1. Who is the band? What is their history? What motivates them?
Lisa Gerrard and Klaus Schulze are both famous performers in their own right. Klaus is the famous drummer of Tangerine Dream and also a very accomplished, over 40 albums to his credit, solo artist. Lisa is one half of the band Dead Can Dance, along with Brenden Perry.
Lisa and Klaus collaborated on the album Farscape. “Schulze explained the impetus for this album: "I have wanted to work with Lisa Gerrard since the days of Dead Can Dance, but I never had an opportunity for such a collaboration. It's also not so easy to reach her on the phone." Reciprocally, Gerrard said: "I know Klaus Schulze since Tangerine Dream. He is amazing, I mean, his work is sympathetic to a soul journey and has been for such a period of time." (Wikipedia, 2009). This collaboration extended to the live performances featured on this DVD.
2. Why did they make this album? What was the passion or message that forced them to produce what they have? Or, simply what was their motivation for the themes they chose for this album?
Klaus, in his interview on Disc Two, describes the discussions to bring Lisa into the project. It was actually very easy. She wanted to participate and help bring his material to life on stage. Klaus also discusses how he stated after his last live performance that he would never do a live show again. However, this new Loreley experience has changed his mind. He is open to doing another short tour in the future. He doesn’t plan to do any long tours in the future.
Disc Two held another wonderful surprise; the interview and production work on the DVD was conducted in Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios. I have been a fan of Peter Gabriel’s for a long time and have seen pictures of the studio on the Internet, but this was a full blown tour with special emphasis on the magnificent equipment used during the mixing of the DVD. Klaus mentioned in the DVD that he would chose Gabriel’s studio for any future DVD mixing or producing, he enjoyed the experience so much.
3. What message are they delivering through their lyrics and music
Disc One was the main performance DVD, of the two DVD set. There really were not any lyrics in the DVD performance. Lisa made vocal harmonizations during her portion of the DVD performance. The performance started with Klaus Schulze greeting his audience and moving behind a wall of synthesizers, sequencers, computers, and speakers. The entire DVD was filmed with Klaus behind this amazing technology.
The music coming out of that wall of sound was amazing and wonderful, but as a DVD is was like watching paint dry. It was interesting watching Klaus turn some dials and play the keyboards for a while, but the camera people should have shown more of the surrounding Loreley area and the crowd during long intervals of the video.
Watching Lisa perform was also interesting at first, but she did not move much in the video much either. Watching her harmonize while Klaus’ playing was interesting and seeing these two incredible performers live was a unique experience.
4. Does this music improve, change, or add to the genre? What does the listener receive from listening to the music?
Since this is a DVD of already released material it is not new other than the live performance of these two amazing artists. The experience of watching these two excellent performers at work in a live venue was worth the price of admission. The second CD was even better for me with the tour and use of Gabriel’s studio and the joint interview/conversation between Klaus Schulze and Steve Wilson, the former lead singer of Porcupine Tree. Watching these two major generational leaders of prog talk about the past and their influences was wonderful.
5. Does it have longevity? Is it something you will like to play again and again?
This question is more difficult to answer. Since I have seen it I will probably play the first CD for its music without actually sitting back and watching it again. The other DVD will be great to show friends who have not seen it, but I would be less interested in watching it again now that I have seen it.
Disc One rating: Music 9/10, Video: 6/10
Disc Two: Content: Very interesting studio tour, interview and mixing segments. 8/10.
Reviewed by Prof on April 15th, 2009
