Klaus Schulze: La Vie Electronique 5 (2010)

La Vie Electronique 5  (1976 to 1977)

Track Listing (CD 1):

1.	Berlin Schöneberg	24:15	1976  Live
2.	Vie de Reve	48:56	1976  Live

Track Listing (CD 2):

1.	Nostalgic Echo	34:10	1976  Live
2.	Titanische Tage	27:16	1976  Live
3.	For Barry Graves	15:38	1977  Live

Track Listing (CD 3):

1.	The Poet	52:48	1977  Live
2.	The Oberhausen Tape	23:04	1977

Rating: 5 Stars

With the exception of the last track on the third CD, the fifth album in the La Vie Electronique series is made up of live recordings.

"Berlin Schöneberg" was recorded at a concert in Berlin, Germany on 15th December 1976 (the same concert as "Darkest Steglitz" on LVE 4).

"Vie de Reve" was recorded at a concert in Reims, France on 21st April 1976.

"Nostalgic Echo" and "Titanische Tage" were recorded at a concert in Brussels, Belgium on 4th November 1976.

"For Barry Graves" was recorded live on television in Cologne, Germany on 13th January 1977.

"The Poet" was recorded in Oberhausen, Germany on 7th November 1977.

"The Oberhausen Tape" is a mystery. It was found on the same tape as the live recording of the Oberhausen concert, but it sounds like a studio recording. The tape was probably used for recording shortly after the concert.

There's something significant about Klaus Schulze's concerts, in comparison with other musicians. When a typical band or solo musician goes or tour, they have a set list and play the same songs from city to city. There might be some improvisation, but basically it's the same concert. In the case of Klaus Schulze, he played something different every night. It was worth following him on a whole tour across Europe, because no two concerts were the same. Not even close. The only exception is the tours he made with Rainer Bloss from 1982 to 1985. On these tours there was a lot of repetition, presumably because Rainer wasn't as skilled in improvisation as Klaus. It's noticeable that the LVE albums contain relatively few live recordings from this period, considering the large number of concerts played.

The recording quality is good, with the exception of "Berlin Schöneberg", which has a few tape clicks. That's strange, because "Darkest Steglitz" on LVE 4 is perfect quality.

There's a novelty in the colour of the discs. Instead of the usual silver playing surface, all three CDs have a black playing surface. Yes, black! The above photo shows a normal CD on the left and an LVE 5 CD on the right for comparison. When I first bought the CD I thought it was a defect and it wouldn't play, but everything worked perfectly. Several of the following LVE CDs are also black. If I remember, I'll point them out in my future reviews.

I can't point at any particular track that stands out on the album. I like it all! Some of the music is faster, some of it is slower, but it's all perfect.

The liner notes for LVE 5 are written by a musician who calls himself Blue22. He's just as enthusiastic about Klaus Schulze as Darren Bergstein, but he manages to curb himself and write easily understandable sentences.

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La Vie Electronique 5 Liner Notes

From humble beginnings to the hi-tech present day praise has at one time or another been heaped upon the shoulders of Mr. Schulze, be it via plaudits from far and wide, colleagues or musical collaborators. All have been impressed with his working ethos and the way in which he has forged ahead with what is still very much his "own" uncompromising musical career. Proponents of that school we call "Berlin" styled electronic music have long since hailed Schulze as a master of the art; a whole copycat industry having grown up and flourished in the wake of his classic works.

Of course it hasn't all been plain sailing for Klaus; he too has had his critics along the way. From early on he was to suffer the slings and arrows of journalistic fervour from those who simply failed to get to grips with his music, his basic philosophy and this crazy notion that music can be made using only the synthesiser and no other instrument! Denigrated and maligned in the press for a complete lack of traditional instrumentation and dynamics, relying instead upon these cold clinical machines to make music for him automatically at the flick of a switch, heralding the end of all music as we knew it!

Nothing of course could be further from the truth, Klaus's success alone proving that so many of these "so say" music experts were nothing more than ill informed pompous asses. After the adulation of the 70's, the post punk press were again writing him off (content to destroy those things we love most it seems), confused as to why he was recording at all? Again Klaus was to prove them all wrong with a rejuvenated image and sound for the 80's; here was a man still very much on the cutting edge and not about to fall off it! Did all this media speculation have a point to make? Was Klaus just some kid who had happened to be in the right place at the right time? Or are we to believe the (at times) overblown commentary and claims from overzealous supporters of the man and his music? It's time to ask the big question: "Is Klaus Schulze's iconic stature really justified?" Let's take a brief look at the bigger picture: 

The age of musical indifference is upon us. An age where careers can commence and culminate within timespans measured in weeks, not months or years. Where artists are here today, gone tomorrow based upon the number of downloads uploaded and website hits rather than chart hits. An artist's success or failure weighing heavily upon a certain preponderance in the careful packaging and marketing strategy of the individual's label. In many cases we'll never know just how good or bad some of these artists really are as the revolving door of what's hot and what's not takes another turn leaving them out in the cold in favour of the next big thing! This media phenomenon is most certainly nothing new, now appearing more prevalent and superficial than ever. The media spotlight pandering to the wants and needs of fickle youth trends, be they good or bad; the music industry beast itself remaining that potent self serving animal that ever it was.

So with my ranting out of the way it is at this point I return to Mr. Klaus Schulze, who in his formative years wisely chose not to play those foolish industry games. In the 60's he elected (like so many) to "tune in and drop out", to go off and chase his own musical idiom. Initial reactions to his early recordings as a solo artist were at best ones that saw his music as being a little too experimental for most. People didn't get it, but as time and technology marched on people began to switch on! His single-minded pioneering approach to music had started to pay dividends and there was no going back, no veering off course; Schulze really was in a league all his own. True, there were already great exponents of the synthesiser back in the early 70's, the likes of Wakeman, Emerson etc.,  though what they produced was largely the window dressing/augmentation of tracks which were fundamentally rock band arrangements. Here again is where Schulze changed the rule book; taking the synthesiser and putting it centre stage. The rhythm section being brought up, not by guitar, bass and drums, but by several banks of pulsing sequencers. The lead being voiced by the sound of screaming mono synth. This pure synthesiser approach to composition was not necessarily a revolutionary concept (experimental albums had gone before), but to take on the challenge to play, work and record "live" with these unstable, unwieldy instruments most certainly was something very daring and very different! Add to this melting pot of ideas a new structural way of composing "on the fly" in an improvised fashion and you have yourself very good reason to believe without a doubt that Schulze really was a founding father of that musical something we call electronic!

With a solo career spanning some four decades now Klaus has never strayed far from his chosen musical path, be it the barren sun-scorched vistas of TIMEWIND or the snowy wilderness of MIRAGE, the earthly tundra of PICTURE MUSIC, or the otherworldly textures of X; these classic recordings all baring that same indefinable Schulze signature; to hear his music, you know exactly who it is in an instant. Richard Wagner once stated, "I compose music with an exclamation mark!" I think it would be fair to say that Schulze is very much of the same mould. From IRRLICHT to AUDENTITY, from MOONDAWN to MOONLAKE, Schulze continued to push the envelope with his recordings, though paradoxically his ubiquitous musical structures remain unchanging right up to the present day!

As a solo artist I'm sure it's fair to say Klaus never followed popular musical trends and never set out to start any himself. He is one of those rare artists that didn't seek fame, it sought him and as a consequence of this his music has easily stood the test of time, never succumbing to current fads or fashion, remaining as always content on the sidelines looking in at the world.

So for an answer to the "iconic" question : with Schulze we have a career that cannot be measured in weeks, months, let alone years, but in decades where the man in question still retains that heartfelt vision of what his music should and should not be. His music having more relevance today than ever it has before. With a substantial back catalogue and countless other recordings he jests with his audience, "I've only just begun"! I'm inclined to agree. Is he an iconic figure? Well if he's not, it's time we reappraise the situation. With such a massive body of work behind him, both the man and the music I find to be pretty much inseparable. Electronic music doesn't appear to have a Hall of Fame as of yet, but who better would you have take first seat there if not Schulze?

A brief look back over the prolific career of Mr. Klaus Schulze reads like an unstoppable journey from album to concert, from to concert to album. From complete obscurity to a point in the mid 70's at which it can be said that he had "arrived". One neglected area of his work could easily be said to be that which was performed in the "live" arena during those classic years of the 70's. (The first official Schulze "Live" album not appearing until 1980!). Recordings that had sat in the archives for many years first saw the light of day on the SILVER, HISTORIC and JUBILEE edition CD box sets. These sets now commanding high prices in the marketplace given their deleted, collectable status. With the release of these LA VIE ELECTRONIOUE volumes and the ongoing re-issue series that sizeable gap can be seen to have been filled, fans and collectors worldwide having endured for many years with little or no information regarding recordings from this golden era.

Only a brief period of time is covered in LVE 5. Here we're presented with a collection of live performance recordings made between April 1976 and January 1977.1 could now launch into a lengthy dialogue discussing the attributes of each and every track, giving a blow by blow account of the performances, but in this case that just didn't seem right. One thing the recordings do show us very clearly is that here you have a young Klaus Schulze on top form, skilfully and faultlessly negotiating his way around a plethora of somewhat volatile instruments playing stunning "live'" shows with a dexterous keyboard style and well honed performance that left audiences across Europe spellbound. Klaus letting out all the stops with the sequencers on full tilt!

Amongst the featured recordings there are just so many moments of pure magic, making it seem more bizarre than ever that none of this material ever surfaced on vinyl back in the day. His adept handling of the equipment showing off just how brilliant he was at coaxing new sounds out of the synthesisers available to him to sculpt and shape his way through a performance effortlessly. Klaus breathing life into these otherwise dead machines, controlling them rather than them controlling him. 

(Blue22, September 2008)