Satz: Ebene
by Klaus Schulze
“I love the drums. Together with bass, it is definitely my favorite instrument. ”
The drummer has always been this mysterious figure, the heart of the band. Sometimes though, the drummer is underestimated; they don't get the credit they deserve because, more frequently, the composers of the songs are guitarists and singers.
Klaus Schulze is a German pioneer of electronic music. Born in Germany in 1947, he started his musical career as a drummer, and initially, he changed bands quite frequently. His first two experiences with Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel both lasted only one album.
Schulze was more interested in developing a solo career as a composer rather than being "just a drummer" for other bands.
During his solo career, he published more than 60 albums, it all began with his first one, Irrlicht. Released in 1972, the album is a 1 hour and 14-minute instrumental immersive suite, full of landscapes and early organ drone experiments.
Despite being highly unconventional for those times, the album was initially released on the legendary electronic/experimental label, Ohr. That happened because Schulze was still signed to them while still a member of Tangerine Dream. A lucky coincidence for Schulze, who was back then convinced that no one would publish it because of its experimental nature.
As stated in the album booklet, he once said,
““I was just glad that Irrlicht was released at all. Any other company would have probably turned me away with this record.””
Similar to Tangerine Dream's Zeit, Its atmospheric drone music tone was birthed from an idea that eventually caused so much disagreement between Schulze and Edgar Froese they discontinued working with each other.
Despite the lack of synthesizers, this ambient work is still regarded as a milestone in electronic music. Schulze doesn't consider it an electronic album, as he also mentioned in the album booklet,
““Irrlicht still has more connections to Musique concrète than with today’s electronics. I still never owned a synthesizer at the time.” ”
In fact the album's complete title is: Irrlicht: Quadrophonische Symphonie für Orchester und E-Maschinen ("Will-o'-the-wisp: Quadraphonic Symphony for Orchestra and Electronic Machines”).
To produce the record, Schulze used a broken and modified electric organ and a rehearsal recording of the Colloquium Musica Orchestra made of 4 first violins, four second-violins, three violas, eight cellos, one bass, two horns, two flutes, and three oboes. He played them backward and used a damaged amplifier to filter and alter sounds that he mixed on tape into a three-movement symphony.
The opening track 1. Satz: Ebene (in English "1st Movement: Plain") is the stunning first movement of the Quadraphonic Symphony. It's so easy to get lost entirely in its echoes and oscillators, reverberated strings, and bending melodies and pitches. Many artists will use these types of tracks in the future, but most will use these kinds of soundscapes as bridges between tracks or album parts—atmospheric moments between chapters.
This is the most inspiring element of this composition. With this early experiment, Schulze inspired generations of musicians and sound designers around the world.
