Schröder, Robert - Harmonic Ascent vinyl lp (due to size and weight, this price for the USA only. Outside of the USA, the price will be adjusted as needed
SKU
28-ROKE15020.1
“Robert Schroeder was one of Klaus Schulze's first disciples to record on the master's own Innovative Communications label, and Harmonic Ascendant remains one of the two or three best albums I.C. ever released.
Not content however to be merely a copyist, Schroeder forged his own identity as a composer of romantic, richly-textured electronic music that owed as much to Chopin as it did to Schulze. The architectonic structure of the individual movements that make up the title track is immaculately conceived as an accumulation of suites, moving from an acoustic guitar/piano duet to a guitar/cello/string synthesizer trio, and so on. The entire piece almost resembles the work of a chamber ensemble, with Schroeder's wonderfully impressionistic acoustic guitar and synthesizers providing a velvety cushion for the solo cello of Wolfgang Tieopold. Its shifting minor-key harmonies are evocative of gradually changing moods and feelings, tinged with the somber hues of remembrance and regret. Unlike "Harmonic Ascendant," both "Future Passing By" and "The Day after 'X'" are wholly electronic, featuring extensive use of vocoder and some hammering sequencer patterns. Sonically, either could've been a lost track from Schulze's brilliant X album, released the year before Harmonic Ascendant. In contrast to the mournful romanticism of the title track, "Future Passing By" has a dark, brooding atmosphere. Whispered, electronically-treated voices and the dissonant clangor of ring-modulated oscillators build to a menacing climax. "The Day after 'X'" (an obvious homage to Schulze himself) lifts off on an aggressive sequencer track and some up-tempo synth soloing, eventually cooling down like a rocket on re-entry to the earth's atmposphere.
Schizophrenic at times, though thoroughly absorbing, Harmonic Ascendant possesses all the qualities of naivete and precocity that one would expect from a talented devotee of the innocent experimentation that the synthesizer often engenders.”
- LabelRacket
- UPC4002587015206