Klaus Wiese
Monsoon

THE REVIEW

For those who follow ambient music, the name Klaus Wiese should not be entirely unknown. His music, compared to that of Brian Eno, but also other more renowned masters, is in reality much more intense and mystical. It should not be forgotten how Wiese was very close to Popol Vuh and Florian Fricke in the early '70s (he was a roadie for the German group) and was named as an official member of the group (he is credited with the tamboura in Hosianna Mantra and Seligpreisung) although it seems he never actually played on those records. His name was supposedly mentioned by Fricke as a tribute to his support. In any case, his life philosophy was very close to that of Popol Vuh. In the following years, he traveled extensively in Iran, Afghanistan, and India and studied Sufism in depth. His output is truly vast and includes many albums often not even released, which, for some time, circulated only in cassette format. Wiese was a pioneer of the drone-ambient subgenre, inspiring musicians such as Alio Die, Mathias Grassow, Oöphoi (perhaps the late Gianluigi Gasparetti was his closest follower for a period) and Al Gromer Khan (he actually did play with Popol Vuh). His music is fundamentally very meditative and serves to dispel bad vibrations. He uses instruments like the tamboura, zither, harmonium, and Tibetan bowls. Among his works (his first cassette is Baraka from 1981), one of the best albums is probably Monsoon from 1996, released on CD by the Italian label Totem. In this work, the German musician reaches the Sublime and the Absolute through minimal electronic layers, transporting the listener into a metaphysical dimension and bridging East and West. One must immerse oneself in listening, abandoning oneself to the sound flow, forgetting the aesthetic categories of Western music. Wiese turns what is external into internal and embraces the lesson of Eastern spiritualism. Recommended for those in need of transcendence. Available on Bandcamp: https://aliodie.bandcamp.com/album/monsoon.