Product Format: 2CD
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Originally released in 1978, this 2016 Made In Germany Music reissue comes in a Digi-Pak with Original Artwork, a 16-Page Booklet and 1 Bonus Track!
In 2016 the Made In Germany label’s run on the Klaus Schulze re-issue campaign is seriously underway with this and a sizable list of other classics (listed below), all available again as MIG pressings in smart Digi-Paks and most with a range of Bonus Tracks. There are more planned reissues to come between 2016 & 2017 AND some new titles are scheduled too!
‘X’ is a mighty and truly legendary studio album from September 1978 that many consider his finest and most generally accessible release with its huge symphonic overtones complementing the ethereal cosmic themes and rhythmic passages!
These points are fully brought home when you are made aware that this Double Album contains 6 tracks that are dedicated to classical composers: Nietzsche, Trakl, Herbert, Bach, Kleist and Ludwig II.
The German magazine ‘Sounds’ had counted Schulze second after Michael Rother in the list of the most popular German musicians, but with ‘X’ Klaus Schulze made clear that he was the master of Synthesizer Music at the time!
This re-release of the classic Schulze album ‘X’ has some little differences from the formerly available early CD versions. The original CD issue of ‘X’ was altered in sound (not to everybody's delight) and some tracks were a bit shorter than on the original double vinyl album.
The music (the same as on the 2005 SPV version) was carefully transferred IN FULL from original old analogue master tapes to digital equipment, so the sound is good and the playing times are as they should always have been!
There is also a remarkable twenty-one minute Bonus Track (again this was on the 2005 SPV copies) in the form of a concert version of: ‘Ludwig’ (‘Object D'Louis’), played in September 1978 during a concert Schulze played together with a classical youth orchestra. That young group of musicians had almost no rehearsal time, so if this isn’t music flying on its feet, I don’t know what is!
Resemblances to the track that appeared on the album are many, but often, in particular Schulze’s case, he’ll be off elsewhere in the cosmos, while the real violins and cellos bravely drive forth on the main themes and arrangements of the piece!
Andy G reviewing ‘X’ in 2005…
OK – no messing – no arguments!! If you have one of the original CD issues of ‘X’ you simply HAVE to replace it with one of these! You don’t believe me? OK – trust me on this – buy a new copy of ‘X’. Get out your old copy of ‘X’. Play the first six minutes of: ‘Ludwig II Von Bayern’ from the old disc. Then stop the player and insert the new disc – play the same track, same time – then listen for the thud as your jaw hits the floor!
Is this a Remaster, or is this a REMASTER!!!!
I would not have believed that you could make such a difference to such music that was recorded so well in the first place, but this is just staggering – and I’m only on one track!! Then you go to the rest of them, and it’s the same – all amazingly well Remastered from the original analog tapes, and the effect is breathtaking, let alone the fact that the music is also just that, and totally timeless too!
Much of ‘X’ could have been made last week, never mind 27 (yes, 27!!) years ago {now in 2016 it’s 38 Years! … ed}.
What you also get now on ‘X’ is the track: ‘Georg Trakl’, originally only five minutes long, now presented here in all its twenty-six minute glory – and what a tremendous piece this is – we’re talking VINTAGE Schulze here! If ‘X’ wasn’t an awesome album anyway, the presence of this track – in full - in many ways hearkens back to the likes of: ‘Moondawn’, and just puts the icing on the cake. The piece flows wonderfully, with those classic deep strings, sparkling sequenced rhythms, light electro-percussive touches, soaring streams of synth layers and a sense of direction and range of texture that was, at the time, uniquely Schulze. Somehow there is a warmth of feeling at its core that just draws you in to its gorgeously analogue heart. In many ways, it makes you think of ASH RA’s ‘New Age Of Earth’ album – it’s got that altogether more blissful ethereal feel – and that is pretty sensational, believe me!
So, even more reason for picking up this “revised” version.
Klaus Schulze about ‘X’…
“Richard Wagner could also have been part of these musical biographies on ‘X’. Wagner is particularly close to me because for me he was the first to create a synthesis of the arts. For instance he demanded for a composition a separate theatre where the orchestra could disappear in the pit. Therein I see an analogy to the synthesizer. Here the actual instrument is also disappearing behind a few buttons - you're hearing a lot, but you don't see much. But Wagner was a far too tremendous topic because then I would have had to make ‘X’ a triple album. For this reason I had chosen only authors (except Friedemann Bach) who had influenced me greatly. Frank Herbert’s novel ‘Dune’ was almost a bible for me at that time! Bavarian king: Ludwig II was, of course, no author, but his life is a novel in itself.
‘X’ also was film music for ‘Barracuda’. I had the budget so I could afford an orchestra. However, it was really difficult to master the orchestral score. I can actually write notes. I once took also classical guitar lessons, but to write such a score is a different kind of thing. All that music I could have played within a day, but on the score I worked for four weeks! Cellist Wolfgang Tiepold was a big help to me since I wasn't experienced enough to say a violin could really play what I had written in the score.
In the middle section of: ‘Ludwig II’ we had to make a tape loop for the repetitions. We did this because the musicians couldn’t play this passage ‘live’ for fifteen minutes without dropping their violins!
The tape reached out across the studio and the kitchen, and then we looped it. Tape loops like this were of course typical for my compositions - 20 meters long! Ha Ha.
The bonus track on ‘X’: ‘Object D'Louis’ is a ‘live’ version of: ‘Ludwig II’ and it uses a complete orchestra.
I did that in 1978 because I wanted to hear how this track would sound live on stage with an orchestra.
I was on tour and performing ‘Ludwig’, and in Belgium there was an opportunity to perform the piece in that style. A radio station wanted to broadcast my concert ‘live’, so I asked if we could do it with an orchestra. Tiepold rehearsed it a little with the orchestra, and in the evening we preformed together and it was broadcasted ‘live’. Now you can hear it again on this CD".
This 2016 re-release comes in the usual stylish Digi-Pak with an Enhanced Booklet that includes Detailed Liner Notes and Photos. The Bonus Track for this issue is the epic, near 22-Minute: ‘Object D’Louis’.
Also available in the 2016 MIG re-issue series by KLAUS SCHULZE…
ANOTHER GREEN MILE (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823112
AUDENTITY (5 Bonus Tracks / Digi-Pak) 2CD – Stock # 1823086
BLACKDANCE (2 Bonus Tracks / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823020
BODY LOVE-V1 (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823098
CYBORG (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) 2CD – Stock # 1822919
DIG IT (1 Bonus DVD / Digi-Pak) CDDV – Stock # 1898811
DREAMS (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823109
DUNE (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823103
DZIEKUJE POLAND (2 Bonus Tracks / Digi-Pak) 2CD – Stock # 1823087
IN BLUE (1 Bonus Disc / Digi-Pak) 3CD – Stock # 1822885
INTERFACE (Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1898812
IRRLICHT (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823019
LIVE (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) 2CD – Stock # 1822890
LIVE @ KLANGART (2 Bonus Tracks / Digi-Pak) 2CD – Stock # 1823092
MIRAGE (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823095
MOONDAWN (1 Bonus Tracks / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823094
PICTURE MUSIC (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823090
TIMEWIND (Bonus Disc / Digi-Pak) 2CD – Stock # 1823093
TRANCEFER (2 Bonus Tracks / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1822898
USO-PRIVEE (Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1822892
DRUMS ‘N’ BALLS (1 Bonus Track / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1823089
KLAUS SCHULZE: X 2CD Track List:
CD 1:
01. Friedrich Nietzsche (24:47)
02. Georg Trakl (26:05)
03. Frank Herbert (10:48)
04. Friedemann Bach (18:00)
TPT – 79:40
CD 2:
01. Ludwig II Von Bayern (28:44)
02. Heinrich Von Kleist (29:26)
03. Object D'Louis (21:33) * Bonus Track *
TPT – 79:43