Klaus Schulze: The Schulze-Schickert Session (2013)

Klaus Schulze - The Schulze-Schickert Session

KS Album 54

Track Listing:

1.	The Schulze-Schickert Session	45:16
2.	Spirits of the Dead	08:17
3.	Happy Country Life	12:35

Notes: Günther Schickert plays electric guitar and sings.

Rating: 5 Stars

This is the 54th solo album recorded by Klaus Schulze. It's unique in his discography. The record was sold as a bootleg for more than 20 years. KDM found the original tapes and decided to make it an official release.

So where does the music come from? On 26th September 1975 Günter Schickert visited Klaus at home in Hambühren. They spontaneously sat down to play together in Klaus' living room. It was a jam session, two musicians having fun together. But somehow it got out. "The Schulze-Schickert Session" (the first track on the CD) was sold on bootleg LPs throughout the world.

As for how it happened, I don't have any information, so I'll speculate. I assume that Klaus gave Günter a cassette tape of the session to take home with him. Günter was proud of the music, so he shared it with his friends. One of his friends was less honest, so he arranged for the tape to be transferred to vinyl. Does that sound realistic to you?

I don't know when KDM first found out about the bootleg, but in 2013 he took the only correct steps: He provided the original tape to the label Mirumir for an official release. The sound quality was far superior to the bootleg. In addition, he also supplied two shorter tracks recorded in the same session. A lesser man would have taken legal action against the bootleggers. KDM killed the market for the bootleg by providing something better.

Many fans claim that "The Schulze-Schickert Session" is just as good as Klaus Schulze's official album releases in the 1970's. I wouldn't go quite that far, but the music is certainly outstanding. The only weak point is the singing for about two minutes at the end of the title track.

The album is now out of print, so the bootleggers are back in business selling illegal copies of the CD. That's unfortunate but necessary. I'm strongly opposed to music piracy, but in my opinion making Klaus Schulze's music available has priority over copyright issues.