Klaus Schulze: Big in Europe Vol. 1 (2013)

Klaus Schulze - Big in Europe Vol. 1

KS Album 55

Track Listing:

1.	Voices of Wielun	07:46
2.	Kampania Wrzesniowa	06:03
3.	Selbsterkennende Ganzwerdung	27:15
4.	A la recherche du printemps perdu	06:58
5.	The Da Varsawa Code	10:28

Notes: Lisa Gerrard sings on "Selbsterkennende Ganzwerdung" and "The Da Varsawa Code".

Rating: 5 Stars

This is the 55th solo album recorded by Klaus Schulze. It was recorded at a concert  in Warsaw, Poland on 17th September 2009. Klaus was personally invited by the Polish government to play a concert for the 70th anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland. This dark subject matter leads to a more subdued concert than the more powerful "Dziekuje Bardzo", which was performed 10 months earlier on 13th November 2008.

At the end of the concert Klaus said to the audience, "See you maybe next year". This wasn't to be. Due to health problems his last ever concert was in Tokyo on 21st March 2010.

The concert DVDs for "Rheingold" and "Dziekuje Bardzo" had to be bought separately. This time they're contained in one package. The CD contains two bonus DVDs. The first DVD is a concert recording with the same music as the CD. The second DVD is a documentary, jokingly called a moogumentary.

The first three tracks are a single piece of music. The last two tracks are a second piece of music. Despite the slow start in the first two tracks, it's an excellent album. Lisa Gerrard's contribution supports Klaus Schulze's style. Her voice is an instrument, as powerful as a cello or a violin.

The fact that the album is called "Vol 1" suggests that there will be other volumes. Patience. The fans will have to wait another year for the second volume.

Even though they were released together, I've decided to review the CD and the DVDs separately.

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After reading my review of "Shadowlands" a friend asked me about my numbering of the Klaus Schulze albums. According to Wikipedia, "Shadowlands" is either the 41st or the 102nd album, depending on whether the big box sets are counted. My post called it his 53rd album. So who's right?

I've discussed this question in the past, but I'll repeat myself here. The simple answer is that the numbering is a mess. For instance, "Aphrica" and "Drive Inn" were originally called the 18th and 19th albums respectively, but KDM in his infinite wisdom has since relegated them to collaborations. He renumbered the albums from 1 ("Irrlicht") to 91 ("Virtual Outback"), including the individual albums of the "Silver Edition", the "Historic Edition", the "Jubilee Edition" and the last five CDs of the "Ultimate Edition". He didn't include the "Contemporary Works" as a box set in the numbering, but he included them in his (new) official numbering individually.

As far as possible, I've kept to KDM's new numbering, excluding the 50 CDs of the four Edition box sets, even though I personally disagree with some of his decisions. Is "Drive Inn" only a collaboration? I'd call it a solo album. The same is true of "Babel". Andreas Grosser has equal billing on the cover of "Babel", making it look like a collaboration, but by that argument "Farscape" could also be called a collaboration.

My personal definition is that an album is a collaboration if Klaus Schulze's contribution to the music is less than 50%. That might sound like an arbitrary definition, but I think it's sensible. I'm willing to discuss it with any Klaus Schulze fans who think differently.

But at the end of the day, does it really matter whether "Shadowlands" is the 41st, the 53rd or the 102nd album? What matters is that true Klaus Schulze fans (like me!) should be able to collect all his albums, however they're numbered. I own all his solo albums and most of his collaborations. I'm happy with my collection.