Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Richard Wahnfried-Megatone,1984,LP,Germany



Richard Wahnfried, then simply Wahnfried after 1993, is the long-time and only real alias for German electronic art music composer and musician Klaus Schulze – originally a pseudonym, later an official side project name. Seven albums were released under this name between 1979 and 1997.
The main characteristics of the Wahnfried albums (as opposed to Schulze's regular works) are:
Often being oriented towards more mainstream genres (some would say "more commercial"), such as rock and synth rock, dance, techno and trance. Always allowing for collaborative and less electronic albums, with known or unknown guest musicians performing along Schulze's synths. The pseudonym's etymology stems from Schulze's love for Richard Wagner:
Richard, evidently from Wagner's first name. Wahnfried ("Peace from delusion and/or madness", in German), from the name Wagner gave to his villa in Bayreuth (and where he was later buried). In his 1975 album Timewind (four years before the first alias use), Schulze had already named a track "Wahnfried 1883" (in reference to Wagner's death and burial in his Wahnfried's garden in 1883). After 1993, the albums are simply credited to "Wahnfried", and namedrop Schulze ("featuring Klaus Schulze", "Produced by Klaus Schulze").
"Wahnfried" is the only known alias of Schulze (albeit on the 1998 Tribute To Klaus Schulze album, among 10 other artists, Schulze contributed one track barely hidden behind the "Schulzendorfer Groove Orchester" pseudonym).
For this recording the line up was:
Klaus Schulze - synths
Michael Garvens - voice
Olduer Madchenchor - voice
Axel-Glenn Müller - saxophone
Ulli Schober - drums
Michael Shrieve - percussion (Santana drummer)
Harald Katzsch (guitar)

Richard Wahnfried is the collective pseudonym of an idea: Time-Electronic, and experiment between avangarde and muzak: Utility-music for sound-covered environment in which a new generation grows up: Richard Wahnfried is this generation: Music between genius and nonsense: New ideas transported by an old medium into your ear: I wish you plenty of TIME Klaus Schulze (text from Time Actor LP)

Quircky cosmic synth music at it's best!
get it here

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You must be slipping :-) By my standards, Wahnfried is a relatively normal, mainstream kind of post.

Any more "Berlin School" electronica forthcoming ?

Thanks !