Babel

Album review

Klaus Schulze's collaboration with keyboard player Andreas Grosser throughout Babel is slightly different from his usual synthesized tinkering. With both musicians using three types of synthesizers, a voice processor, and a piano, Babel's lone 60-minute track ends up being an enchanting jaunt of lightly induced new age music, with some wonderfully refined classical elements surfacing throughout. Schulze's dabbling leads to some well-established electronic mysticism, musically addressing the concept of the mighty tower that was said to be erected in order to bring Noah's people closer to heaven. Like most of Schulze's material, the concept is wonderfully developed through drifting textures and directed pulses, as excerpts such as "Heaven Under Feet," "First Clouds," and the 14-minute "Immuring Into Insanity" paint a vivid portrait of the sky and the earth through both delicate and strong rhythms. Grosser's piano work is equally effective and doesn't become overshadowed by Schulze's playing, especially in the softer pieces. With tempos that ebb and flow, both musicians steer Babel away from what could have been just another pleonastic new age arrangement, while at the same time utilizing a wide assortment of keyboard methods.

© Mike DeGagne /TiVo