| CD REVIEW Klaus Schulze (& Lisa Gerrard) |
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Band : Klaus Schulze (& Lisa Gerrard) Woaaahhhh, incredible!!! My editor-in-chief finally allowing me to review an album by German electronics master Klaus Schulze had to wait until the latter brought an album in collaboration with Australian vocal icon Lisa Gerrard! Of course, he was somehow put onto the fact that Gerrard once was one of the duo known as Dead Can Dance, who have earned the music business millions of dollars (and continue to do so) with their albums released in the '80s and '90s...and probably that's what enticed him in letting me have a go at this album anyway (because normally he has this policy that if isn't Metal, Punk, Hardcore, Rock, or at least a hybrid of those musical genres, it doesn't have a place on our website)! Whatever, I've always wanted to have a part in the promotion of this artist of whom I've collected an impressive amount of albums over the years! Right...now how do I start this? I mean, for me to give you an even slightly detailed overview of Schulze's career would really take me too long, as even a simple list of the man's albums he worked on would give you about two pages...so let's keep things as short as possible, okay? Born in Berlin in 1947, he joins Tangerine Dream in 1969 as drummer, to work on their 1970 released debut album Electronic Meditation. Surprisingly he leaves in 1970 toco-found the now legendary Electronic Rock band Ash Ra Tempel with guitarist Manuel Göttsching. But after the release of that band's self-titled debut album, he again leaves in 1971 to start a solo career, bringing his debut release Irrlicht in 1972. In spite of the continuous change in musical hypes, Schulze continues to have a successful career, releasing over 40 solo albums, some of which were recorded during live performances. However, as those live appearances (especially during the '70s and '80s) occasionally meant Schulze getting onto the stage long enough to put his machines in several loops, and then leaving the stage to join the audience and enjoy what his experiment brought, many of the live albums were considered as singular and regular records. Among his most popular works, following the debut, can be counted 1976's Moondawn, 1979's Dune, 1986's Dreams, 1990's Miditerranean Pads, and the 1995 2-CD In Blue, a collaboration with Göttsching. In 1979 Schulze starts a series of recordings (a total of 7 albums between then and 1997) composed by himself and played with guest musicians under the Richard Wahnfield pseudonym. Of course, there have been other collaborations over the years. Under the Dark Side Of The Moog monicker, Schulze collaborates with Pete Namlook (another German, and very active for a while, electronics artist whom I personally followed for a long time, and from whom I collected some 100 albums, the DSOTM releases included!!!!) to release a total of 10 CDs (4 of which in additional collaboration with Bill Laswell). But there have also been albums with The Cosmic Jokers (5 pieces!), Stomu Yamash'ta (2), Rainer Bloss (3), a contribution to Ash Ra Tempel's 1973 album Join Inn, a short return to that band for the 2000 albums Friendship and Gin Rosé At The Royal Festival Hall (live)...and a couple of other things I'm forgetting to put down here. In 1996, a serie of 6 live Ash Ra Tempel CD's under the title The Private Tapes is released, each (except the first) containing a track with Schulze playing the drums. In 2005 an intensive re-issuing of Klaus Schulze material started, many getting extended or extra tracks, sometimes even a bonus CD (check Revisited Records, a sub-division of InsideOut Music, distributed by SPV – CNR for Benelux). No matter how you look at Electronic music, Klaus Schulze remains a master in the genre, and over the years he has brought millions of fans in dreamlike conditions of heavenly bliss! To listen to a Schulze album first of all means you let go of all your daily troubles, relax to the infinite, and then let the woundrously soothing music invade you with its healing effects. When the music stops, you come out of the trance refreshed, calmed down, and ready to face the upcoming onslaughts of common everyday life! Time to turn our inquisitive attention to Lisa Gerrard...and rejoice in the marvels of Internet! I've known her from when Dead Can Dance was still a young band in the '80s, and it was therefore a pleasure for me to have to look up the background for this article, as it helped me to put the questions I had about her vocal style in perspective. You see, I had always wondered where on earth she found the idea to make up the very own and previously unexisting language with which she sang her lyrics, and that is now no longer a secret to me. You see, born in Melbourne in 1961 from Irish parents, she grew up in the multi-ethnic suburb of Prahran, where she was exposed to Greek, Turkish, Italian, and Arabic cultures, influences which sh combined in the development of her haunting contralto voice. Her career began with Dead Can Dance, originally formed as a quartet in Melbourne, but soon reduced to the duo of Lisa and Brendan Perry after the band's move to London. The band signed to the 4AD label, for which they recorded 8 albums, starting with the 1984 LP Dead Can Dance. The band split in 1998, but reunited in 2005 for a world tour. Lisa made her debut solo with 1995's The Mirror Pool, and followed this up with the 1998 Duality, which was actually a collaboration with Pieter Bourke and the start of an extended collaboration which would see the duo compose the music for a number of movie soundtracks (among which Gladiator, The Insider and Ali). Lisa started a new collaboration in 2004 with Patrick Cassidy, the first result of which would be the Immortal Memory album. Returning to movie scores, the collaboration also sprouted the music for Salem's Lot. 2007 saw the release of Lisa's second solo album The Silver Tree. Marked by the fact that it was her first album outside 4AD, besides being musically different! That same year saw the release of The Best Of Lisa Gerrard, a retrospective of the singer's career spanning her career in Dead Can Dance, solo, and film work. Interestingly enough, that film work experience goes back to 1989, when Dead Can Dance composed the music for the Agustin Villaronga Spanish film El Niño de la Luna. The movie even saw Lisa in her first acting role. With Dead Can Dance, she also did contributions to the soundtrack of Baraka (a movie showcasing mankind's impact on our planet). In 2005, she collaborates with Ennio Morricone to compose and bring 3 songs to the soundtrack of the movie Fateless). Well now, as it turns out Schulze had already been wanting to collaborate with Lisa since the '80s, but had found it quite difficult to get her on the phone for an introductory talk. In late 2007 however, he gets a new manager, and this guy was able to arrange things within a matter of weeks. From a first and qite lengthy talk readily enough came a deal arrangement, as Lisa herself had been following Schulze's career since Tangerine Dream, and in fact she found herself quite astonished about the fact that Klaus had been wanting to work with her for so long. The two found each other quite like-minded in many aspects concerning the art of music, and so, in November of last year, Lisa travelled to Schulze's residence in Lüneburg expecting to spend the next six days in the latter's private recording studio. As it turns out, the two went out to dinner on the first day, just chatting about music, but not recording any. On the second day, in a 5-hour session, the two finished the recording of what would become the 3-track, 78:53 Farscape I. The second day being just as intense, saw the conclusion of the project with the finishing of Farscape II (4 tracks lasting 75 minutes).Of course, Schulze had already prepared his compositions in advance, but he was simply unprepared for the stunning intuitive ability with which Lisa is capable of filling the spaces in her own illuminating and imaginative way...and the end result will certainly get bookmarked as one of, if not thé, essencial releases in the careers of both artists (let alone in their own individual minds). Sure, this ain't exactly the kind of music the usual Concrete Web reader gets confronted with, but I DO hope there's enough open-minded people out there willing to get into different musical areas. If you, dear reader, already are one of those music lovers who like music for the sake of it, and have indeed already been wandering outside the guitar-oriented world of music, you may already have come across previous material by either of these two wonderful artists, so you may understand my stating that you NEED to get yourself this album, even without a sneak preview! There's a littel difference between CD1 and CD2, in that the singing on the first is slightly more intense, and somewhat overpowering. Hah, the somewhat cynical critic out there would use the opportunity to say the woman never stops blabbing at the mouth, just to get a negative point in (that's how many failed-musicians/singers-gone-critic will react...you know, just being vicious because they càn)...without even listening to the quality offered. CD2 offers a somewhat calmer and more serene vocal soundscape, and Lisa even allows several passages to be just music (or with a really minimal filling, like in the latter part of "Liquid Coincidence 6" – and except for the numbering, that's the title for àll the songs). Just go get the album, put that second CD in the remote-controlled cd-player, sit down (or lay down, whatever you feel comfortable with) in the audio centre of the room, relax, push the "play" button on the remote...and enjoy the wonderful healing sounds generated by the music and vocal stylings in this album. After that, you might try the same thing with CD1, but you've been warned about the vocal intencities there, right? Anyway, put on the album all over again is exactly what I am gonna do all over again after having finished this review (which has taken me surprisingly long enough to finish), in spite of the fact that I still have so many other albums to listen to and possible review before the week is over! 98/100 Tony. |