FRIENDSHIP

As it was indicated in the title , this one commemorates a long time friendship between the two great and innovative musicians Schulze & Gottsching. In the past they participated together to a few classics of space rock classic, I think notably to the magistral 'ART' (by Ash ra Tempel) and 'Join inn' (By ART). 'Friendship' is slightly different in style compared to this golden age...but emotions remain intact. In this album, the alchimy between the two musicians works to perfection. We find again the typical Schulze spacey keyboards parts, sometimes sustained by electronic percussions. In 'Friendship' title track, Gottsching delivers a sumptuous & deeply emotional guitar solo...all seems to gather like magic...ethereal and very beautiful!

I'm going to keep this simple: This whole album is a stunning arangement of sounds that will surely please anyone. Really, just lay on a floor and let its gentle sounds sweep over you and lull your mind, its great fun.

This album sounds more like a Klaus Schulze solo album than an Ash Ra Tempel album.....It is heavy on synthesizers....There are no vocals at all.....and there is no psychedelic feel....there is nice sprawling abientish style that include a lot of percussion in the mix......good music to zone out to.

How many bands did join together after a very, very long break and performed?

Very, very little I have to say. I am of course biased with this AST album as I have been with some great KS oeuvres.

Because the man released not only musical jewels in my opinion. This was truly Art.

This work is of course a little behind the masterpieces of the seventies, but it is sill soooooo pleasant and moving. I have to admit though that the "dance" feel which can be smelled for a long part of the initial song ("Reunion" - total of over thirty minutes) is not always sounding great to my ears. Still, there are some great guitar part from Manuel of course, but as a whole I can't really be thrilled with this "Reunion" track. Quite good but nothing exceptional.

"Pikant" has little flavour to my taste. But of course, I am married to a Mexican person for almost twenty five years. So, I would have expected some more "spices" here. But the song is a long continuation of fine music after all (nice acoustic guitar play for sure). But I am really missing some gorgeous moments as we have met a long, very long time ago.

What comes next is pure grandeur, beauty and wonder. Some might say (accordingly) that the great Floyd is behind (SOYCD) but how could one resist to such an ethereal beauty, such a great song. The title track ("Friendship") is fantastic to my standards.

This is just a formidable moment of prog music. A fantastic combination of Kraut, Psyche, and Prog Electronic. At the end of day: a superb moment of music. HUGE (yes, in capital). The moving beauty of the guitar sounds being played are just PHENOMENAL. What else can I say about this sublime track? Nothing, I guess.

I just can recommend this wonderful piece of music to you. It will be a wonderful time of your musical life for sure. This track is of course worth of a five star award in my opinion. Almost half an hour of "friendly" and magnificent moments. What a fabulous closing pearl!

Close your eyes. Be ready. And listen. And enjoy.

A global four stars thanks to "Friendship" of course.

I know this is just me, but i cant stand the "electronic sound" in music, to my ears it sounds too "new age music" (which, for my taste, its not good at all, with some exceptions of course, but this is not one of them). I like a lot there 70´s sound (even the less prog plaques), but i can barely tolerate this electro-new age thing; to me it sounds like ENIGMA (Michael Cretu project) doing an "electronic jam", pointless extending beats for more than 20 minutes. The best cut surely is the title track, which blends guitar landscapes (quasi-oriental arrangements) with (again, damn) new age beats; it suggests a very mysterious and attention-demanding "dialogue" between Göttsching guitar and Schulze synthesizers.

The prospect of a Krautrock superstar reunion must have had fans salivating in anticipation, but don't be misled by the Ash Ra Tempel moniker. The music on this year 2000 collaboration between two of the group's founding fathers bears no relation whatsoever to the unearthly kosmische explorations of bygone days.

Original bassist Hartmut Enke wasn't involved (hardly surprising, after his LSD burnout in the mid-1970s). And a more genuine Ash Ra Tempel reunion would have Klaus Schulze clattering away behind his dusty old drum kit, instead of pre-programming all the shiny, synthetic rhythms heard here.

In retrospect the album was never meant to rescale the heights of German experimental music. The early '70s were tumultuous years, requiring an equally tumultuous soundtrack, but the end of the last millennium saw the exploratory spirit of the surviving original Krautrockers more or less tamed by age and complacency. Nothing wrong with that; we all grow old eventually, and for some of us it can be a very comfortable process. Consider this more as music of celebration, not opposition, marking thirty years of spiritual kinship over three long instrumental workouts, rich in digital atmospherics and propelled by the smoothest beats this side of a Bryan Ferry album.

Schulze's contributions don't extend far beyond the background layers of plastic New Age wallpaper. But the music takes wing whenever Manuel Göttsching begins one of his typically nimble solos. Göttsching was always one of the most natural guitarists of his generation, and despite a more refined style of playing in later years he never lost any of his skill or passion. The title track in particular offers a stunning display of power and sensitivity...at least before the artificial drumming kicks in and transforms it into an after- hours Iberian dance party.

(Besides the self-titled "Friendship", the other two tracks are named "Reunion" and "Pikant", the latter possibly a misspelling of 'piquant', but after hearing it I hardly think so.)

In the end the album might provide decent background music for making love, washing dishes, or working off all that middle-aged flab on a health farm treadmill. But it doesn't exactly encourage active listening, unlike the Ash Ra Tempel of old. Whoever said it first was right: apparently you can't go home again.

Ash Ra Tempel in year 2000?

25 years after the band's last official recording, after the electronic revolution of the 90's, do you really expect that the reunion of the two synthesizers pioneers can result in a music comparable to the krautrock of the classic 70's ASH RA TEMPEL albums? Recorded in 1998 and 1999, "Friendship" consists in long ambient soundscapes weaved by Klaus Schulze's keyboards textures and Manuel Göttsching's whirlwinding guitar interventions. The style is pretty much similar to Schulze's modern solo works.

"Reunion" opens on a floydian and relaxing tone, until the distorted guitar floats over spacey synthesizers and modern drums. Nice but a bit lengthy. Mainly electronic, "Pikant" is the passage the most similar to Klaus Schulze's compositions, especially his 90's releases. It nonetheless contains an interlude where Göttsching offers a delicate solo, sounding a little Spanish. On the contrary, the title track is rather driven by electric guitar. A slowly evolving cosmic piece, nice and dreamy but not very varied.

As you may have understood, of the two band cofounders, Schulze is the one the influence can be the most perceived on this album. The music neither resembles classic ASH RA TEMPEL, nor a modern version of it (such as SUBARACHNOID SPACE), nor even ASHRA, regardless of the period. "Friendship" can be described as a pleasant 90's Klaus Schulze album accompanied by Manuel Göttsching's guitars. The quality is overall constant, however the only problem is that all tracks are too long and not very changing.

Consider this disc as an unexpected enjoyable bonus from the Germans. Don't pick this one if you're looking for immersive psychedelic / space rock, but you can give it a listen if you're into modern Schulze records and electronic ambient soundscapes.