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Artist
Klaus Schulze
12+ albums
electronicambientkrautrockexperimentalberlin school
about
Klaus Schulze (4 August 1947 – 26 April 2022) was a German electronic music pioneer, composer and musician who also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic band Tangerine Dream as well as co-founding Ash Ra Tempel before a pioneering and prolific solo career of 60+ albums (totalling 110+ CDs) across six decades. In 1969, Klaus Schulze was the drummer of one of the early incarnations of Tangerine Dream for their debut album Electronic Meditation. In 1970 he left this group to form Ash Ra Tempel with Manuel Göttsching. In 1971, he chose again to leave a newly-formed group after only one album, this time to mount a solo career. In 1972, Schulze released his debut album Irrlicht with organ and a recording of an orchestra filtered almost beyond recognition. Despite the lack of synthesizers, this proto-ambient work is regarded as a milestone in electronic music. The follow up, Cyborg, was similar but added the EMS Synthi A synthesizer. Some highlights of his early career are Moondawn (1976), Mirage (1977) and Dune (1979). He often took aspects of German culture and history as a starting point in his compositions, particularly on his album "X" (the title signifying it was his tenth album) in 1978 which was subtitled 'Six Musical Biographies,' including such notables as Ludwig II of Bavaria, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. His use of the pseudonym Richard Wahnfried indicates his interest in Richard Wagner, which also informs
