Klaus Schulze: Body Love (1977)

Klaus Schulze - Body Love

KS Canon 7

Track Listing:

1.	Stardancer	13:38
2.	Blanche	11:44
3.	P.T.O.	27:12

Bonus Tracks:

4.

Lasse Braun

22:26

Notes: Harald Grosskopf plays drums.

Rating: 5 Stars
Bonus Tracks: 5 Stars

If you're young you can hardly imagine how difficult it was to be a music fan in the 1970's. What I mean is, if you're the fan of a musician today you're regularly informed about new releases on the Internet. There are official web sites and fan sites for all musicians, whether they're mainstream or relatively unknown. In the 1970's I only found out about new albums by Klaus Schulze by chance. If I was lucky I might find a review in a music magazine. I might see a poster. I might just have found an LP by chance while visiting a record store.

In the case of "Body Love" I read a short article in a Berlin daily newspaper, the BZ. If I hadn't been living in Berlin in 1977 I wouldn't have read the article. It said that Klaus Schulze had recorded the soundtrack for a controversial new pornographic film directed by Lasse Braun called "Body Love". It should have been shown in Berlin cinemas the previous week, but there was a delay because of attempts to ban the film. Interesting. I'd never seen a pornographic film in my life, but I had to see "Body Love".

The BZ didn't give any more details. I had to search for myself. Searching meant walking the streets of Berlin. I knew a few sex cinemas that I'd walked past, so I checked them out, asking if they were showing the film. The answer was always No.

My next step was to ring the phone numbers on the back of my Klaus Schulze LPs. There was no answer at the number listed for Klaus himself. It's possible that he no longer lived at the same address. Then I was lucky. I rang the number of KDM, Klaus Schulze's publisher. It was my first ever personal contact with KDM. He politely gave me an address where I could see the film. I walked there immediately, and there was a sign on the door saying "Now showing a film by Lasse Braun". I asked if the film was "Body Love", to which they replied Yes and told me when it would be shown.

I returned the next day, and it was an interesting experience. When I bought a ticket the lady asked me "What drink do you want?" That was a strange question, but I soon found out the reason. Evidently it was illegal to pay to see pornographic films in Germany, but it was allowed to watch a pornographic film for free while having a drink. Germans have always been experts in making laws and finding legal loopholes to avoid obeying them.

I didn't understand the film. All I knew was that a young woman visited a mansion, then there were several sex scenes, culminating in a giant orgy. After the orgy the young woman walked away while everyone else was asleep. It all seemed so abstract to me, but I enjoyed the music. When I left the cinema I saw a soundtrack LP on sale in the lobby, so I bought it immediately.

Years later I found out that "Body Love" wasn't a typical hardcore pornographic film. I couldn't have known that because I had nothing to compare it with. It was a very artistic film. That was my first and last visit to a sex cinema, but in recent years I've watched other pornographic films at home. Ten years ago I discovered the films of Axel Braun, Lasse Braun's son. After doing a PhD in Psychology Axel decided to follow in his father's footsteps, and he's now become the most successful pornographic film director ever. As if that weren't enough, Axel Braun's son Rikki has also become a director of pornographic films. Pornography is in their blood.

The bonus track was recorded in the same session as the tracks that were released on the LP. It was discovered by KDM on an old tape almost 30 years after it was recorded. It's just as good as the official tracks, so we can be thankful that it wasn't lost.