japan: Live in Tokyo 2010 ) in September 2010, Klaus Schulze entered his fifth decade as a solo musician. He's currently working on his next album, Shadowlands (album)|Shadowlands , to be released in 2011.

Richard Wahnfried

Richard Wahnfried , then simply Wahnfried after 1993, is the long-time and only real alias for Klaus Schulze – originally a pseudonym, later an official side project name. Seven albums were released under this name between 1979 and 1997.

The main characteristics of the Wahnfried albums (as opposed to Schulze's regular works) are:

Often being oriented towards more mainstream genres (some would say "more commercial"), such as rock music|rock , dance music|dance , techno music|techno and trance music|trance .

Always allowing for collaborative and less electronic albums, with known or unknown guest musicians performing along Schulze's synths.

The pseudonym's etymology stems from Schulze's love for Richard Wagner :

Richard, evidently from Wagner's first name. Richard is also the name of Schulze's first son.

Wahnfried ("Peace from delusion and/or madness", in German language|German ), from the name Wagner gave to Richard Wagner#Bayreuth|his villa in Bayreuth (and where he was later buried).

In his 1975 album Timewind (four years before the first alias use), Schulze had already named a track "Wahnfried 1883" (in reference to Wagner's death and burial in his Wahnfried's garden in 1883). The other track on Timewind is called "Bayreuth Return". After 1993, the albums are simply credited to "Wahnfried", and namedrop Schulze ("featuring Klaus Schulze", "Produced by Klaus Schulze").

"Wahnfried" is the only known alias of Schulze (albeit on the 1998 Tribute to Klaus Schulze album, among 10 other artists, Schulze contributed one track barely hidden behind the "Schulzendorfer Groove Orchester" pseudonym).

Discography

Albums

Schulze's concert performances are original compositions recorded live and thus listed as albums. An intensive reissue program of Schulze CDs began in 2005, with most releases having bonus tracks, and sometimes additional discs. They are published by the label Revisited Records (a division of German company InsideOut Music ), and distributed by SPV GmbH|SPV .

Year	Title	Reissued
1972	Irrlicht	2006
1973	Cyborg	2007
1974	Blackdance	2007
1975	Picture Music	2005
1975	Timewind	2006
1976	Moondawn	2005
1977	Body Love (soundtrack)	2005
1977	Mirage	2005
1977	Body Love Vol. 2	2007
1978	"X"	2005
1979	Dune	2005
1980	...Live...	2007
1980	Dig It	2005
1981	Trancefer	2006
1983	Audentity	2005
1983	Dziekuje Poland Live '83 (live)	2006
1984	Angst (soundtrack)	2005
1985	Inter*Face	2006
1986	Dreams	2005
1988	En=Trance	2005
1990	Miditerranean Pads	2005
1990	The Dresden Performance (live)
1991	Beyond Recall
1992	Royal Festival Hall Vol. 1 (live)
1992	Royal Festival Hall Vol. 2 (live)
1993	The Dome Event (live)
1994	Le Moulin de Daudet (soundtrack)	2005
1994	Goes Classic
1994	Totentag
1994	Das Wagner Desaster Live (live)	2005
1995	In Blue	2005
1996	Are You Sequenced? (live)	2006
1997	Dosburg Online (live)	2006
2001	Live @ KlangArt (live)	2008
2005	Moonlake
2007	Kontinuum
2008	Farscape (with Lisa Gerrard )
2008	Rheingold (live, with Lisa Gerrard )
2009	Dziekuje Bardzo (live, with Lisa Gerrard )
2010	Big in Japan: Live in Tokyo 2010 (live)

Richard Wahnfried albums

Composed by Schulze and performed with guest artists under alias Richard Wahnfried :

Year	Title	Reissued
1979	Time Actor
1981	Tonwelle
1984	Megatone
1986	Miditation
1994	Trancelation
1996	Trance Appeal	2007
1997	'' Drums 'n' Balls (The Gancha Dub)	2006

Boxed sets

Between 1993 and 2002 Klaus Schulze released several limited edition boxed sets, all composed of non-album material.

Year !! Title !! Discs !! Copies
1993
1995
1997
2000
2000
2002

;Notes:
:Collecting Silver , Historic , and Jubilee sets, with additional 5 discs.
:A bonus sixth disc included with the first 333 copies.

Reissues from sets

Year	Title	From
2005	Vanity of Sounds	Contemporary Works I (2000)
2006	The Crime of Suspense	Contemporary Works I (2000)
2006	Ballett 1	Contemporary Works I (2000)
2006	Ballett 2	Contemporary Works I (2000)
2007	Ballett 3	Contemporary Works I (2000)
2007	Ballett 4	Contemporary Works I (2000)
2008	Virtual Outback	Contemporary Works II (2002)
2009	La Vie Electronique 1	The Ultimate Edition (2000)
2009	La Vie Electronique 2	The Ultimate Edition (2000)
2009	La Vie Electronique 3	The Ultimate Edition (2000)
2009	La Vie Electronique 4	The Ultimate Edition (2000)
2010	La Vie Electronique 5	The Ultimate Edition (2000)
2010	La Vie Electronique 6	The Ultimate Edition (2000)
2010	La Vie Electronique 7	The Ultimate Edition (2000)
2010	La Vie Electronique 8	The Ultimate Edition (2000)
2011	La Vie Electronique 9	The Ultimate Edition (2000)
2011	La Vie Electronique 10	The Ultimate Edition (2000)

The Dark Side of the Moog series

The Dark Side of the Moog is a Klaus Schulze collaboration with Pete Namlook (joined also by Bill Laswell on volumes 4 to 7). Each title is a distortion of Pink Floyd song and album titles.

Year !! Title !! Pink Floyd Title
1994
1994
1995
1996
1996
1997
1998
1999
2002
2002
2005
2008

The Evolution of the Dark Side of the Moog is a compilation album, containing excerpts from the first 8 volumes. The series was announced as officially concluded with volume 10 when on 21 March 2005 at 14:52 Central European Time|CET , Pete Namlook sold the Big Moog synthesizer that was the symbol of the series. However, a volume 11 appeared on Namlook's website on 15 April 2008.

Collaborations

Year !! Title !! Collaborator
1970
1971
1973
1973
1973
1974
1974
1974
1974
1974
1974
1976
1976
1977
1979
1984
1984
1984
1987
2000
2000
2009

Promos

2003 Andromeda

2004 Ion

2009 Hommage à Polska (with Lisa Gerrard )

Compilations

1991 2001

1994 The Essential 72–93

1999 The Ultimate Edition#Trailer|Trailer

Lone tracks

This list includes only the tracks remaining uncollected after Lone Tracks (CD 50 of The Ultimate Edition ).

1993 "Nachtmusik Schattenhaft"– On the A Brief History of Ambient – Volume 2: Imaginary Landscapes compilation

1994 "Conquest of Paradise" – On the A Tribute to Henry (Gentleman) Maske single; Schulze was commissioned to replay the title track of 1492: Conquest of Paradise (album)| 1492 by Vangelis

2000 "MM 9" – On the The Art of Sysyphus Vol. 4 compilation

2002 "Manikin Jubilee" – On the Manikin Records: First Decade 1992–2002 compilation limited to 777 copies

2003 "CrazyShow" – on CrazyShow ( Alphaville (band)|Alphaville )

2003 "The Opium Den" – on CrazyShow ( Alphaville (band)|Alphaville )

2004 "Schrittmacher" – On the Schrittmacher: Tasty Tracks Vol. 1 compilation

2008 "Zenit" – On Sehnsucht Live ( Schiller (band)|Schiller )

2008 "Invisible Musik" - On the Muting the Noise 01 compilation

Copyright Citations

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