Customer Reviews

Moonlake

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of Germany's most influential and pioneering electronic music artists Klaus Schulze has returned with his first proper album since 1997, "Moonlake". During the eight year gap, Klaus was anything but absent from the public eye and musical ear having released several boxed sets of new and unreleased material, two live albums as well as several collaborations with other artists (notably Pete "Namlook" Kuhlmann on the hugely sucessful "Dark Side Of The Moog" CD series).
"Moonlake" not only marks the return of Klaus Schulze with a regular release but also shows off his relentless talents for experimenting with new musical ideas. The opening track "Playmate In Paradise" is an epic 30-minute piece that fuses dance-oriented sequences and rhythms with Ethnic and Arabic influences (courtesy of violinist/singer Thomas Kagermann). The middle section of this long piece is an unsettling dark affair that harkens back to the days of Schulze's first release "Irrlicht". The Eastern-tinged vocals aren't too far from removed from the Techno-Ethnic experiments of Robert Rich, Steve Roach and Paul Haslinger.
The second track, "Artemis in Jubileo", has a more typical Schulze style to it but offers some heavy dance-oriented grooves that haven't really been heard in such a fashion on a Schulze album. As this 18-minute piece progresses, it builds into a dynamic trademark Schulze overture complete with orchestral sounds and thick layered chords alongside the relentless percussive rhythms and sequencers.
The final two tracks were recorded live in 2003. The 10-minute "Same Thoughts Lion" is a hypnotic sequencer-oriented piece that mixes classic Schulze ala "Timewind" and "Moondawn" with the music of today. This piece is definitely a standout.
The 15-minute closer "Mephisto" is another dynamic effort which begins with various sounds before a quiet sequencer enters in. From this, the rhythmic element of the piece is built up as the percussion enters in followed by a solid Minimoog lead solo that brings the piece to a grand finish.
Was it worth the wait for "Moonlake"? Most definitely!!! While Klaus Schulze has released some excellent work in recent years, "Moonlake" is the most focused release he has done in quite some time and brings back memories of old while creating new ones for the future. The album also shows that Klaus is definitely not afraid to tackle unfamiliar territory (such as the ethnic influences on Track 1) and successfully pull it off.
With this said, "Moonlake" is a grand return for Klaus Schulze and is his masterwork for the 21st century.

Read review by L. Bourland - the description of the album is quite complete, but...
The great start and good first 5 minutes of "Playmate in Paradise" (I fell in love with grooves again, says Klaus Schulze) after that turns into repetitive melody with Moog solos by Klaus. Violin playing and a kind of ethnic singing by Thomas Kagermann hard to call great (and by the way, we had heard Deep Forest, Peter Gabriel and "Enigma-2" before, so it isn`t sounds original now; and which ethnos taught Thomas to sing so - it`s hard to say, definitely not the Slavs) - the rest of the track would remind you in style "Dune" and "In Blue". Dymanic final composition - edited live performance in Poland - "Mephisto" - really good, close to early Tangerine Dream sound. Of course, Schulze is great artist of music, but the common mood of the album seemed to me depressive. Our world is much depressive today, so this album wouldn`t help you to be more optimistic. I could look through my window on the street to become pessimist without help by Klaus.
I recommend you his classic tracks and albums - "Crystal Lake" from CD "Mirage" (his "Stairway to Heaven"), CDs "Body Love" and "Dosburg Online" (1997). Much more interesting and healthy music.

After the superb 'X' remaster, I was expecting something special with 'Moonlake'. Not to be I'm afraid, the excellent start of track 1, after a killer groove/beat sadly evaporates into a chanting strange mess. This goes on for about 23 minutes. The other three tracks are better with track 4 probably being the best, complete with a very Tangerine Dream-like keyboard solo. Maybe this is the older more mature Klaus Shulze on 'Moonlake'. I enjoy his earlier material better. Digipack packaging. 4 tracks, 74.06

To be honest I was never that big of a Klaus Schulze fan,I prefer the variety of Tangerine Dream(for better or for worse)to Schulze's overlong often redundant "songs".Moonlake however is a happy surprise.Yes the tracks are still long but the beats are hypnotic,there's variety as they go along to keep your interest and there are some unexpected moments too like near the middle of Playmate in Paradise.I'm still not a huge fan of Schulze but Moonlake is a pulsing mesmerizing work.

Beautiful fat-free KS - clean, sparky, right to the music; no bloated overtures; in the spirit of TRANCELATION and EN=TRANCE but cleaner and far more sophisticated...

I'm big on synths - I own a few with which I compose electronic soundscape music and Klaus Schulze is to me "The Master". Released in 2005, "Moonlake" is a strong release, Klaus' first studio release since 1997's "Dosburg Online" having spent those 8 years recording and releasing two large multiple CD sets, (Works 1 and 2) On "Moonlake" you have a pairing of two Studio tracks from 2005 (Playmate In Paradise and Artemis In Jubileo) with 2 shorter Live tracks from 2003 (Same Thoughts Lion and Mephisto). Thomas Kagermann adds violin and voice on part of Playmate. This is the first album where Klaus plays his Mini Moog through a wah wah pedal in the studio, something he had been doing live for a while as you can plainly hear on the last track, Mephisto. The album should be listened to from start to finish, like a symphony to appreciate the way each section and each piece flows into the next. This is Klaus' return to his classic sound after years of experimenting with sampling from the late 80s through the mid 90s and more beat driven work from the late 90s. This is an excellent album and set him on course for his next release in 2007 "Kontinuum" a truly great album. Buy it and enjoy the work of "The Master".

It is much better than most of his works in the 80-ies and 90-ies,but I would strongly recommend "Kontinuum"(2007)instead,especially for those who loved "Timewind","Moondawn","Body Love" and "Mirage".Though "Moonlake" has its fine moments("Same thoughts Lion","Mephisto"),but the longest first track("Playmate in Paradise" - 30:07 min.)with its boring New Age ethnic vocalization spoils,unfortunatelly, the whole work.Anyway,recommended for at least two really good tracks at the end.

I am a huge fan of Klaus Schulze and have listened to just about everything he has put out -- much of it is very predictable, alot of it is actually boring, but I find Moonlake to be his most refreshing and well done album, and perhaps his most innovative.

My guess is that much of its freshness is that it reflects the pent up creativity from his long pause between albums, a pause that is shattered by Moonlake. Lots of it (Mephisto, first part of Playmate in Paradise) are classic sequencer and synth ragas so much a part of the Schulze style. Other parts almost make me think he collaborated with Delerium - a great, innovative mix.

Parts of Moonlake sound like what Vidna Obmana might crank out, but far better (e.g. the second half of Playmate in Paradise). Interestingly enough, if you listen to early KS, you understand precisely where Kitaro got some of his sounds from -- alot of Kitaro sounds show up on early Ashra Temple, pioneered by Klaus Schulze. No surprise there as Kitaro learned synthesizers from the master himself when the Japanese icon visited Germany back in the early days of electronica.

Many of his other albums (Moondawn for example) sound slapped together and are almost painful to listen to. but Moonlake is a well crafted work of beauty.

Bottom line is that in this album KS shows that he is better than ever, and I think it will, with time, be seen as his best effort among many great albums...

I grew up with TD and KS and his first albums. Saying that the sound is depressing is misleading. I would prefer to call this mystical. The second part of the first piece is so powerful that I still cannot stop listening to it. Voller Kraft zieht er dahin, wow. I too have to say that this should not be missing in somebody's KS collection. What's next?

After a 9 year absence for a studio release, Klaus Schulze is in top form on this one. "Moonlake" is a favorite place for Klaus as he likes to visit there in Austria, and as expected he delivers some real interesting excursions into the world of German 'electronic' music, why? he created it single-handedly.
This time, Moonlake is actually live and studio, the opening track explores a sensibility often portrayed in previous outtings but the sequences are far more defined with crisp percussionary tactics he developed as a drummer with Tangerine Dream on their first record.
If you are a fan of Klaus Schulze then this belongs in your collection..period.