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| Frequently Asked Questions |  |
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Who is Klaus Schulze? Klaus Schulze was a musician, composer, player and performer, a producer and record artist who "nearly single-handed invented electronic music" as the British Audion magazine once wrote. He was born in August 1947 in Berlin. His first commercial release was with a combo called Tangerine Dream. Klaus was 22 years old then. Many solo albums, concerts, and other activities followed, including collaborations with famous or less famous musicians, the founding and closing of two own record companies, and much more. And my name is Klaus D. Mueller. Since 1973 I have been working close with the other Klaus. Schulze is doing the music, I do most of the rest. You can contact me, and I will try to answer your questions. |
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Where can I buy Klaus Schulze CDs? Normally, you get CDs in a shoe shop... oops, I mean: in a CD Please keep in mind: The music of Klaus Schulze is copyrighted, also videos of Klaus or with him (for instance: Stahlsinfonie), also his tv appearances. No fan has the right to put copyrighted music into the Internet, be it in his own website or into other people's or companies' (for instance: YouTube) website, be it for money or for free, be it as a professional or just as an idealistic and "well-meaning" fan, be it complete albums, tracks, or just a few seconds, be it in good quality or in low (mp3). As long as you don't have the written permission by the copyright owners, such doing is a violation of copyright, a crime. And therefore, it will be proscecuted. The permission to publish, to perform, or to use a Klaus Schulze recording in any other way, can be given, for instance, by the record company and the publisher, by the responsible tv station, by the copyright societies for publishing and/or performance right, regarding of existing contracts that KS has with these people or institutions. The copyright is of course not just for Schulze's music, but for EACH and EVERY copyrighted music and EACH and EVERY other copyrighted material such as textes, photos, etc. Here too, you always must ask the owner of the rights, the writer, the photographer etc. Also, keep in mind, that illegal actions like copyright violation (even if from a "well-meaning" fan) will give some politicians just wonderful arguments for censorship of the Internet. And we all don't want this, do we? |
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Where can I get a Klaus Schulze album? The only Klaus Schulze albums that are deleted from the catalogues are:
The three sets were included in the 50 CD set The Ultimate Edition which is meanwhile also deleted. Some dealers may still have a copy, and this could be also with other older albums of Klaus. For availability you should check a CD shop or a mail-order service. For current label and catalogue number of each album please check in our discography section. If you read the notice "Not available" or "Deleted" there, it's useless to ask us if these albums are available :-) |
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How do I know about a new album of Klaus Schulze? Each new official album will be automatically announced on the opening page of this website. After a few weeks we put it in the regular discography section. |
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When will the next Klaus Schulze concert take place? After his Tokyo concerts in 2010, KS has publicly announced that he will give no concerts anymore. |
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Was Picture Music Klaus Schulze's album no. 3 or was it no. 4? The newest research was published in The KS Circle, issue no. 120. The main proof are the instruments used: It seems that first KS recorded Blackdance (with the EMS synthi), later he recorded Picture Music (with the EMS and the ARP Odyssey). The order of release was: Blackdance in August 1974, then Picture Music in January 1975. |
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What text and in what language is read at the beginning of Floating? The reciter in the beginning of Floating is a kind of early "sampling". Klaus used a tape with the sound of an Arab reciting the Christian "Lord's Prayer". It was only the sound that KS liked and used, not the contents of the singing or the recitation. This is mostly the case when Klaus uses voices; it's only the sound, not the words he's interested in. |
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I understand that the Brain CD release of Moondawn had some
aftertreatment (overdubs). Is that also the case with the Brain CD releases
of Mirage, "X", and Body Love 1 & 2? In circa 1990/1991 Metronome (the head of the Brain label) decided it's time to rerelease the classic Moondawn and "X" in the CD format. They asked Klaus Schulze to re-master both. Klaus put some reverb and equalisation onto the "X" tracks (and the Ludwig title was shortened by 20 seconds - I don't know how this did happen). With Moondawn Klaus did more: To erase the tape noise at the very soft and quiet track beginnings and endings he made the original long fades much shorter; and in addition he played a Mellotron choir on the title(s). Because of this I produced in 1995 the original Moondawn as we know & love it from the LP ...in a perfect sound and with a long bonus track. There are no changes or modifications with Mirage and the Body Love CDs, but watch out for the re-releases of these in the year 2005 and later. I also compared the Japanese "Brain" and the British "Thunderbolt" CD releases of Mirage with the old LP and with the original Mirage tape. They all sound the same. More of these (mostly: smaller) differences among album releases can be found in The Works. |
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When I was just a little kid, my brother owned an LP by Klaus Schulze. The name of that album was Rock On Brain. I don't seem to find it back in any discography. It was a double album and I recall it as being absolutely beautiful. My brother, however, sold the thing. This was just one of many (!) samplers of the late seventies and the eighties that included tracks from formerly released (then and today still available) albums by Klaus on the Brain label. All those old & long deleted samplers are not specially mentioned in the website's discography. Detailed info about more than 800 records from the past & the present that bear the name "Klaus Schulze" you can find in the detailed discography Klaus Schulze - The Works. The same is true of the many records that Klaus "only" produced, co-produced, recorded, mixed, or re-mixed. After all, KS was the owner of two record labels in the past. You will find those records only in Klaus Schulze - The Works. |
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What about Aphrica? Why has it been deleted? The reason why the album Aphrica was taken off the market in 1984 had mainly simple legal reasons. It was Ernst Fuchs who asked the record company to stop it. Accidentially I was present when this phone call from Fuchs' lawyer came in. And I advised the Inteam office worker immediately: Do it. Because Inteam had "forgotten" to make a contract with Mr Fuchs. Besides, it's an awful album, just because of that silly singing or recitation. Fuchs tries to be "serious", but he's only involuntarily funny. In Germany we have the word "peinlich" for it. The best that could happen was this telephone call from Fuchs' lawyer who asked to stop it (maybe he's a music lover? :-)) I don't know anyone (except for one fan from California) who likes the "singing" of this famous painter, especially side 2 of the LP is a bummer. Shortly after the recording, Mr Fuchs told in a German tv talkshow that he did an LP, that the album is 100% his music, that he did the whole electronic music, yes. And good natured Klaus Schulze was even so kind to make and to give him a playback tape for that tv show, and indeed Fuchs used this Schulze/Bloss tape in the show. Although I liked Fuchs very much as a painter & artist before, all my respect is gone since then. Sadly, there are no recordings of that specific work without the singing. (Taken from The KS Circle #46) |
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I found a Klaus Schulze CD "made in Korea". A rarity? No. It is one of several illegal CD releases (not the usual CD-R copies!) of long deleted albums which are available on the black market; albums that bear the name of Klaus Schulze. Their imprint says: "Licensed by P.O.E.M. Musikverlag". This is a lie. I am the "P.O.E.M. Musikverlag" (= publisher) and I never licensed these albums to no one simply because I don't own the necessary rights. Moreover, P.O.E.M. is not even the publisher of the titles on some of these albums. I have nothing to do with these criminal releases by a pretended South Korean company. (My experienced nose was right. In the year 2008 I realized: Every buyer of psychedelic and progressive music should know that this CD on the label "Won-Sin" (South Korea) is illegal. Behind this label is a corpulent Berlin record dealer, who is also responsible for some other illegal labels like Black Rose, BOD, Red Fox, Walhalla, Lizard, Estrella, Progressive Line, Lake Eerie, Mason, Sunrise und Free Records, which are being sold at record fairs and on the Internet.) |
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What are the sub-titles on some longer tracks for? The subtitles of longer Schulze tracks on CDs are especially meant for those who have the possibility to show indexes at their CD players, in addition to the normal track indicator. Some CD players still have this option. For example, let us look at the CD In Blue. When the first track's sub-title Blowin' the Blues Away starts at 15:24, the player automatically shows Track 1 Index 2. After another 20:05 the next sub-title Blue Moods starts and the player shows then Track 1 Index 3, and so on. Got it? On many CD players you can also jump directly to any index mark which makes it easier for you if you want to listen to the end of a very long track. Sadly, these "index mark" CD players are meanwhile extinct. NB: On the re-releases on Revisited Records (SPV), all these "index" tracks have changed into "real" tracks. |
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Where does Klaus Schulze's pseudonym Richard Wahnfried come from? "Richard" is the name of one of Klaus Schulze's sons, and the first name of the German composer Wagner (1813-1883). "Wahnfried" is the name of Richard Wagner's house, and Wagner died in 1883 (in Venice). The German word "Wahn" means today mainly: illusion or craziness (but Wagner used another -older- meaning of "wähnen" = Erwartung, Hoffnung, Suche; which is: hope, expectation, search). The 'fried" means etymologically: shelter, refuge, protection, but also "Frieden" (peace). Wagner invented the word "Wahnfried". In his own words: he hoped that his "wähnen Frieden fand" (= that his search and hopes will find peace). KS used the name "Richard Wahnfried" the first time in 1979 (the year his son Richard was born) for the album Time Actor. |
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Which videos/DVDs of KS are available? A 4-minute clip from WEA for Are You Sequenced? was shown in the typical pop music video channels such as MTV etc. in 1996/97, all over the world. From 2005 on, some professional videos are released on DVD:
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Why aren't there any MP3s on your website? If you take a look into the discography, you will notice that KS' tracks are often very long. In our opinion it doesn't make much sense to cut out a 2 minute snippet of a 75 minute piece. It's not always good to do something just because it's technically possible. Besides, for the inclusion of each music track in the website an annual fee must be paid at least to the copyright society (and probably to other owners of rights such as the record companies). |
