Klaus Schulze: Bon Voyage

(English translation: please scroll down)

Dass uns Klaus Schulze verlassen hat, ist nun auch schon wieder drei Jahre her. Auf Neuerscheinungen mussten die Fans dennoch nicht lange warten, und produktiv, wie er war, ist anzunehmen, dass noch manches folgen wird.

Ich meine mich zu erinnern, Schulze dreimal live gesehen zu haben: Erstmals 1977 im Hamburger Audimax, damals noch mit dem Big Moog auf der Bühne, gerade stand sein Jubiläumsalbum X. vor der Tür, für das überall im Audimax kleine Werbeaufkleber herumflogen. Ich erinnere das Konzert als atmosphärisch stark. Das zweite Mal war 1981 ebenda, mit dem Gitarristen Manuel Göttsching und erstmals mit dem damals neuen GDS-Computer. Und dann war da noch ein drittes Konzert, diesmal in der Fabrik mit einem Fairlight und dem Gast Rainer Bloss, der inzwischen den GDS übernommen hatte; es müsste wohl 1985 gewesen sein. Mir in Erinnerung vor allem wegen des Vorhangs, der sich mehrere Minuten lang nicht öffnen wollte. Relativ aktuell war da noch das Live-Album Dziekuje Poland, eingespielt von eben diesem Duo.

Mit Deus Arrakis hatte Klaus Schulze ein verdammt starkes letztes Album hinterlassen, danach veröffentlichten seine Erben noch die Filmmusik 101, Milky Way aus dem mir nicht bekannten Film "Hacker". Nun haben die Erben erneut ins Archiv gegriffen und den Mitschnitt des Audimax-Konzertes von 1981 ausgegraben: Bon Voyage heißt das gute Stück, zwei CDs und eine DVD.

 

Ich habe damals nicht mal bemerkt, dass das Konzert gefilmt wurde, und tatsächlich war das Video eigentlich nur dazu gedacht, den beiden Musikern einen Eindruck zu vermitteln, wie sie auf der Bühne aussahen. So muss man die DVD denn wohl auch sehen: als eine Erinnerung an den Auftritt, qualitativ ist es weder technisch noch in der Bildführung besonders gelungen. Auch der Ton ist eher mäßig, aber das macht nichts, denn dafür sind ja die CDs (bzw. die Doppel-LP) da, und an deren Qualität gibt es nichts zu bemängeln. Dazu gibt es ein gut gemachtes Booklet mit bis dahin unveröffentlichten Fotos und Liner Notes von Claus Cordes in deutsch und englisch. Wer das alles nicht braucht: Den Ton gibt es auch bereits auf den üblichen Streamingdiensten.

Es ist ein bisschen dreist, dass nur Klaus Schulze auf dem Cover genannt wird, denn tatsächlich stand die gesamte Zeit hindurch auch Manuel Göttsching mit seiner Gitarre auf der Bühne. Dass er ein exzellenter Gitarrist war, muss nicht extra betont werden. Leider nutzt er das Instrument fast ausschließlich zum Ansteuern eines Gitarren-Synthesizers. Diese Geräte waren damals noch sehr schwer zu bändigen; mir fallen auch nur zwei Gitarristen ein, die das wirklich draufhatten: Steve Hillage und Pat Metheny, und irgendwie kommt mir Manuel hier ein bisschen in den Hintergrund gemischt vor -- mehr, als er es eigentlich verdient gehabt hätte. 

Klaus Schulze war nie ein großer Tastendompteur, das zeigt sich nicht zuletzt im Video sehr deutlich. Sein Talent bestand vielmehr darin, sich sehr effektiv die Technik zunutze zu machen, um einen eigenen, unverwechselbaren Stil zu entwickeln. Den hatte er schon recht früh ziemlich exklusiv, und er wich davon auch kaum je ab. 

Musikalisch fiel das hier vorliegende Konzert in die Zeit der Alben Dig It und Trancefer. Das war die Zeit, in der Schulze vom analogen zum digitalen Equipment wechselte, und das ist unüberhörbar. Der GDS-Computer der italienischen Firma Crumar beherrscht die Szene. Ein großer Erfolg war dieser Kiste nicht beschieden; meines Wissens sind nicht mehr als zehn dieser Geräte gebaut worden (andere Besitzer waren Wendy Carlos und Chris Franke). Statt der bis dahin gewohnten warmen Analogklänge hörte man nun kühle Digitalsounds. Das war gewöhnungsbedürftig, und es ist offensichtlich, dass Schulze den Computer noch nicht wirklich auszureizen verstand. Das ganze Konzert bewegt sich in durchgehend hohem Tempo, und immer wieder grüßen die beiden obengenannten Alben durch, streckenweise, wenn mich nicht alles täuscht, sogar inklusive der von Michael Shrieve für Trancefer eingespielten Percussion, die hier als Sample mitläuft. Tatsächlich ist Trancefer für mein Gefühl eines von Schulzes besten Werken, aber so richtig überträgt sich dessen Stimmung nicht auf die Bühne.

Anyway, wer Klaus Schulze nie live gesehen hat, kann das hier nachholen. Das ganze Set kostet gerade mal 16 Dollar, da kann man wirklich nicht viel falsch machen.

 

 

It's been three years now since Klaus Schulze left us. Fans didn't have to wait long for new releases, though, and given his prolific nature, it's safe to assume there's more to come.

I seem to remember seeing Schulze three times on stage: The first time was in 1977 in Hamburg's Audimax, back then still with the Big Moog on stage. His anniversary album X. was just about to be released, and little promotional stickers were flying all around at the Audimax. The concert had a strong, captivating atmosphere. The second time was in 1981, at the same place, with guitarist Manuel Göttsching and, for the first time, with the then-new GDS computer. And then there was a third concert, this time at the Fabrik with a Fairlight and guest Rainer Bloss, who had since taken over the GDS; it must have been in 1985. I remember it mainly because of the curtain that wouldn't open for several minutes. Relatively recent was the live album Dziekuje Poland, recorded by this very duo.

Klaus Schulze left behind a pretty strong final album with Deus Arrakis, after which his heirs released the film score 101, Milky Way from the film "Hacker," which I didn't see. And now the heirs have delved into the archives again and unearthed the recording of the 1981 Audimax concert mentioned above: Bon Voyage is the title of this fine piece, two CDs and a DVD.

 

At that evening, I didn't even notice that the concert was being filmed, and in fact, the video was actually only intended to give the two musicians an impression of what they looked like on stage. That's probably how you should view the DVD: as a memento of the performance; it's not particularly good in terms of quality, neither technically nor in terms of cinematography. The sound is also rather mediocre, but that doesn't matter, because that's what the CDs (or rather the double LP) are for, and there's nothing to criticize about their quality. There's also a well-made booklet with previously unpublished photos and liner notes by Claus Cordes in German and English. If you don't need all that, the audio is already available on the usual streaming services.

It's a bit cheeky that only Klaus Schulze is mentioned on the cover, because Manuel Göttsching was actually on stage with his guitar the entire time. It goes without saying that he was an excellent guitarist. Unfortunately, he uses the instrument almost exclusively to control a guitar synthesizer. These devices were still very difficult to tame back then; I can only think of two guitarists who were truly adept at this: Steve Hillage and Pat Metheny. Somehow Manuel seems a bit relegated to the background here—more than he actually deserves.

Klaus Schulze was never a great keyboard tamer, as is clearly evident in the video. His talent lay rather in his ability to use technology very effectively to develop his own, unmistakable style. He had this style quite exclusively from his earliest albums, and he rarely deviated from it.

Musically, this concert took place during the era of the albums Dig It and Trancefer. This was the time when Schulze switched from analog to digital equipment, and this is unmistakable. The GDS computer from the Italian company Crumar dominates the scene. This machine wasn't destined to be a great success; to my knowledge, no more than ten of these devices were ever built (other owners were Wendy Carlos and Chris Franke). Instead of the warm analog sounds we were used to, we now heard cool digital sounds. This took some getting used to, and it's obvious that Schulze hadn't yet fully grasped the computer's capabilities. The entire concert moves at a consistently high tempo, and the two aforementioned albums echo through and through, at times, if I'm not mistaken, even including the percussion recorded by Michael Shrieve for Trancefer, which is included here as a sample. In fact, I think that Trancefer is one of Schulze's best works, but its atmosphere didn't really translate to the stage on this evening.

Anyway, if you've never seen Klaus Schulze live, you can catch up here. The whole set costs just $16, so you really can't go wrong. 

*

Manuel Göttsching 1952 - 2022

 

Bye bye, Manuel ...

You will be missed.

Here are 4 minutes from NPR Radio, USA.

Christian Wheeldon: Deep Distance -- The Musical Life of Manuel Göttsching

(deutscher Text hier bei Manafonistas!)

Manuel Göttsching, guitarist, keyboardist, composer, looks back to a career that started in 1971 (he was active even before, but not on records). Stations of his career are Ash Ra Tempel, Ashra, albums under his own name, collaborations with Klaus Schulze, Steve Hillage and several others, he also worked as a film composer. Of late he is even part of a Japanese krautrock exhibition -- as a wax figure.

The British librarian Christian Wheeldon, after six years of work, comes up now with a long overdue biography. This very well-written book leads chronologically through Göttsching's life and time as a musician, following events as well as his records. Usually, the author first tells the well-researched story of the record and its production, followed by a review of the record. Especially it's nice that he includes not only Göttsching's own records but also some works of his long-time companions; the solo album Synthesist by drummer Harald Großkopf as well as the long forgotten project Central Europe Performance or the recordings Lutz "Lüül" Ulbrich did with Nico.

You will notice immediately that a fan wrote this book. Sometimes it's just too obvious that Wheeldon is not willing to touch his hero. Without question Göttsching made a lot of enjoyable records, but, as it's unavoidable in a more than 40-year-spanning career, some are not as good as others. It wouldn't have done any damage to the book if he would call a spade a spade in these cases. For Wheeldon everything seems to be "masterpiece", "genius" or "incredible", also the term "legendary" is used much too often in this book. Again and again Wheeldon uses Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley as standards of comparison -- I would be open to reason about the latter, but Glass, even more Reich, definitely play in a different league.

Another little rub in this book is the fact that the author several times doesn't get the meaning of German puns, phrases or words with double meanings, and so his translations are blurred, misleading or wrong. One example: Göttsching wrote and recorded a sort of "suite" about the "Mulde", a little creek near Leipzig. The last part of this suite is entitled "Zerfluss".  This word doesn't exist in German, it's combined from "Zufluss" on the one hand, which means something like "feeder creek", and "zerfließen" on the other hand, which could be translated into "melting away" as well as into "to dissolve". Of course it's not possible to find a direct translation of "Zerfluss", but the meaning could be explained. Wheeldon simply translates it into "inflow", and that means: He misses the key point. Unfortunately, this kind of flaw is something to be found constantly in English publications about the German rock music scene.

It remains to mention that, probably for the reason of cost-saving, this book is set in an extremely small typeface. To make matters worse, it's a sans-serif one. For an old geezer like me it's simply a torture to read this.

But this is all there is to complain about. Without dwelling on too much krautrock nostalgia this book makes you feel like going to the turntable to have a new listen to the old albums -- without forgetting the new ones. A couple of website recommendations and a well-done index complete the book. 

Christian Wheeldon:
Deep Distance -- The Musical Life of Manuel Göttsching
King's Lynn, GB 2015
ISBN 978-1-91069324-7

The book can be ordered only here.