2008-07-16

Klaus Schulze and Australian singer Lisa Gerrard (formerly of Dead Can Dance) work well together on Rheingold: Live at the Loreley. Gerrard doesn't appear on all of this release's moody, hypnotic material, but when she is featured, her performances add a lot to this two-DVD set -- which is a live album more than anything. All of DVD one is devoted to a July 18, 2008 concert in St. Goarshausen, Germany, while DVD two contains the 65-minute documentary "The Real World of Klaus Schulze" and a 55-minute interview (the interviewer is singer/guitarist Steven Wilson, a member of the British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree). The concert in St. Goarshausen is Rheingold's main attraction -- and Schulze is in very good form on the songs that feature Gerrard (the 14-minute "Wellgunde" and the 39-minute "Loreley") as well as the instrumentals that don't ("Nothung," "Wotan," and the 24-minute opener "Alberich").

Synthetic Symphony