Klaus Schulze

German composer, musician and producer born in Berlin on August 4, 1947, Klaus Schulze was one of the leading figures of electronic music. An original member of the Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel and Cosmic Jokers groups associated with the "krautrock" movement, he broke free with the organ-led album Irrlicht (1972), the prelude to a prolific solo career marked by the ambient-style albums Cyborg (1973), Blackdance (1974), Timewind (1975) and Moondawn (1976), dominated by the use of various analog synthesizers, including the EMS VCS 3, the ARP Odyssey and the Moog modular system. His participation in the Go project (1976-1977), led by Japanese musician Stomu Yamash'ta with Steve Winwood, Michael Shrieve and Al di Meola, proved to be a parenthesis before the creation of a musical double named Richard Wahnfried, between ambient and new age, for around ten albums (1979-2000). At the same time, Klaus Schulze continued to record long instrumental tracks under his own name for his own albums or, for the cinema, soundtracks for Body Love (1977), Barracuda (1978), Next of Kin (1982), Angst (1984) or Le Moulin de Daudet (1994). A representative of the Berlin School, this pioneer of electronic music has multiplied his productions, which are now based on digital equipment. In 2008, he teamed up with Australian singer Lisa Gerrard, from the group Dead Can Dance, for the studio album Farscape, followed by joint concerts until 2014, summarized in three live recordings. Klaus Schulze begins a long-term project with the sixteen volumes of the La Vie Électronique series (2009-2015), retracing his recording career and brought together in the 50-CD box set, The Ultimate Edition (2000). Following the release of other retrospective box sets, including Contemporary Works I (2000) and Contemporary Works II (2002), the musician celebrates his 70th birthday with the album Eternal (2017), featuring previously unreleased works. His 47th and final studio album, Deus Arrakis, was released posthumously after his death after a long illness on April 26, 2022, at the age of 74. In 2024, the compositions created for the 2009 documentary Hacker were released under the title 101, Milky Way.