Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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As both a solo artist and as a member of groups including Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze emerged among the founding fathers of contemporary electronic music, his epic, meditative soundscapes a key influence on the subsequent rise of the new age aesthetic. Born in Berlin on August 4, 1947, Schulze began his performing career during the 1960s, playing guitar, bass and drums in a variety of local bands; by 1969, he was drumming in Tangerine Dream, appearing a year later on their debut LP Electronic Meditation. The album was Schulze's lone effort with the group, however, as he soon co-founded Ash Ra Tempel with Manuel Gottsching and Harmut Enke, debuting in 1971 with a self-titled record; again, however, the band format appeared to stifle Schulze, and he mounted a solo career a few months later.

While Schulze's previous recorded work had been in a typically noisy Krautrock vein, as a solo artist he quickly became more reflective; although he acquired his first synthesizer in 1972, it did not enter into his solo debut Irrlicht, its long, droning pieces instead assembled from electronic organ, oscillators and orchestral recordings. The double album Cyborg followed in 1973, and a year later he issued Blackdance, his first recording to feature synths; Timewind, regarded by many as Schulze's masterpiece, appeared in 1975. Around that same time he began producing prog-rockers the Far East Family Band; the group's keyboardist, who went on to become the new age superstar Kitaro, frequently cited Schulze as the central influence behind his own plunge into the world of synths and electronics.

After collaborating with Stomu Yamash'ta on 1976's Go, Schulze resurfaced with a flurry of new solo material, including the LP Moondawn, 1977's Mirage and two volumes of the porn soundtrack Body Love. He remained extraordinarily prolific in the years to follow, with 1979's Dune, inspired by the Frank Herbert sci-fi classic, becoming his 11th solo record released during the 1970s alone. The 1980s were no less fertile, with Schulze issuing a steady stream of new work in addition to various productions released on his own IC label; Dig It was his first fully digital recording. By the following decade, Schulze had immersed himself in contemporary dance music, occasionally working in conjunction with Pete Namlook (as Dark Side of the Moog). The first half of the 1990s also saw Schulze experiment with sampling, starting with the album Beyond Recall, but these forays largely ended in 1995 with the release of In Blue. Ten years later, he began re-releasing his earlier works and collaborating with Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance. In April 2008, Schulze released Kontinuum; he also released Farscape, a joint project with Gerrard, in June of the same year.

Biography by Jason Ankeny, Allmusic.com

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Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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The limited-edition box sets in the Edition series (Silver Edition, 1993, ten CDs; Historic Edition, 1995, ten CDs; Jubilee Edition, 1997, 25 CDs; all gathered [with extra material added] in Ultimate Edition, 2000, 50 CDs) are the most sought-after items in Klaus Schulze collectors' circles, exchanging hands at outrageous prices. In 2009, Klaus D. Mueller and Schulze began releasing La Vie Electronique ("The Electronic Life"), a series of three-CD sets that reissued all the material previously released in these long-deleted box sets, plus a few unreleased tracks, with all the material put back in chronological sequence (the Edition sets mixed things up, time line-wise). Volume 1 covers the years 1968-1972 and is mainly very interesting. One highlight is "I Was Dreaming I Was Awake and Then I Woke Up and Found Myself Asleep," a previously unreleased 25-minute piece that, is stronger than Irrlicht, Schulze's debut LP. "Cyborgs Traum" is also major Schulze material. Also, "Dynamo" and "Traumraum" feature rare occurrences of glissando electric guitar in Schulze's music. On the other hand, the 64-minute "Die Kunst, Jundert Jahre alt Zu Werden" is mediocre: it sounds like a long, in-studio improvisation during which the artist is trying out ideas but developing none. Then again, that is what this whole series is about: archival documents, experiments, drafts, and blueprints. And there's more than enough here to satisfy the fan.

Review by François Couture, Allmusic.com

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Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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Volume Two (three CDs) in this series reissuing all the material found on the long out of print Ultimate Edition box sets (for more background on the series as a whole, see La Vie Electronique 1) is much more interesting than volume one, and the pick of the first six volumes. The music comes from 1972-1975 (but mostly 1972-1973), a rich period of experimentation, as Schulze was gradually forging what would be known as his "classic" sound, nearly palpable by "Blaue Stunde," the 38-minute piece from 1975 concluding the set. This second installment contains more finished works than the drafts-and-jams-packed volume one. "Das große Identifikationsspiel" (42 minutes) is a very good suite of rather experimental music written for a science fiction radio drama by Alfred Behrens. The 27-minute "Titanensee" was done with a ballet in mind, never to be produced; again, it is a strong work in Schulze's experimental vein. However, the undisputed highlight of volume two is a whole album's worth of collaborations with Hans-Jörg Stahlschmidt, a project that had been brought to completion, only to gather dust on a record company's shelves. On this set of tracks, Schulze steps outside of his usual style, his partner's acoustic guitar and vocals (Schulze also plays some acoustic backing) drawing the music close to Popol Vuh territory. For fans curious about Schulze's artistic development, this volume is the one to get, as you can see him trying out ideas and working on collaborations with other artists, and even other art forms.

Review by François Couture, Allmusic.com

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Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique I-III (2009) 3 Box Sets, 9CDs

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The third in Klaus Schulze's series of three-disc compilations of live and rare material (all of it previously released in his 50-disc Ultimate Edition box from 2000) is pure bliss for fans of early-'70s analog synthesizer music. The melodies swoop and whoosh like comets passing by a slowly drifting space station manned by dudes and ladies in unisex jumpsuits with long, perfectly coiffed hair, and beards on the men. Close your eyes and you're there. Many of these tracks are grouped into half-hour suites, but at the same time the whole nearly four-hour document can be seen as one solid piece of art, or a shaving from a vast iceberg. Schulze's droning pulses are like the rhythm of the universe, unending and, while beautiful, totally inhuman. If Kraftwerk was the sound of musicians attempting to become machines, Klaus Schulze's work is the sound of one musician attempting to become a planet. The beeping rhythms, like a heart monitor, provide a slight anchor to keep one from floating away completely as this music spins itself out in ever wider spiraling arcs across endless vistas of empty space, but the ultimate effect is near-total trance.

Review by Phil Freeman, Allmusic.com