SILHOUETTES

It is hard to really comprehend just how important Schluze has been to Krautrock and electronic music in general, from his early days with Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel he then moved into solo works, and I am sure that many progheads have at least a couple of his albums in their collection. The four pieces on the album were created between summer and autumn 2017 following an extended period which was, due to health problems, very quiet and for this reason very meditative at times. Schulze: 'The result automatically was a phase of reflection, of retrospection, of pure contemplation. In the wake of your 70th birthday you naturally find yourself looking back at the past ' so the result is a reorientation, a renewed awareness of what is really important.' Schulze describes the music on 'Silhouettes' as a 'reduction to the essential things' and has consciously worked only very sparingly with solos and vocal elements. He explains: 'No great distractions, nothing to force your attention in a certain direction, no major effects or gimmicks, no frills or dominant rhythms. It was important to me to paint the pictures in the depth of the space, the sonic fields of tension and atmosphere.'

My wife found me intently listening to this album and burst out laughing, as I had my eyes closed, and she just wouldn't believe that I wasn't actually asleep. But this is an album that really does work best when all other sensory distractions are removed, and one can just fall into the soundscapes being created. In many ways this reminds me of some of his earlier work, where trance was an influence, and the music becomes layered soundscapes for the mind. It is more direct than many of Jean Michel Jarre's works, but in some ways it does have similar style, yet somehow that little bit more direct. It doesn't fall into the New Age of some of Wakeman's solo works either, but combines many elements that just work. Of all the solo albums I have heard from Schulze, I must admit that this is my favourite so far, although to be fair I have only come across such as small amount of a man with a prestigious output. Fans of both electronic music and prog will certainly enjoy this.