Irrlicht

The year was 1972 when former Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel member Klaus Schulze embarked on his lengthy solo career which continues to this day.

Although it is considered to be a pioneering classic in Electronic music today, Schulze's solo debut "Irrlicht" was not well received when it was first released 34 years ago. Many listeners (as well as members of the orchestra which Klaus used on the album) didn't quite know what to think at the time. However, the listening public finally caught up with Klaus's crazy ideas and the album has since become a blueprint for the ambient/drone genre.

Although Klaus Schulze has long been regarded as a pioneer of synthesizers, "Irrlicht" was actually created without any synths whatsoever as Klaus did not own one yet. The instruments and tools that were used were the above-mentioned orchestra as well as a primitive electric organ, a broken guitar amplifier, echo and effect devices as well as other miscellaneous objects.

"Irrlicht" is essentially an album-length piece divided into three distinct movements. The opening 23-minute movement "Ebene" opens with a giant orchestra rush which leads into a low-end organ drone centered around D-minor. As the organ drone shifts and pulsates, the orchestra creates and intense cinematic atmosphere around it. After about 10-minutes, the mood becomes more intense as Klaus brings in a dark chord sequence which builds with suspense. The panning effect as well as the shrieking background noises used towards the end of the movement add further intensity until it's all washed away by loud gong-like crash.

The crash begins the short second movement, "Gewitter". While it sounds like there is a primitive synthesizer being used on this track, it actually is Klaus using a broken-down amplifier and a rewired organ. The intense organ theme of the first movement is pushed to the backround while strange sound effects as well as various percussive sounds (which sound like cymbals, gongs and trash cans being hit while being drenched with echo) come to the forefront.

The last movement, "Exil Sils Maria", is probably the most experimental movement of the three. It begins with a dark orchestral/organ theme similar to the first movement only more forboding. This leads into an extremely avant-garde section consisting of a droning collage of backward-sounding noises and what sounds like a car motor being amplified. This section is a real treat to be heard with headphones. Afterwards, the movement shifts back to how it began with its dark organ theme.

The newly remastered edition includes a highly informative essay from Klaus Schulze himself as well as a never before released bonus track. "Dungeon" was supossedly recorded in 1976 (although there is speculation that it could have been recorded earlier in the liner notes) but is very much in the same style as the original "Irrlicht" album with its long held chords and drones.

With this said, if you've never heard Klaus Schulze's "Irrlicht" before, now's the time to do so especially since it has been given pristine treatment on this reissue. The sound is amazing and so is the music. This is definitely music that was way ahead of its time when it was first released in 1972. Now, three decades later, it's an influential classic!!!

In 1969, Klaus Schulze joined Tangerine Dream, a creative German band which created the genre of electronic rock. However, in 1969 it was still in its formative stage, where there was no musical direction specified, where there were absolutely no limits imposed on the creativity of members. As it was, the only album of Tangerine Dream Klaus Schulze contributed to was "Electronic Meditation", published in 1970, slightly before the differences between Edgar Froese, the leader of the band, and Klaus � went beyond the point of reconciliation. Schulze felt oppressed in the band, since his freedom of expression was not appreciated. In consequence, Klaus split from the band, and after a brief adventure with a krautrock band, Ash Ra Temple, he launched a solo career in early 1972.

His first attempts were not exactly successful, for "Irrlicht" as a musical material was not too attractive for the bosses of the recording companies. Klaus is fond of retelling the anecdote that when he played "Irrlicht" for one of the decision-makers, the latter writhed and requested that the tape stop, or otherwise he would lose his sanity. Schulze's music was then referred to as the sound of abrasive wheels screeching on metal. Indeed, that was an accurate metaphor, for one of the tracks features exactly those sounds � or at least they appear like that! Nevertheless, he was lucky to find a publisher in "Brain", an adventurous German company deeply rooted in the flower-power counterculture of the 60s. Idealistic as it was, the company later went bankrupt. However, one should not under appreciate its contribution to the development of music. Its mecenate over the wild penniless musicians allowed them to survive, and be heard. If you are not heard, then whatever the quality of your music, you are bound to fail � an old truth, indeed.

This said, we have a unique opportunity to evaluate "Irrlicht" from the perspective of exactly 20 years. Does it sound innovative? Yes. Is it pioneering? Again, yes. Was it prophetic for Schulze's career? Yes, yes, yes. In fact, this earliest recording of Klaus Schulze bears the stigma of all his works, to this day. It's highly monotonous, sometimes atonal, with themes developing very slowly over the space of several minutes. Indeed, Klaus has never failed to deliver the length � it was as if he stretched the medium to the maximum, accepted a given limit, and tried to completely fill it in. At times, he fails to deliver as much interesting material, other times, the whole album is interesting and enchanting. Whichever the case, one thing is true on Irrlicht as much as on all other records of Klaus Schulze � he remained consistent with his artistic vision of creating music which does not conform to any rules but his own, creating electronic music of meditation. Ironically, he took the Tangerine Dream album title he contributed to � as his motto. Electronic Meditation.

Made in GER in 1991, Serial# 833-127-2, Playing Time 50:30

Originally released in 1972. Being a fan of TANGERINE DREAM from their early days, I started to pick up KS's solo albums as they were coming out (yep, that's way back in 1972).

In those days, KS was making albums that were longer than anybody else's: granted they were long pieces (generally 1 per side), but 50 minutes on a piece of vinyl was EXTREMELY rare.

This is KS' first album, and most definitely is quietest. There's the rare presence of a string orchestra, but the rest of the spacey sounds heard on the album were made by synthesizers. Quite a shock considering I knew KS as TANGERINE DREAM's drummer!

The extraordinary advantage of being able to hear this on CD is that the music, extremely smooth, without true melody or rhythm, can be cranked up without risk: no hiss, no popping sounds, no compression due to the limitations of pressing to vinyl.

KS expanded significantly his experimentation in sounds with his next effort, the double-album "Cyborg". But on "Irrlicht", it's like listening to an aurora borealis.

Just lie down, crank it up, and you'll feel like you're travelling through time and space, to an unknown and far destination...