* * * * * * * kdm

The 250th issue of my monthly brochure will be posted today to the few handful worldwide followers, supporters, enthusiasts, friends and lovers of Klaus Schulze's music.

• 250 issues, month by month
• 50 Jahre lang Berufsmusiker (in German)
• 43 years in Hambühren
• 25 years of Silver Edition
• 40-year-old recording by Robert Schröder
• Kennerschaft vs. Unbefangenheit (in German)

... at the end of April 1993, I had finished the work for the first of our CD sets, SILVER EDITION, containing ten CDs with recent studio recordings of Klaus Schulze and a few older concert recordings. All previously unreleased.

Yep, at the end of April 1993 I had informed the press with an interest in this kind of music, which was at this time mostly the many e.m. fanzines in all corners of the world = I knew 58 different ones, from Agitasjon to Zenith. Also I informed a few hundred individual fans. I had many files filled with our collected letter exchanges; remember: this was a time without websites and mails. I had send them all a personal letter with the info about our SILVER EDITION offer. In some of the e.m. fanzines I also I booked (and paid for) a one-page advertising for SILVER EDITION. It was the very first time that in our genre such a set was released.

We have deliberately omitted the middlemen in this CD selling business: distributors and retailers. We delivered only to single people and to a handful of longtime friends who run a small 'private' mail order service (hello, Archie!). At this time we didn't know if our effort will be successful, if we will really find 2000 people willing to pay the circa 200 DM (100 € today) for such a special release. Luckily we were successful, even if the last - roughly one hundred - sets took a few weeks to find their customers... By the way: 85 copies of this set we have sent for free to journalists, some friends and a few musical collegues. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention: It was a huge success, critics and fans were thrilled !

Two years later I repeated this 10-CD set idea, this time with formerly unreleased historic recordings from Klaus Schulze's concerts or his studio, hence the title: HISTORIC EDITION. And another two years later I even produced a 25-CD set of unreleased music...

And now it's the 25th anniversary of SILVER EDITION.

The back of the 48-pages booklet

Bereits vor 20 (?) Jahren erschien das "Handbuch der Rauschdrogen" im Nymphenburger Verlag und leider, wie so oft bei diesem Thema, scheinen die Autoren erstaunlich wenig Ahnung von dieser Szene zu haben. Im Jahr 1998 registrierte ich dies "Handbuch" in KLAUS SCHULZE - THE WORKS, Abteilung "Bibliography" (mit bis jetzt 280 Büchern, die KS erwähnen) mit diesem kurzen Eintrag:

Anno 2004 ist das Ding bei einem anderen Verlag (Fischer) neu aufgelegt worden. Und ist der "Blödsinn" nun weg? Nee. Lest selbst, nun auf Seite 411:
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...und was haben Klaus Schultze (!) und sein Albumtitel CYBORG (resp. "Kyborg", man fasst es nicht!) mit Rauschdrogen zu tun? Gar nix. Cyborg ist ein inzwischen nicht ganz unbekanntes angelsächsisches Kunstwort in Wissenschaft & Hollywood Kintopp, gebildet aus "cybernetic" und "organism", also ein "künstlicher Organismus", ein Roboter und nix Drogen. Konsequent wäre es ja, hätten die Rauschdrogenfander "Küborg" geschrieben. Wennschondennschon!

...bekomme ich Anfragen von Rock- oder Elektronik-Musikern, ob ich nicht etwas für sie tun könne. Ich gab mal diese Antwort und sie gilt immer noch:

Guten Tag

Es ist freundlich, was Sie da schreiben. Aber ich bin ein alter Mann und habe mein ganzes Leben lang eigentlich nur mit einen Musiker/Komponisten ernsthaft (und inzwischen seit über 40 Jahren) gearbeitet.

Ich will das jetzt nicht mehr ändern; auch ist mir die aktuelle (Rock-)Musikszene recht fremd. Mein Interesse ist mehr die "seriöse" Musik, die aus der Vergangenheit zu uns herüber klingt, von John Dowland über Mahler bis Ellington und Eric Dolphy.

Schöne Grüße, Klaus D. Mueller

Schulze-Geschichten gibt's unter dem Titel Wer Schulze heißt, muss was können. Die erstaunliche Klaus Schulze-Geschichte. Ich hab diese Biographie inzwischen erweitert auf 176 Seiten Din A4; sie ist gebunden wie "The Works" und "The Essential...". Siehe das Photo hier weiter unten. Alles in Hand- (und Kopf-) Arbeit. Etwa 110 Fotos lockern die Geschichte erläuternd auf.
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The English version of Klaus' biography is not a strict 1:1 translation from the German, but was written independently (of course with the same facts): The Amazing KS Story is in the same format as "The Works" and "The Essential...". See pic below. THE AMAZING KS STORY has 168 pages and includes circa 100 pics to illustrate the private and active years of KS. All handmade.

.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...and here's the English version:
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THE AMAZING KS STORY
The KS era, witnessed & a little bit co-shaped by kdm
These are the memories from all the years I have worked with KS, in the studio, the office, or on tour,
from the early seventies until the end of the millenium.
I had started to write it down in '86 and then - again and again - I added something...
Of course, I still work for Klaus' music. THE KS CIRCLE shows it, each month again.
I want to point out that I avoid promotion stories.
You'll find no myths and no legends among the 56300 words and the many pics...
...because the simple truth was often exciting & amazing enough.

DIE ERSTAUNLICHE SCHULZE-GESCHICHTE
erzählt (natürlich) die gleiche Geschichte (in 50.700 Wörtern), sie ist aber keine simple Übersetzung (solch Tun wäre mir zu langweilig) sondern ich schrieb sie separat.
Auch die etwa 100 Photos in beiden Bänden sind zum Teil unterschiedlich.

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THE WORKS (Yes,still available in 2025 :-)
... is the detailed and complete K.S. discography (and much more) from the late sixties until the end of Klaus' life and beyond.
Also Klaus' activities outside recording & releasing discs are mentioned in this chronology:
concerts, interviews, radio and tv appearances, soundtracks, videos, etc.
Still today (2024) "The Works" is permanently updated by me, which means:
I send you the latest, newest edition, I print a "fresh" copy after your order.
At the moment it contains 890 records with the name of Klaus Schulze on it, including 151 samplers,
and 1750 titles, and 544 names, ...and all of it is indexed.
The huge & long main discography (etc.) is chronological from 1967 up to 2022.
And here is the complete "Table of Contents":


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There is no joy in art & science without the detail !

PS: THE WORKS is not just a souvenir for 'fans' who would actually prefer to have a T-shirt.
It's a serious and very detailed inventory of Klaus Schulze's voluminous work over half a century.
No colour pics included. Just a few in b/w.

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THE KS CIRCLE
was a monthly newsletter (& much more), that existed for 28 and a half years, and
month by month I have sent a copy to all members of the Circle.
Each isssue had at least 12 pages, sometimes more.
(click ---> "useful links" ---> "The KS Circle" here at the left).
All in all I wrote & printed circa 4500 Circle pages.
Here is an example, a pdf of issue 240: 222402 (pdf, 1,667 KB)

The publication of the monthly "The KS Circle" ended in December 2023 with issue no.312.
But you can order "The Essence" of it in these thick books:

The four thick volumes of
THE ESSENCE OF THE KS CIRCLE ...
... is the best of the Circle's twenty-eight (& a half) years in four volumes.
It contains: memories, thoughts, articles, letters, answers, quotations, reviews, discussions, many unusual pics, drawings, and other paraphernalia. Kluge, freche, absurde Bonmots über KS, die Musik und die Welt, in English & German (mixed, as in the original Circle issues... and also some bits of French, Italian, Spanish, when I quote an original source).
Issues no. 1 - 88 (1995 - 2003) 294 pages
Issues no. 89 - 177 (2004 - 2011) 294 pages
Issues no. 178 - 244 (2012 - 2017) 294 pages
Issues no. 245 - 312 (2018 - 2023) 294 pages
A BONANZA OF USEFUL & USELESS KS TRIVIA, KNOWN & UNKNOWN
- - - - -
- - - -
- - -
- -
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All this is NOT to see or to read in the internet. Only on old-fashioned printed paper.
(After all, original printed data is available and readable for many centuries. Proven to be!)
Each book is handmade the day an order comes in. And send to you by Post/DHL.
Size of these books: 21 x 30 cm (= 8.27 x 11,69 inches)
The monthly 'The KS Circle': was half this size: 15 x 21 cm ...
(...at least from issue no. 41 on)

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Each of these booklets is not free anymore.
Just send a mail to: kdm AT posteo D0T de
and I will explain to you.
Mention the country you live in,
because the amount of postage is an important part of the costs.
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PS, August 2020:
Yesterday a new binding machine has arrived and THE WORKS as well as the other books are produced now in a hard cover.
Each book has a different original KS photo on front, from my own collection.
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Ich träumte heut' morgen, ich lege Schulzes MIRAGE LP von MIG (oder SPV, auf jeden Fall so'n Re-Release) auf, um den ersten, den "1984"-Untertitel zu prüfen, von dem mir Lennart gestern berichtet hatte: der Titel fand Verwendung in einer aktuellen 4-CD-Box: "Noise Reduction System" auf Cherry Red Records.
Und was höre ich (im sehr realistischen Traum)? Altmodische 70er-Jahre Rockmusik mit polnischem (?) Gesang. Hä? ich war verwirrt ...im Traum.

Daraufhin wachte ich auf – oh, schon drei nach 9! – sonst wach ich immer gegen 8 Uhr auf.

Beim Kaffeemachen kommt Julia in die Küche und sagt Ich hab schon die Uhren (in Küche und Wohnzimmer) umgestellt, eine Stunde zurück.

Ahhhh, das erklärt mein "spätes" Auswachen: Ende der Sommerzeit.

Aber es erklärt nicht das Anhören der MIRAGE-Vinyl mit polnischem 70er Jahre Rock.Und auch nicht die Erinnerung daran, denn ich erinnere so gut wie NIE meine wirren Träume.

Vor ein paar Wochen hatte ich wieder mal ein Interview vermittelt; beim anfragenden Journalisten hatte ich ein gutes Gefühl und es hat nicht getäuscht. Hier ist das Ergebnis.

The use of the computer for creating – as well as storing and re-using – musical recordings makes it difficult for a compiler to collect accounts of such recordings for an accurate discography.
. . . . . Before, with tapes, it also was not easy, but now with the new technique it's a nightmare. Today, the results are not visible anymore, the new digital signal processing methods are 100% virtual; there are no tape boxes anymore on shelves, no touchable and visible 2-, 4-, 8-, 16-, or 24-track master tapes, but just plenty of Zeros and Ones on harddisks (or little sticks, or whatever). And worse: It's so very easy now to reuse or recycle this musical material. With the right software it's so simple to change the key of a piece, the speed, the rhythm, play it upside down, etc. and use the same or the altered piece (or parts of it) again for a "new" recording (hence the sudden fashion of "re-mixes", because, I repeat: it's so very easily done today).
. . . . . However, for an observer and compiler it's hard to keep tracks = which musical snippet was done when? changed when? by whom? and used where? and how often? This brings the artistry of serious discographical work not to an end, but ...
. . . . . I fear that it also makes the music more arbitrary (= beliebig) and worthless. By coincidence this is happening at the end of a century and maybe it also marks the end of an era. Not many of the younger people collect music anymore, as it was seriously done in the past with the old formats on DISCs: schellack, vinyl. What is left to report about for a DISCographer, are just the obvious final results, the released discs (or any other tangible, touchable & visible medium in the future) as long as those will be still offered and used.