Those Ambient Germans
If I had to think of the perfect Christmas present for the young spacenik, I always get the shivers imagining receiving the marvelous “Ambient” boxed set Virgin put out one day, long ago. It contained three unbelievably good albums: Edgar Froese’s Aqua, Klaus Schulze’s Timewind, and Ashra’s Blackouts. I saw the box in a bookstore one day and sighed. I had all the albums already, but I just imagined somebody getting three amazing albums like that all at once. It was almost too much.
So, for a late Christmas (or whatever holiday you may choose) present from Mister Eden, I thought I’d post three tracks—one from each masterful album.
1. Of course, Edgar Froese is Tangerine Dream’s main man, and Aqua was his first solo LP from 1974. It’s environmental ambient of the highest caliber. Oh so icy and haunting. Virgin assembled another box set containing Tangerine Dream’s Rubycon, Phaedra, and Ricochet in one set, too. Can you imagine getting all six of these at once? BLOWN MIND, PLEASE.
2. Klaus Schulze doesn’t believe 1975’s Timewind is his masterpiece and has some rather unkind things to say about it on his own website. Well, what in shit does Klaus know about his own music these days anyway? One listen to anything he recorded in the last twenty years is enough to make you believe it was a different guy drumming in Ash Ra Tempel (and a better one). This edited version of “Wahnfried 1883″ is from the Virgin “Essential” set, but gives you a good idea of the awesome majesty of Klaus at his cosmic best.
3. Finally we have Ashra, at this time basically Manuel Göttsching solo (everything after 1978’s Blackouts is highly suspect, musically, incidentally—I dare you to listen to Correlations and not groan yourself to death). Okay, can you hear the guitar at the end of this track? RIDICULOUS. How can he play like that? A perfect synthesis of Manny’s guitar shredding in Ash Ra Tempel and the later, more ambient, work on New Age of Earth. Oh god. Why don’t they make ‘em like this anymore?
You can’t get the box of these together anymore, in stores at least. But all should be easily available separately. Find them! Love them! (But watch the Spalax version of Blackouts—they made the CD from warped mastertapes and it sounds funny in places. Try to find the Virgin issue if you can.)
Download: Edgar Froese - Upland
Download: Klaus Schulze - Wahnfried 1883
Download: Ashra - Blackouts
Buy the Album: Edgar Froese/Klaus Schulze/Ashra - Ambient
Although Blemish came out two years ago, I only got it recently. I slept maybe an hour last night, and somewhere just before dawn I listened to the whole thing all the way through for only the second or third time. That late-night, that oversaturated-in-norepinephrine-and-adrenaline feel that I tend to get after many many hours without sleep didn’t make the experience of hearing this any more comfortable. But that’s appropriate. This is an odd record, with the instrumental parts almost completely formless and over them that voice, which isn’t so young anymore and doesn’t sound like it. At points, I feel like I’m listening to separate sections of two different records, until the voice too is treated and broken and it falls to pieces and melts into what is behind it. As with much of Blemish,I can’t help but think that there is something cruel and ugly and very sexual going on here, but I also can’t quite figure out what. It’s long since daylight now, very overcast and snowy. I want to find a warm silent spot and sleep there for hours and hours and hours….
How about something spaced-out and classic? Wait, do I post anything that isn’t spaced-out? Now you know how my friends feel.
