Irrlicht (album)

Irrlicht
Studio album by Klaus Schulze
Released	August 1972
Recorded	April 1972 in Berlin
Genre	Electronic, Musique concrète, Space, Drone
Length	50:27 (original) 74:27 (2006 reissue)
Label	Ohr
Producer	Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze chronology
Irrlicht (1972) Cyborg (1973)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Irrlicht is the first album by Klaus Schulze. Originally released in 1972, in 2006 it was the sixteenth Schulze album reissued by Revisited Records as part of a series of Schulze album reissues. Recorded without a synthesizer, Irrlicht's set of "early organ drone experiments" is "not exactly the music for which KS got famous".^[2]

Overview

The album's complete title is: Irrlicht: Quadrophonische Symphonie für Orchester und E-Maschinen (German: "Will-o'-the-wisp: Quadraphonic Symphony for Orchestra and Electronic Machines"). Its atmospheric drone music tone is similar to Tangerine Dream's album Zeit (released the same month) as it stemmed from a common idea that Schulze and Froese couldn't agree on and parted ways over.

In 2005, Schulze said, "Irrlicht still has more connections to Musique concrète than with today's electronics. I still never owned a synthesiser at the time."^[3] Schulze mainly used a broken and modified electric organ, a recording of a classical orchestra rehearsal played backward, and a damaged amplifier to filter and alter sounds that he mixed on tape into a three-movement symphony.^[3]

Irrlicht, despite its highly unconventional nature, was originally released on the prestigious krautrock label Ohr. Because Schulze was signed to them while a member of Tangerine Dream, the label asserted that his solo album belonged to them too;^[3] Schulze's reaction was, "I was just glad that Irrlicht was released at all. Any other company would have probably turned me away with this record."^[3]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Klaus Schulze.

Notes

• On vinyl, "Ebene" and "Gewitter" were combined into one 29:00 long track.
• "Satz" is the German word for the musical term "movement", therefore "1. Satz" is German for "1st Movement".^[3] Translated, the titles mean:
  • 1st Movement: "Plain" (as in the flat plains of Sils)
  • 2nd Movement: "Thunderstorm"
  • 3rd Movement: "Sils Maria exile" (possibly a reference to Nietzsche)
• The 3rd Movement "Exil Sils Maria" was recorded backwards. The recording can be heard the way it was originally recorded by being played in reverse.

Personnel

• Klaus Schulze – "E-machines", organ, guitar, percussion, zither, voice, etc.
• Colloquium Musica Orchestra (4 first violins, 4 second violins, 3 violas, 8 cellos, 1 bass, 2 horns, 2 flutes, 3 oboes)^[4] – recorded as raw material then post-processed and filtered on tape.^[3]

References

• Irrlicht CD booklet, 2006, Revisited Records, SPV 304962 CD

Notes

1. ↑ Allmusic review
2. ↑ Both quotes from re-release producer Klaus D. Mueller (from the website and the booklet, respectively).
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Irrlicht CD booklet.
4. ↑ Original 1972 LP booklet as quoted at Discogs.

External links

• Irrlicht at the official site of Klaus Schulze
• Irrlicht at Discogs (list of releases)