Schulze, Klaus - 10 CD Box Essential Extracts

Year of Release: 2000
Label: Rainhorse Records
Catalog Number: n/a
Format: CD
Total Time: 79:41:00

Klaus Schulze is perhaps one of the most innovative, unique, and surprising artists to ever grace the face of progressive rock, even if his art transcends those borders and encroaches upon many other tributaries of the electronic. How else to explain his brilliant idea of granting listeners the opportunity of experiencing select choices of extracts gathered into samplers, devised with the sole intent of allowing them to wet the tip of their toes on the bare surface of his massive CD Box collections? Then again, it probably is a wise marketing choice in the long run, considering how much deeper pockets tend to get when faced with the prospect of buying a ten-CD package such as Contemporary Works 1.

Whether it is the pauper on your corner or the king of France (keep your comments about the country's governmental system to yourself, please), however, 10 CD Box Essential Extracts offers the listener a crystal clear preview of what one can expect from Schulze on his latest large collection, as well as a short look into Solar Moon System, a DJ trip-hop and dub band that Schulze's Rainhorse Records has recently signed. Perhaps not of interest to some out there at first sight, but when one considers the fact that the members of that act accompany Schulze through various moments of this record, comparisons, deductions, and interesting theories begin to rise. Suddenly, the striking variance that this sampler contains jumps at the eye, and things just aren't the same anymore.

The wonderfully human warmth that characterizes the more traditional Schulze sound is of course present during a large portion of the record, but elements of trip-hop, dub, world music, new age, and other such musical trends are also featured on the diverse extracts of the album, even if only after being infused with a healthy dose of Schulze flair. And the expansion of styles remains thus imbued with a delicate intimacy, so that one cannot but expect the most elaborate and honest of experiences during every single encounter that each of the records on Contemporary Works 1 signifies. On 10 CD Box Essential Extracts, however, the diversity actually works as an obstacle, as the different approaches explored are never given enough space and time to breathe and transgress their respective borders with a hint of unceremoniousness that breaks what possible flow there is.

At the same time, however, this record is an open window into an ambitious scope that holds promises of the highest caliber for the box set that is represented, and one must consider the fact that this is, after all, nothing more but a collection of extracts with an additional group of new instrumentals; not a new full-fledged official album. Taken that way, the lack of a centered direction comes across as less harmful, and, added to the gorgeous warmth of the new instrumentals, which hold the banner of the Schulze traditional sound high in the proudest of skies, things don't really look bad at all. After all, this is a sampler, and it achieves its mission with unsurpassable accuracy and objectivity.

Similar artists: Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Massive Attack

Tracklisting:
Global Medication (3:51) / Windy Times (4:55) / KS/Tiepold (5:43) / Outer Canal Street (3:44) / U.S.O. (4:04) / What You Deserve (4:59) / Trance 4 Motion (5:49) / Strong (3:56) / KS/Kagi (4:21) / Solar Moon (4:15) / MM 3 (4:15) / Short Rain (3:46) / MM 6 (4:33) / KS/Jay M.D. (5:28) / Eleven 2 Eleven (10:11) / KS/Thomas (5:35)

Musicians:
Klaus Schulze - Machines, synthesizers, sequencers

Discography:
Irrlicht (1972)
Cyborg (1973)
Blackdance (1974)
Picture Music (1975)
Timewind (1975)
Moondawn - The Original Master (1976)
Moondawn (1976)
Body Love (Soundtrack) (1977)
Mirage (1977)
Body Love Vol. 2 (1977)
"X" (1978)
Dune (1979)
...Live... (1980)
Dig it (1980)
Trancefer (1981)
Audentity (1983)
Angst (Soundtrack) (1984)
Inter*Face (1985)
Dreams (1986)
En=Trance (1988)
Miditerranean Pads (1990)
The Dresden Performance (1990)
Beyond Recall (1991)
Royal Festival Hall Vol. 1 (1992)
Royal Festival Hall Vol. 2 (1992)
The Dome Event (1993)
Silver Edition (1993)
Le Moulin de Daudet (1994)
Goes Classic (1994)
Totentag (Opera) (1994)
Das Wagner Desaster - Live - (1994)
Historic Edition (1995)
In Blue (1995)
Are You Sequenced? (1996)
Dosburg Online (1997)
Jubilee Edition (1997)
Trailer (sampler) (1999)
The Ultimate Edition (2000)
Contemporary Works I (2000)
10 CD Box Essential Extracts (2000)
Live @ KlangArt 1 (2001)
Live @ KlangArt 2 (2001)
Contemporary Works II (2002)
X, Vol 1 (2002)
Andromeda (promo CD) (2003)
Ion (Promo CD) (2004)
Moonlake Kontinuum (2007)
Farscape (2008)
Rheingold (2008)

(see the Klaus Schulze website for complete discography)


Genre: Electronic

Origin DE

Added: November 17th 2002
Reviewer: Marcelo Silveyra
Score:
Artist website: www.klaus-schulze.com
Hits: 1687
Language: english