Klaus Schulze
Irrlicht

Klaus Schulze (1947) is considered one of the composers who made the history of electronic music in the last century. He began his career as a drummer in the legendary Psy-Free, a psychedelic band from West Berlin deeply rooted in the rebellious cultural climate of the 1968 student protests. After playing drums with Tangerine Dream on “Electronic Meditation” (1970) and joining the legendary Ash Ra Tempel, gracing albums like the debut “Ash Ra Temple” (1971 - still on drums) and “Joyn Inn” (1973) where he plays the synth on “Jenseits”, the German musician finally released his debut album “Irrlicht” (1972).

“Irrlicht” remains a milestone today: Schulze, with amateur means and using the sounds of a real orchestra, composed an impressive sort of electronic symphony that transports the listener's mind toward states of “altered” perception. An album where influences of Gyorgy Ligeti can be heard, as well as those of minimalists Steve Reich and Terry Riley.

“Irrlicht”, as admitted by the German musician himself, has many elements of musique concrète, because at the time he did not yet own a proper synthesizer. The sounds are thus created from a deliberately modified organ and the contribution of a real orchestra (the Colloquium Orchestra of Berlin) which is "filtered" in the studio and whose sound is almost imperceptible: this ingenious trick allows the listener to be immersed in a genuine "trip", an endless sound and "alien" hallucination.

The album opens with the atmosphere of cosmic sadness in "Ebene": the violins of the orchestra create a timeless decadent and “Wagnerian” atmosphere: then the organ leads us to dizzying heights, literally lifting us from the ground in an almost sacred manner.

The next short piece, “Gewitter”, is still characterized by the sounds of the organ while alien electronic reverberations can be heard in the background.

The other pillar of the album is "Exil Sils Maria" where a long “drone" simulates the journey of an airplane at “cosmic” heights: the sensation is hypnotic and disorienting and one would not want to detach from this music anymore.

“Irrlicht” still sounds contemporary and fresh today and is probably the most daring and ingenious work of this musician. In fact, with the subsequent "Cyborg" (1973), a grand symphony for orchestra and synth, the electronics would become lighter, though always with great class and taste. From then on, Schulze would release an extensive discography that sees him still active today, albeit with highs and lows. In any case, all his production from the '70s is noteworthy: from the “Wagnerian” “Timewind” (1975) to the surreal and cosmic “Blackdance” (1974 - personally my favorite) to the classic “Moondawn” (1976), the twilight “Mirage”, up to the daring double album “X” (1978).