Schulze, Klaus -& Pete Namlook-
The Dark Side Of The Moog 9-11 (5cd)
In 1994, Klaus Schulze was able to look back on a long, successful and highly influential career, but he was also able to embrace the new. He was in the midst of his 'digital phase,' fascinated by sampling technology, and had a clear idea of where he could go with the technology, which resulted in albums like 'Beyond Recall'; the Royal Festival Hall recordings; 'The Dome Event' and even to an extent his opera 'Totentag.' By contrast Peter Kuhlman a.k.a Pete Namlook had just started. In 1992 he had founded the seminal Fax label, which was both a vehicle for his own recordings and a chance to collaborate and release recordings from like-minded musicians from around the world: Robert Gorl of DAF; Geir Jenssen of Biosphere fame; the ever-eclectic Bill Laswell; Ritchie Hawtin; Lorenzo Montana; Gabriel Le Mar; Dr. Atmo and David Moufang to name just a few. Klaus Schulze: "The whole series was a very unpretentious project. Because I had always kept total control with my own albums, I let Pete take it off my hands and could make compromises. That was juicy for me, 'cause I don't work with other electronic musicians usually. It was a total different chemistry compared to say Manuel Goettsching, who I understand completely. From that point of view it was a real challenge. I never could work with somebody like me, I'd rather do it on my own. The few people I have worked with, like Rainer Bloss, had to have strong egos to prevent themselves being dominated by me. Namlook once said, my music was often too emotional from his point of view. Namlook is much more rational than me, that's why I always kidded him with the nickname 'the banker' - but this oppositional aspect made it exciting for me. I need people who work contrari-wise. Work on 'Dark Side Of The Moog' started without any solid intention and wasn't planned as a series at all. There was only the aim that it didn't sound like 'Schulze' only, so I decided that Namlook had to make the final mix." And so a legendary series of recordings was born. 'Dark Side Of The Moog' grew more or less unplanned to a sprawling, stately-sized series of eleven volumes recorded between 1994 and 2008, only ending with the early, tragic death of Pete on November 8th 2012.