Klaus Schulze - Album: Timewind (Reissue)http://youtu.be/4kmZIfNAGsIDouble CD / 5 tracks / 59.10 + 56.14 minsCD1 opens up with the glorious 'Bayreuth Return'(30:32). A gale force electronic wind is blowing as small twittering synths drift around in an off world dimension. 'Wahnfried 1883'(28:38) fills the rest of CD1. Like track 1 an ocean of white noise, twittering and gliding synth effects all serve to paint some kind of musical imagery which for the bulk of the piece shows no sign of any earthly connection. Klaus also edits in realtime bringing the original album to a most dramatic Wagnerian close, truly overpowering and absolutely brilliant!!!CD2; a complete bonus disc of material. Three tracks, two of them also from 1975 which were basically rehearsals for the recording of 'Bayreuth Return'. Due to the rudimentary nature of Schulzes recording gear back in the mid seventies everything had to be done 'on the fly' in a single take, all synth tweaking and sequencer reprogramming was performed 'live', so rehearsal of what was about to take shape was pretty much an essential part of the whole recording routine. The sizeable 'Echoes of Time' (38:48)comes in at just under forty minutes!!! It has a completely different nine minute introduction to 'Bayreuth....' prior to the arrival of the familiar sounding sequences. For the rehearsal there are some slight differences in the mix and sounds used, but for me it lacks the real polish of the finished item. That said, do bear in mind that this is a massive slice of recorded rehearsal work, not originally meant for release at all, and yet it's amazing, purely by way of the fact that Klaus again turns in a flawless performance. The same can be said of the following track,'Solar Wind'(12:44). Again it's a short rehearsal piece for 'Bayreuth.....' (not that you'd know that to listen to it), 50% of the track being made up of effects before moving onto some organ work which is totally detached from anything on the finished piece.........and what of track three,'Windy Times' (04:57)? This little five minuter was a previously released piece from the 'Essential Extracts' promotional CD for the 'Contemporary Works Vol 1' box set. Schulze regards the piece as a little homage to 'Timewind' recorded in 2000 on modern equipment. Sequencers lead the way, but if l told you it sounded like anything other than 'Moonlake' l'd be lying. Does it sound like anything from 'Timewind'........not abit of it!!!! Excellent track though.So there you have it, if you're looking for a musical experience that touches your sonic nirvana providing music that really does seem like it comes from another planet,'Timewind' is the answer. It's a thirty one year old recording now that still doesn't sound like its dated at all!!! Love it or loathe it this album was unique in it's day,( and maybe it still is). An album recorded ahead of it's time and out of it's time in that there really was nothing else like it. It's for those reasons alone that you could say that here we have an album with the all important 'X factor'.