Klaus Schulze: Rheingold

Introduction

Klaus Schulze, the ex-drummer of Tangerine Dream (a band with which I'm fairly familiar due to the elder brother's fascination with them many years ago) has been involved with electronic music, specifically synthesized music, for over 40 years. It can be argued that he is one of the more prolific composer/performers of modern times, having produced around 40 albums, and even more under his pseudonym of Richard Wahnfried (a deliberate homage to Richard Wagner, for who Schulze has a great admiration).

His live concerts, however, dropped off for a while, but he returned with a vengeance in this performance from the environs of the mythical Loreley (or Lorelei) rock on the Rhein, and so the title of the performance and subsequent album were sealed in stone, as it were.

He is joined by the Australian singer, Lisa Gerrard, whose voice may well be more familiar to you than you think, as she is featured heavily in the soundtrack to Gladiator. She has featured increasingly in his albums and live performances over the last few years.



Audio

The DTS track is very good indeed. Much of the 'remixing' (if you can call it that) was done in Peter Gabriel's 'Real World Studios' in Wiltshire, and the final mix is realistic and highly ambient, which of course is what you need for this type of music. A few too many audience 'whoops' and shouts of various non-subtitled German phrases are easy to hear and distract from the music itself, but Schulze is quick to calm things down, although I suspect he secretly enjoyed the enthusiasm.

Video

The NTSC quality is more than adequate, if not as clear as you would like. The stage is very murky indeed, but the myriad of lighting effects is brought out nicely, although Schulze seems to need to get very close to some of the keyboards to see what he's doing. There appear to be several camerapersons running about, often getting into shot, but that means there was always an opportunity to stare up Lisa Gerrard's nose and play about with split-screen fun from time to time.

Extras

The extras may be found on the second disc of the set and consist of two fairly meaty items, one being a documentary on the making of the recording and subsequent DVD, the other being a lengthy chat between Schulze and Steven Wilson, the lead singer of Brit progressive rock outfit, Porcupine Tree (a band which which I'm not at all familiar I'm afraid).

The documentary has a few sound problems, but in it, you can tell that the man is passionate about his synthesizers, most especially anything coming from the 60s and early 70s and with the name 'Moog' attached to it. There are a few too many self-promotional soundbites going on though, but it's quite fun.

The chat between Schulze and Wilson is fairly informative, no least when they both discuss their own influences (Wilson gushes, for the most part, about Schulze's own influence on himself), and contains a few interesting opinions on Stockhausen and Steve Reich, Reich coming out on top.

Schulze also mentions that he dislikes operas for the most part, due to the libretti...as fairly major part of any opera worth its salt I would imagine, and then waxes lyrical about how wonderful Wagner is...so, all operas apart from Wagner then I imagine.

Conclusion

This whole performance, being a homage to Wagner and the myths he helped to prolong, would give the impression that apart from the 'titles' of the different pieces (which aren't mentioned by Schulze at all during the performance), there may be some musical connection, or even stylistic nods in the music towards the characteristics of each of the 'names'. I didn't get the impession that there were, and so I suspect they were tagged-on just to create some form of cohesion.
The titles given to the different sections are:

Alberich
Loreley
Wotan
Wellgunde
Nothung
 
Alberich contains incredibly slow-moving choral sounds, gradually picking up rhythmic intensity, and as I mentioned, creates a soundworld which doesn't particularly reflect the the character of the eponymous 'poisoned dwarf'.

Loreley isn't actually a character in the Wagner canon, but is a fitting name for this concert of course, and could be considered to be a Rheinmaiden of sorts, as she was supposed to have lulled unwary sailors onto the rock itself by virtue of her bewitching singing voice.

It's a suitable piece in which to introduce Lisa Gerrard, whose own voice is fairly 'unworldly' and who creates an extra sense of mystery with her improvised lyrics, all of which are made up, and so there is no need for subtitles. Just imagine some 'elvish' mixed up with Gaelic-sounding patterns and you're nearly there. Overall, this is a particularly sensuous sound world in which the rhythmic interest picks up throughout.



Wotan is a different piece altogether, and so quite welcome for that. If there is any connection between the music and the character of the head of the Gods, then it shows him to be riddled with pain and guilt, which can probably pass for a reasonable stab at the Wagnerian figure. Nice to hear what appears to be a truncated version of the end of 'A Day in the Life' to finish it off.

Wellgunde, being one of yer actual Wagnerian Rheinmaidens, begins quite natually with a lengthy solo from Gerrard, and is only joined by Schulze when he pops on stage from what was probably a well-needed comfort break. Unfortunately, if you haven't drifted off by now, the music is spoiled slightly by some manic camera changes that would be fine if the music was  more energetic than it actually is.

Nothung finishes the evening off with something far more lively, and wouldn't be out of place as a club track. No Lisa Gerrard involved here, just Schulze doing what he does best.


So, a bit of a mixed bag, but ultimately very satisfying if you're a fan of Klaus Schulze and his style of improvisation. The amount of hardware on stage doesn't reflect what we actually hear, as he freely admits in the documentaries that he often decides what he's going to play on the spur of the moment, but he's obviously an expert in his craft, and has a deep and infectious passion for his instruments.