Klaus Schulze: Dresden Performance (1990)

Klaus Schulze - Dresden Performance

KS Canon 22

Track Listing (CD 1):

1.	Dresden 1 (Live)	44:06
2.	Dresden 3	10:28
3.	Dresden 5	18:23

Track Listing (CD 2):

1.	Dresden 2 (Live)	47:09
2.	Dresden 4	22:01

Rating: 4½ Stars

This is the 22nd solo album recorded by Klaus Schulze. On 5th August 1989 Klaus Schulze was scheduled to perform an open air concert in Dresden, which was still part of East Germany. He planned to play five pieces, but because of last minute restrictions by the local police he was only able to play two pieces. To make up for this he recorded the other three pieces of music in the studio over the next few months.

My rating of 4¾ Stars is the average of 4½ Stars for the first CD and 5 Stars for the second CD.

An LP was released at the same time as the CD, but it only contained the three studio tracks. It's as if Klaus was saying to his fans, "Look! If you like my music you need to buy a CD player. The age of LPs is over".

It's noticeable that there are no audience noises on the live tracks. It's impossible to distinguish between the live and studio recordings, unless you've been told which are which.

The album has never been re-released, due to Virgin Records refusing to sell the copyright. This is a strange business policy, since Virgin has now allowed the album to go out of print.

I consider this a much better album than "Miditerranean Pads", which was released earlier in the year. "Dresden Performance" has much more musical depth. Ignore the strange numbering of the tracks. You can listen to the album in the order the tracks are contained.

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These are the CD liner notes in full:

October 3rd 1990

Early in 1989 Klaus Schulze was asked to perform an open air concert in Dresden (in what was then East Germany) during the summer of that year. Although Schulze had not toured in Europe since 1985, given that in East Germany a Schulze album on the black market could cost almost a month's salary, it seemed an ideal way of saying "Thank You". The concert was arranged for August 5th 1989, and five pieces were prepared for performance. This compact disc is in part a record of the concert. Due to last minute restrictions imposed by the police, only the main pieces (Dresden 1 and 2) were performed live to the 6,800 strong audience. The remaining link pieces were recorded later in the studio. As all five pieces were prepared for the concert, the decision was made to include them for this release. Obviously, at the time of the gig nobody could have predicted the sequence of historic events which were to unfold in Germany in the following months. Happily, the restrictions on the gig would not apply in Dresden now, and there seems a nice irony in the fact that these liner notes are being written on the day when a single Germany has finally become a reality.