Klaus Schulze: Moondawn (1976)

Klaus Schulze - Moondawn

KS Canon 6

Track Listing:

1.	Floating	27:13
2.	Mindphaser	25:35

Bonus Tracks:

3.

Floating Sequence

21:11

Notes:
(1) Harald Grosskopf plays drums.
(2) The vocals at the start of "Floating" are a recording of the Lord's Prayer in Arabic.

Rating: 5 Stars
Bonus Tracks: 4 Stars

It's difficult for me to say which is my favourite Klaus Schulze album. Out of the first five albums I preferred "Irrlicht", although "Picture Music" and "Timewind" came very close. However, when I returned home with "Moondawn" and played it the first time it overtook "Irrlicht" and became my favourite album. The strong use of sequencers in the first track is hypnotic, while the second track has a rock music feeling about it without being rock music.

When "Moondawn" was first released on CD in 1990 a small change was made. Klaus noticed a small clicking noise in the fade-out at the end of "Floating" that annoyed him. It was the sound of the studio tape machine which could only be heard in very quiet passages. He asked the musician Georg Stettner to play a mellotron chord to be mixed in to replace the fade-out. This only lasted a few seconds, but there were many complaints from fans of the original LP. Klaus Schulze's publisher KDM (Klaus Dieter Müller) took the side of the fans and decided that all future releases of the album should be without the alteration, which he described as unnatural.

The bonus track is an alternative version of the sequencer tracks for "Floating". It's interesting to listen to, but it's not up to the quality of the track included on the original album.

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Go - Go (1976)

Stomu Yamashta (keyboards)
Steve Winwood (vocals)
Michael Shrieve (drums)
Al Di Meola (guitar)
Klaus Schulze (synthesizers)
Rosko Gee (bass guitar)

Rating: 2½ Stars

In 1976 the Japanese keyboard player Stomu Yamashta decided to put together a supergroup, consisting of the world's best musicians. When Klaus first received a phone call asking him to join he turned down the offer, saying that it wouldn't work. He changed his mind when he heard that Steve Winwood was taking part, since he was one of his favourite musicians. Klaus should have followed his first instincts. It didn't work. I bought it on LP when it was first released, but I never bothered buying it again on CD.

The only good that came from the Go sessions is that Klaus Schulze met Michael Shrieve, Santana's drummer. In future years they played together on several occasions.

There's an amusing little story from the sessions. In general the musicians got on well together, but Al Di Meola considered himself the best musician in the group. He boasted to Klaus that he could play faster than anyone else. Al played a small melody on his guitar. Klaus repeated the melody on his synthesizer, slightly faster. Al repeated the melody, faster still. Klaus increased the speed again. Soon Klaus was playing so fast that Al couldn't keep up, and he gave up in frustration.

"How do you do it?" asked Al.

Klaus pointed at his sequencer and said, "I turn this little knob, and it makes the music faster".

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Go - Go Live From Paris (1976)

Stomu Yamashta (keyboards)
Steve Winwood (vocals)
Michael Shrieve (drums)
Al Di Meola (guitar)
Klaus Schulze (synthesizers)
Jerome Rimsom (bass guitar)

Rating: 2 Stars

Go performed two live concerts in 1976, on 29th May in London and 12th June in Paris. I went to the London concert, excited because it was the first time I'd ever seen Klaus Schulze live. I was disappointed. The music was dull and uninspired. I could see Klaus on stage, but I could hardly hear him because he was drowned out by the other musicians. Finally Klaus was allowed to play a synthesizer solo. It lasted about 20 minutes. It was spoilt by Stomu Yamashta occasionally accompanying him on his own keyboards.