Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XXII: Schulze Scores a Porno!

Klaus was always trying to get into film musik. He got his chance in '74 when he was approached to create the soundtrack for the android film, Blackdance. Known throughout the glimmerlight as the first porn-film made by robots.

Check out one of the LPs highlights, "Some Velvet Phasing", by clicking on the title of this post.

Klaus would go on to score many more films, and make many more albums, but this one has a special place in our memory.

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XIX: Das Tief Mysterien von Bernd Scholl

Perhaps no synthesist dwelt deeper in the glimmerlight than Bernd Scholl, where he weaved tales of fantasy amongst the ancient crystals of our makers.

For quite a while, we all thought Bernd was just a myth. His was the tale told to young androids before they went to sleep; the benevolent cyborg who would protect us as we dreamt of electric sheep.

Of course, Schulze claimed he'd actually met Bernd. But, by that time, we'd grown weary of his tall tales of mystic orgies in the crystal fields. 

Turns out we were mistaken. I still remember the first time I heard Bernd Scholl's Tales of Fantasy beaming from the deep recesses of the glimmerlight. We sat in awed silence by the blue pools. Check out the title track by clicking on the title of this post.

Also sagen wir alle!

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XI: Metropolis

For the most part, my Synthesist brethren were self-aware that they were androids. However, long ago, Klaus built a cyborg that did not know its own nature. Like some of  Battlestar Galactica's Cylons, Edgar Froese grew up playing in the Black Forest, believing he was the same as all the other kinder in their Lederhosen. 

Then, one evening while we were all dancing in the glimmerlights, Klaus pulled out a shining object and turned a switch. A few days later, Edgar showed up in Düsseldorf with an ARP 2600 and everything changed. Klaus had a new sidekick, and we all had some new sounds to groove to.

Klaus and Edgar dreamt of greater things though, and would soon construct, and emigrate to their own offworld-colony, Metropolis -- its anthem can be accessed by clicking on the title of this post.

Immer wieder rauf und runter!

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part V: Das Böse Zwillinge

One night after an early 70s Tangerine Dream show in Zürich, Klaus Schulze, Edgar, and I were walking the pre-dawn streets, tripping on JJ-180. As the sun rose, two little Kinder ran up to us, offering to shine our boots, and begging for money. Klaus stopped in his tracks and asked the two little ones why they were up so early? Where were their parents? As it so happened, the two children were orphans, twins in fact. 

Klaus, claiming he had seen a vision of the future, decided he would take the two children back to Berlin, which he promptly did after adopting them. He named the boy Phaedra Jumbotron (or P.J. for short) and the girl, Stella (after his beloved Großmutter). 

P.J. and Stella were raised during the electronic revolution, by the Godfather of the scene. He loved them very much. However, as the twins reached their teenage years they grew disenchanted with Klaus' electronic meanderings. They longed for a more structured sound. So in 1980, they ran away to Düsseldorf, where they recorded their own album, Psychotron, with Thomas Dinger. They called themselves Schaltkreis Wasserman.

Klaus never forgave P.J. and Stella for their poppier sounds, and has since referred to them as the "Das Böse Zwillinge," or "the Evil Twins" in English. They became the German Electric Underground scene's Tomax and Xamot. However. Psychotron was a true masterpiece and foresaw the direction electronic music was heading in the 80s and beyond. My favorite track on the album is "Zeit Un Raum" which means "Pass the chilie." Check it out by clicking on the title of this post. You can actually hear how Schulze did exert some residual influence on the sound. It's sad he couldn't see beyond his own wounded pride. This was a sound that was still pushing the boundaries in its own way. Such a tragic tale, such a fine piece of glimmerlight musik.

Pass die Bohnen!