Klaus Schulze

Good morning.

Today we’re listening to Klaus Schulze, a German electronic music composer. Schulze, who passed away on Tuesday at age 74, was a pioneer of synth music and an early member of the group Tangerine Dream. He was one of the ‘70s musicians who figured out that synths could be used to create entire sound environments, presaging ambient music. We’re first playing a recent album of his, Silhouettes from 2018, whose four long tracks consist of churchly synth pads and occasional dissonant sequences. Then we’re digging into the archives with Irrlicht from 1972. That record consists of three movements of his “Quadrophonische Symphonie,” which sounds like it could score a sci-fi movie today. Maybe that’s why Hans Zimmer brought him on as a collaborator for his 2021 Dune score.¹

Silhouettes - Klaus Schulze (70m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal

Irrlicht - Klaus Schulze (50m, no vocals but some abrasive sounds on track 2)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal

Have a good Thursday.

Alamy

1. via The Guardian