Klaus Schulze
Body Love

THE REVIEW

The corporeal love inspires the music of this album by Klaus Schulze, the soundtrack of the film of the same name by Lasse Braun. A hard film, to be precise, and it is remarkable how Schulze manages not to be influenced by the conventions that the cinematic "genre" in question might have suggested to him, and instead creates a work that is, in every respect, a pure distillation of his style.

This is "Body Love," the seventh album of the German musician, very compact and cohesive in the choice of sounds and the overall musical texture, released in February 1977. In the previous "Moondawn," Schulze had inaugurated a collaboration with Harald Grosskopf, the drummer of Ash Ra Tempel, whom we find here in the 13 minutes of "Stardancer," the opening track: a stellar raid where a kind of continuous bass pulse is overlaid by an extended Schulze solo supported by Grosskopf's incisive percussion. A fast-paced, rhythmic piece of remarkable effectiveness.

More calm and reflective, without percussion, the following "Blanche," after a very evocative introduction of almost 5 minutes (out of the total 11), sees the entry of a new solo (the same timbre used in "Stardancer" and almost the same melodic figures) until the end.

The third track, "P.T.O.," lasts 27 minutes and reprises the sounds already encountered in the two previous pieces: after the usual slow introduction, a module of four notes in the low register enters, then a second module in the high register, in overlap, finally the usual and extended Schulze solo, supported by Grosskopf's percussion; 5 minutes from the end, there is a sudden interruption in the sound magma towards more intimate and shadowy atmospheres, with sustained chords and distant melodic lines until the fading conclusion.

"P.T.O", by the way: for some it meant "Please Turn Over," referring to the vinyl record in which this track occupied the second side. Or who knows, it could have been an invitation to the actresses of Lasse Braun's film to assume a different position... But if this music possesses an eros, it must be sought in its frozen intensity.