[Review] Klaus Schulze: Timewind (1975)

Richard Wagner’s lifeforce is returned to the universe in this electronic elegy.

Kronomyth 5.0: Energy does not know the hour.

All energy returns, rejoice, rejoice! Let ohm and ampere share a verse and find in their re-volting voice the silver lining to death’s curse. The great ring-lieder is no more, let every angel shed a tear, his soul has reached Valhalla’s shore by way of gondolier. His body Bayreuth did recall, his energy as well returned to roam through Wahnfried’s empty halls reborn as geistersturm. The ghosts have all gone home to rest, their bodies left to pay the bill, but somewhere in the nothingness some thing is stirring still. All energy returns, repent, repent! Collected into liquid pools of light, the currency of time misspent fills coffers with disquiet. In life the duty we discharge, returns recharged to fill the void, and all works whether small or large, neither created nor destroyed, arrive in ceaseless waves of sound, reflected at ionosphere, bounced back along the endless bound, all energy is here, is here! And all of Schulze’s artistry is but a redirection of this power, a siphoning of circuitry for forty minutes to an hour. Part elegy, part electricity, Timewind is time-defying, time displaced, a plasma globe where Wagner’s energy cannot be touched but only traced. Oh, and it also has a lot of whooshy spacewind effects, since Klaus Schulze is apparently a very literal person.

Original elpee version

A1. Bayreuth Return (30:22)
B1. Wahnfried 1883 (28:37)

Composed by Klaus Schulze.

Expanded 2CD reissue bonus tracks
B1. Echoes of Time (38:42)
B2. Solar Wind (12:35)
B3. Windy Times (4:57)

The Pictures

Cover by Urs Amman.

The Plastic

Released on elpee in August 1975 in Germany (Brain, 0001075), the UK (Caroline/Virgin, CA-2006) and Japan (Virgin, YX-7057-VR) with gatefold cover.

1. Re-issued on compact disc in Germany (Brain, 833 128-2).
2. Re-issued on compact disc in the UK (Caroline/Virgin, CDCA 2006).
3. Re-issued on compact disc in 1991 in the US (Caroline, CAROL-1807).
4. Re-issued on expanded 2CD in 2016 in Germany (MIG, MIG 01530) with 3 bonus tracks.