Klaus Schulze’s 101 Milky Approach was found by his document label after they have been going by his tape vaults following his loss of life 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 beneath 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 together with his pal Edgar Froese, he was one of many founders of the Berlin faculty of digital music. His 70s solo albums have been moderately overshadowed by the surprising 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 means 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 basic Timewind album in his expansive use of atmosphere, drones and sequenced digital rhythms.
This album is especially really useful for many who benefit from the journey as a lot because the vacation spot
101 Milky Approach is a compelling journey which unfolds in an awesome 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 achieve 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 kind of Clever Techno launched on the Warp label within the mid-90s – which Schulze himself had influenced.
A ghost of a rhythm regularly good points kind throughout Meta and re-emerges, embellished, within the closing Uni. One can really feel the drummer’s sensibility: though it’s primarily a programmed groove in 4/4, it has a multilayered complexity, with sufficient rhythmic inflections to take care of curiosity, along with a mesh of stylish dancing melodic strains.
This album is especially really useful for many who benefit from the journey as a lot because the vacation spot – there’s not all the time an awesome deal to see en route, however the 5 and a half minutes of rhythm loop that moderately lazily closes the album is the one superfluous aspect. One wonders what else they may unearth.
101 Milky Approach is on sale now through SPV.