Music Arcades: Klaus Schulze: Trancefer

So ten days ago we had my first Tangerine Dream album and in Spring 1981 I was overwhelmed by the number of albums they'd released. Eighteen months later and, thanks to an early version of crowdsourcing (all our schoolmates buying a different one and then sharing the tapes) we'd covered most of the ground. With that foraging patch more or less exhausted, it was time to venture further afield and explore related areas. Yep, the solo albums of ex-Tangerine Dream members, of whom Klaus Schulze was — and remains — the most prolific.

Of course, you never saw his records in the shops, so I had to order this one from The Music Room in Tonbridge (£5.29 — I'd already developed my habit of peeling off the price label and re-sticking it inside the sleeve). It took me a while to get to know it, because there's nothing upfront and catchy about the music, and, unlike Tangerine Dream, the two side-long tracks don't divide into clear 'movements'; they just evolve much more slowly, more like Steve Reich. Another way of putting it would be that it shares some of the not-going-anywhere ethos of the other school of German synthesiser music.

I don't think it's just that they were my first two Schulze albums, but this and Audentity are definitely my favourites. Twenty five years ago I preferred the drama and narrative of the latter, but now I think I prefer the more subtle stasis-in-movement of Trancefer. The thing I really love about them is their sound palette: the combination of Klaus's synths with real human instruments, Michael Shrieve's percussion and especially Wolfgang Tiepold's cello, which has a lovely grain to it. You could (OK, I could) argue that this sound prefigured what Eno did 20 years later.

Yet Klaus himself didn't seem to realise what a good thing he was onto. Yesterday I was checking out some of his more recent albums. His collaboration with Lisa Gerrard may yet grow on me, but Are You Sequenced? (available to listen to for free on Spotify) sounded like a very tired retread of old stuff from before Trancefer, and, whether it's for reasons of aesthetics, convenience or budget, he's just playing with himself.

Finally, I can't let those wince-inducing titles pass without mention. Tangerine Dream did the truly awful Stratosfear, but it was Klaus who just couldn't leave the mongrel English puns alone: Trancefer, Audentity, Dig It, Miditerranean Pads, En=trance. Scheiss.