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It may seem that when Klaus Schulze releases an album the whole history of contemporary Electronic Music lines up behind it. Yet from the audience's perspective, the pure experience of listening to his music pushes thoughts towards the future. Silhouettes (75'00") is for people wanting an intelligent, sophisticated production, not kid stuff. Its urgency and subtly heightened, fiercely focussed energies evoke a feeling of somber introspection. Silhouettes intensifies quietly, as a deep dark something happens around the edges of its four tracks. With a tug of dire, inescapable gravity the world seems in absolute suspension - nothing moving, everything centered. In brighter passages exuberant harmonic gestures calm the formless questions gnawing at our souls. Where the music is spacious and uncluttered, sustained notes, sustained chords, and progressions of chords speak an utter truth in sound. It is a dense work expanded by inventive scoring and powerful narrative ideas. Light sequencer patterns arise, hurrying the interior current within, adding dancing tones to our teeming, gleaning minds. This kind of music usually benefits from simplicity, a point Schulze understands well. Silhouettes has a weightless allure built out of droning spaces and populated with cloud melodies that float and hover. While not exactly minimalist, because the layers are too involved and full of forward motion, Schulze's achievement continues to be an assured, calmingly quiet atmosphere - which allows you to escape reality in a way unique to this venerable musician. However, his most enduring effect may be that he made our world appear to be a better place, by helping us keep the outside world outside - and listening for the infinitely precious sound of the universe rhyming with one's own brain.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 21 June 2018 |
