Klaus Schulze: Mirage (1977)

Klaus Schulze - Mirage

KS Canon 8

Track Listing:

1.	Velvet Voyage	28:16
2.	Crystal Lake	29:15

Bonus Tracks:

3.

In Cosa Crede Chi Non Crede

19:39

Rating: 5 Stars
Bonus Tracks: 3 Stars

I recently read that this is the most popular album among Klaus Schulze's fans. I don't know how this fact was decided. Was there a poll among his fans that I didn't hear about? I can't say with any certainty what my favourite Klaus Schulze album is, but definitely not "Mirage". When I've finished the first 12 albums, which I refer to as the Golden Age Schulze, I'll make a judgement. In my 40 years of being a fan, this is the first time I've ever listened to them in order.

"Mirage" is less rhythmic and more sombre than the previous albums. It's dedicated to Klaus Schulze's brother, who was dying at the time the album was recorded. I wouldn't consider the music to be sad, but there's more of a melancholy element.

The bonus track was recorded at the same time and is in a similar style, but the sound quality is inferior, possibly due to the tape decaying after being stored for 30 years.

I own the 2005 release of "Mirage" on SPV Records. In the CD booklet Klaus Schulze's publisher KDM writes "We have included a slightly different version of Velvet Voyage". Since this is the only version I currently own I can't compare it with the original LP version. All I know is that I've read reviews by fans in which the new version is criticised as inferior. In 2017 a 40th anniversary edition of the album was released on Mig Records which includes the original version of "Velvet Voyage".

Here is the message that Klaus wrote on the album cover:

Music as it should be.

Music is a dream without the isolation of sleep. In fact, whilst listening to music your ego is living. But your universal ego – your principle watching of your universal ego – is taking a new level of participation, the dream is reality because you are living the dream, and your dreams control your reality.

The supreme reality is creativity (all kinds of art), which takes you back to your mental origins.

So my concept (if there is one) includes your mental superior reality as well as daily life.

The musical theory is perfection, sometimes never obtained. The concept is a mental reaction, the process of movement and change, the basics of mankind.

Music to me is the background to a mental picture, but the exact interpretation must be made by the listener, hence the music is only half composed and the listener himself should attack the composition to gain a mental repercussion.

The listener has to add to the meaning. Of course, my composition is in a basic direction which is my own creativity, but I think it leaves space for interpretation, which must also be done by the listener.

This is why perhaps people love or hate my music!

Some people don't invest effort into things if no material profit is to be had, unaware of the mental joys.

This is a very short explanation of political and marketing manipulation. I could go on, but it is for people to find their own brain oscillation. If they don't it becomes a bad, boring joke.

The principle of my music are to make the listener powerful and happy to endure our dying planet life by using their own creativity and being aware of emotion.

It should be a way of living by people who compose their lives and not, as is usual, the composition of politicians and manipulators.

I wish everybody a pleasant exploration of themselves. I cannot say it properly in words. I'm not a poet but a musician.