Released
in August of 1972, the debut solo album from Klaus Schulze, Irrlicht,
is marking half a century on the planet this month. 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"). Though Schulze may be known as a
synthesizer master, there are actually none used on this album. The
sounds all originate from a manipulated recording of an orchestra
rehearsal and tonalities extracted from a broken and modified electronic
organ.
The initial conceptions for the album arose while Schulze was still part of Tangerine Dream, but he came into conflict over the direction of the project with Edgar Froese and, failing to resolve their issues, Schultze left the band to work on it as a solo effort. Because he was still under contract with Krautrock label Ohr due to his association with Tangerine Dream, the label insisted that his solo recordings were covered under that contract and they released the album. This was actually not a problem for Schulze as the experimental nature of the recordings would have been a hard sell if he’d had to shop them around to other labels, so the fact that the record came out at all was to his benefit.
Stylistically, the music combines elements of Musique concrète with electronic drones in a manner which was a precursor to what would eventually become ambient music. It is alien and austere and evocative of science fiction vistas and atmospheres.
The initial conceptions for the album arose while Schulze was still part of Tangerine Dream, but he came into conflict over the direction of the project with Edgar Froese and, failing to resolve their issues, Schultze left the band to work on it as a solo effort. Because he was still under contract with Krautrock label Ohr due to his association with Tangerine Dream, the label insisted that his solo recordings were covered under that contract and they released the album. This was actually not a problem for Schulze as the experimental nature of the recordings would have been a hard sell if he’d had to shop them around to other labels, so the fact that the record came out at all was to his benefit.
Stylistically, the music combines elements of Musique concrète with electronic drones in a manner which was a precursor to what would eventually become ambient music. It is alien and austere and evocative of science fiction vistas and atmospheres.
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