hypersongs

Picture Music

Two side-long pieces, "Totem" and "Mental Door", played by Schulze alone, with the only drum kit on a solo album of his.
Klaus Schulze, 1975

Picture Music was produced by Schulze and released in January 1975 on Brain Records. English Wikipedia says it was recorded in 1974, while the official fan site klaus-schulze.com gives autumn 1974 in Berlin; an AllMusic text seen only in a search result begins by saying it was recorded in August 1973, and we treat 1974 as the better sourced. Schulze plays everything: an EMS VCS 3, an ARP Odyssey, an ARP 2600, a Farfisa Professional Duo organ, drums and percussion. It is his only solo album on which he plays a drum kit. The cover is a painting by Jacques Wyrs.

The two pieces are "Totem" at 23:53 (23:45 on klaus-schulze.com) and "Mental Door" at 23:02, and the 2005 Revisited reissue adds "C'est pas la meme chose" at 33:00, a longer alternate version of "Totem". AllMusic's Dave Connolly found the sum effect of "Totem" frankly underwhelming and the drumming on "Mental Door" fairly impressive, per a search summary, and ProgArchives user reviews run from three to four stars. French CD releases swap the side order.

Track listing

  1. Totem23:53
  2. Mental Door23:02

Sources

  1. Picture Music, Wikipedia
  2. Picture Music, klaus-schulze.com