''Timewind'' is the fifth album by
Klaus Schulze. It was originally released in 1975, and in 2006 was the twenty-second Schulze album reissued by
Revisited Records. It is Schulze's first solo album to use a
sequencer.
For many years this was his only work available in the United States and was therefore rated higher by American listeners than 1977's ''
Mirage
A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', meanin ...
'' or ''
X'' of the following year. It was awarded the
Grand Prix du Disque (Grand Prize for Records) of
L'Académie Charles Cros.
Overview
Evolving slowly but deliberately over the course of each album side, ''Timewind'' has been deemed an electronic version of an Indian
raga
A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradit ...
. It resembles in many ways a longer variation of the third track from
Tangerine Dream's classic 1974 album
''Phaedra'', "Movements of a Visionary," but it remains a transitional work somewhere between the
Krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
of Schulze's earlier output and the
Berlin School Berlin School may refer to:
* Berlin School of Creative Leadership
* Berlin School of filmmaking
*Berlin School of electronic music, or ''Krautrock''
*Berlin School of experimental psychology
*Berliner Modell
The Berlin Model (german: Berliner Mo ...
character of his following efforts. The intention of ''Timewind'' was to invoke a timeless state in the listener.
Both track titles are references to the nineteenth-century composer
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
.
Bayreuth
Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...
is the
Bavarian town where Wagner had an
opera house built for the first performance of his massive
Ring Cycle.
Wahnfried is the name of Wagner's home in Bayreuth in the grounds of which he was buried in 1883. It is also a
pen-name used by Schulze himself.
"Bayreuth Return" was recorded on two-track equipment in one take, and is essentially "live in the studio". Its rhythmic basis is a single
analog sequencer pattern, transposed and manipulated in real time. (The manipulation primarily consists of changing the 'return' point of the sequence.)
String synthesizer
A string synthesizer or string machine is a specialized synthesizer designed specifically to make sounds similar to that of a string orchestra.
Dedicated string synthesizers occupied a specific musical instrument niche between electronic organs ...
chords, improvised melodies, and complex sound effects are the remaining ingredients. "Wahnfried 1883", in contrast, is a slow piece that was composed and multitracked. Its main building blocks are layers of slow, shimmering pads and lines. The kaleidoscopic key changes without obvious 'home key' (the piece remains consonant throughout) may be seen as a musical nod to Wagner: also, a
Leitmotif
A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglici ...
appears. An excerpt of the graphic performance score appears on the inside sleeve of the original vinyl version. The reissue bonus track "Echoes of Time" is a longer alternate take of "Bayreuth Return".
Track listing
All tracks composed by Klaus Schulze.
Disc 1
Disc 2
Personnel
* Klaus Schulze – ARP 2600, ARP Odyssey, EMS Synthi-A, Elka String Synthesizer, Farfisa Professional Duo Organ and Piano, Synthanorma Sequencer.
References
External links
''Timewind''at the official site of Klaus Schulze
*
{{Authority control
Klaus Schulze albums
1975 albums