Klaus Schulze’s 101 Milky Approach was found by his document label after they had been going by his tape vaults following his dying in 2022. It had been commissioned because the soundtrack music for Hacker, a movie about pc criminals. Solely a fraction of it appeared within the film, however Schulze had composed a full suite, coming in at a shade below 80 minutes.
From the late 60s, influenced by Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix, Schulze was the drummer in Psy Free and performed on the self-titled 1971 debut of Ash Ra Tempel, whom he’d described as “house rock.” Schulze additionally performed drums on Tangerine Dream’s 1970 debut Digital Meditation; and along with his good friend Edgar Froese, he was one of many founders of the Berlin faculty of digital music. His 70s solo albums had been quite overshadowed by the sudden industrial success of Tangerine Dream’s 1974 album, Phaedra.
Schulze moved from analogue electronica to digital, to creating sonic collages of samples – however he insisted in interviews that though his approach of manufacturing music modified with expertise, his musical concepts didn’t. And whereas 44 years separates them, there are similarities between 101 Milky Approach and 1975’s traditional Timewind album in his expansive use of atmosphere, drones and sequenced digital rhythms.
This album is especially advisable for many who benefit from the journey as a lot because the vacation spot
101 Milky Approach is a compelling journey which unfolds in a fantastic structural arc. The opening part, Infinity, is a slow-moving drift of minor chords punctuated by distant vocals and synth notes spiralling skywards. At round half-hour in, throughout Multi, the intricate rhythmic components coalesce and acquire momentum with effervescent sequencers and panoramic synth sweeps.
Whereas nonetheless underpinned by dolorous keyboards, it turns into mesmeric, subtly shifting over 20 odd minutes, with echoes of the type of Clever Techno launched on the Warp label within the mid-90s – which Schulze himself had influenced.
A ghost of a rhythm regularly features type throughout Meta and re-emerges, embellished, within the closing Uni. One can really feel the drummer’s sensibility: though it’s basically a programmed groove in 4/4, it has a multilayered complexity, with sufficient rhythmic inflections to keep up curiosity, along with a mesh of chic dancing melodic strains.
This album is especially advisable for many who benefit from the journey as a lot because the vacation spot – there’s not at all times a fantastic deal to see en route, however the 5 and a half minutes of rhythm loop that quite lazily closes the album is the one superfluous ingredient. One wonders what else they may unearth.
101 Milky Approach is on sale now by way of SPV.