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This is probably Klause Schulze's most ambitious recording.This his tenth studio album would be a double, and he would honour 5 men who he admired greatly by naming the songs after them. Because this was also a movie soundtrack ("Barracuda") he could afford to add an orchestra. He would also add a cello player and a drummer.The drummer was Harald Grosskopf from WALLENSTEIN who also played on his "Moondawn" album. The re-issue that i have is over 2 hours long, which for electronic music is way too long in my opinion. Especially when they added a bonus track which is simply an almost 22 minute live version of the first song on the second disc. They also extended "Georg Trakl" by over 20 minutes on the first disc. So in a perfect world I would be much happier with one disc with my favourite music on it. The other negative for me is the orchestral music which works at times, but for me it usually is more of a distraction. Lots of great music here though, and I did really enjoy the synths, drums and mellotron a lot. In fact for many people this is their favourite Schulze recording, so take what I say with a grain of salt. It's just my taste and opinion.

As much as "Friedrich Nietzsche" and "Frank Herbert" might sound similar they're two of my three favourite tracks on this double album.The mellotron, drumming and spacey synths are all so amazing. The moog seems more dominant on the latter song but they both are incredible."Georg Trakl" isn't bad but it's slower moving and seems to drag on for too long with the added 20 minutes. "Friedmann Bach" features lots of strings as drums come and go. An interesting track.

On disc two "Ludwig II Von Bayern" just has too much orchestration for my tastes.The bonus track is the live version of it but with a full orchestra, but I don't like it any better. "Heinrich Von Kleist" is my other top three song, and it's quite spacey and dark with orchestration until about half way through when the spacey sounds stop. It gets experimental then the spacey mood returns. Mellotron 18 minutes in. Drums come in after 23 minutes as the atmosphere seems to get more powerful as it plays out. I like it ! Tough for me to rate because I always rate excluding bonus tracks.That would make disc one 4 stars and disc two is probably 3 stars although "Heinrich Von Kleist" is so good.

I think 3 stars is fair.