Klaus Schulze: Eternal (2017)

Klaus Schulze - Eternal

KS Album 58

Track Listing (CD 1):

1.	Rhodes Romance	47:41
2.	Minority Report	13:33
3.	Mongolia	18:23

Track Listing (CD 2):

1.	Schrittmacher	13:35
2.	Ion/Andromeda	16:07
3.	Andromeda: The Grand Trance	41:09

Rating: 5 Stars

The album's full title is "Eternal; The 70th Birthday Edition". As the title says, it was released to celebrate Klaus Schulze's 70th birthday on 4th August 2017. It's interesting that the photo used on the cover is an old photo. Doesn't Klaus want to show himself as he looks now? It's an edited version of the photo that was used for "Mirage" in 1977, when he had long hair. I remember when I had long hair, many, many years ago.

This is the 58th solo album recorded by Klaus Schulze, but it's not an album of newly recorded music. "Rhodes Romance" is an alternate version of "The Rhodes Violin" from the bonus CD of "Shadowlands" (2013). The first 39 minutes of the two tracks are identical, after which they develop in different directions. "Minority Report" and "Mongolia" are previously unreleased tracks from 2001 and 2007 respectively. All three tracks on the first CD are relaxed, good listening to chill out.

The tracks on the second CD were all recorded in 2004. "Schrittmacher" was previously only available on a sampler called "Tasty Tracks". Tasty tracks? That sounds like the name of a disgusting pop sampler with the latest songs from American rappers. In actual fact it was a collection of songs by seven musicians, all of whom were using the Schrittmacher sequencer. The sampler is long out of print and I haven't been able to find the other six tracks online. All I can say is that Klaus Schulze is the King of Sequencers, so I doubt the other music is up to the standard of this brilliant track.

"Ion/Andromeda" and "Andromeda: The Grand Trance" are the two tracks from "Ion", the promotional CD that was given away at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in 2004. A heavily remixed version was included as a bonus track on the rerelease of "Le Moulin de Daudet" in 2005, but purists among Klaus Schulze's were screaming out for an official release of the original version. They only had to wait 12 years. These two tracks are mixed together as a single track, but they have distinct musical styles. The second track is faster than the first and more heavily sequencer-driven.

The whole album is outstanding, with the exception of "Mongolia". I admit that I didn't like "Rhodes Romance" when it started, but after the first 20 minutes I was hooked. The best track (in my opinion) is "Schrittmacher".