* * * * * * * kdm

During our Schulze concerts in the seventies, when an apparatus didn't work properly, I used a simple (and in a way barbaric) trick to make it work again.
. . . . When I read in Januar 2001 the interview that Peter Bogdanovich did in 1965 with film director Fritz Lang, I smiled and my concert memories came back. Famous film director Lang spoke about the work on his movie "M" in 1931: "The sound engineer had a wooden hammer, and every time something didn't work with the equipment, he took his hammer and just used it."
. . . . 45 years later and without knowing about the manners of Fritz Lang's sound engineer, I used my fist or foot. It worked too, then. Mostly.

The very first review of a KS album, from the USA, 47 years ago:

Let's face it, Germany has never been known as a breeding ground for rock music. So, what else was there? If you're interested in electronic music you have to check it out. ... Schulze's effort is available separately as "Irrlicht: Quadrophonische Symphonie für Orchester und E-Maschinen". None of it is exactly the kind of stuff you're likely to hear on AM radio. Much of it is really remarkable, especially in its use of the synthesizer to produce non-synthesized (original) sounds as a basis for complex and extended musical compositions. ...

An Australian asked a tongue-in-cheek question:

I have just purchased the re-release of Virtual Outback and it is rapidly becoming a favourite from many 'favourites' of KS's enormous back catalogue. Does the man ever sleep?

Which gave me - and I took - the chance for a bit of calculation:

Ever sleep? Oh yes, and very long!
. . . . Take for instance the huge set of 50 CDs, "The Ultimate Edition", it includes 64 hours of music, which KS had recorded between the late sixties and 1999. Sixtyfour hours out of 262,800 hours (thirty years) = this is under 0.025% of the available time during thirty years.
. . . . And, if you add the same amount of recorded music (another 64 hours) for the regular releases during these 30 years... this little calculation would simply mean (to my own astonishment): Don't worry, Klaus had still 99.95 % of his time for sleeping, eating, thinking, reading, etc...

From an interview 15 years ago:
Q.: How do you think your German background, education and lifestyle has influenced your music? Do you think you would have become the same artist if you grew up in Italy or England?
KS: "What would been, if..." is a question that leads to nowhere :-)

Since the seventies we have some American friends and fans of Klaus, who were doing a radio program then; ...and they still do it. During the past 40 years they have regularly played his music.

Actually, in this week (from 3rd to the 9th of January), Klaus is again featured in their one-hour radio show "Hearts of Space"; you can listen to it here!

The first issue of the year 2020 will be posted on Monday the 30th of December ...at least to those who have renewed their membership.

... and I'm to blame
. . . . When I look from time to time into the (wonderful) booklets of the LA VIE ELECTRONIQUE CD series, I realize again and in retrospect that I was to a certain degree responsible for the visual image of Klaus Schulze, ...unconsciously and unintentionally.
. . . . Most of the many photos during the early heydays from 1975 on, and until 1981 (and a few beyond that year) were done by me, and they were also used by me, for the daily work with the other Klaus: for various releases on covers, for advertising and giving to magazines for their articles about KS. For many years I also have sent copies of these photos to fans, if they have asked for an autograph. During all those years and until the advent of the digital technique I have made those photos all by myself, in improvised dark-rooms, in Hambühren and later in Winsen; in the late eighties in Berlin. I produced hundreds of enlargements from the negative films onto photo paper. During many long nights I made the little (24 x 36 mm) b/w negatives as large, as dark, as bright, as soft, as hard, ...as I wanted, or as it was needed. I could also do dodging or burning (= abwedeln oder nachbelichten) or make a double exposure as the cover of LVE 16 shows: the face of Klaus plus a photo from a mixing desk.
. . . . And today, these images stick. If I look at the 16 covers of the LVE series, eleven are from original photos that I have made from Klaus since 1975; the most recent pic is on the front of LVE 13; it was made in my apartment, anno 1993, when Klaus signed a few hundred booklets for the early subscribers of the SILVER EDITION. Already over twenty years ago... Old times.

The members of THE KS CIRCLE will get the message in the coming December issue: Please renew your membership for the coming year 2020, ...if you want to continue to get the newsletter (and much more) in its 25th year of existing, month by month...

Newcomers are welcome. Please send me a mail to receive the (simple) conditions: kdm@posteo.de
A pdf sample of an older edition is here

"Man wird doch nicht Musiker, um sein Leben lang Schulze-Musik zu spielen!"
"Aber dazu wird doch kein Musiker gezwungen!"
"Und Klaus Schulze?"

. . . . American David M. C., MD, wrote me some nice memories from the early 70s: »There was almost no recognition of "Electronic Music" in the US press, at the time of its beginnings. The only source for information were album covers and word of mouth from other record buyers. The record store employees did not know where to stock the albums. Most simply filed them with the rest of the "Imports". A few had an "Electronic Music" section, which also contained the experiments of the university Electronic Music Ensembles. These albums were mostly dreadful, and confused the record buying public. I purchased Moondawn during the summer of '76 because I liked the album cover. In the years that followed it was rare to find an album review, or find an article about KS. I have waited almost twenty years for The KS Circle, and it is outstanding.«
. . . . (Thanks for mentioning the Moondawn cover. It was my very first try in doing covers. -kdm)