Klaus Schulze: La Vie Electronique?

I currently have LVE 3-7. I love them all. Not too partial to his early drone music, hence i skipped on LVE 1 and 2. Also not too partial to his sampling era in the 90s. Which LVE sets after 7 are worthy of a purchase? I understand 16 is quite good?

Thanks for any info.

I've had the Ultimate Edition in my collection for the last 15 or 16 years, so the La Vie Electronique releases didn't offer me anything new in terms of making me want to purchase them, although that said, they do look like nice packages.

It's strange how we all like different things in music, as I would say Klaus Schulze's early music is perhaps my favourite part of his career, album's like Irrlicht and Cyborg come to mind straight away, as does much of his music from the late 60's/early 70's as found on parts of the Ultimate Edition.

Having looked at the track listings on the LVE series, in this listeners humble opinion the strongest of the sets would be LVE 1 & LVE 2. The music on these 2 sets is very much a case of necessity being the mother of invention....

Had a Look at LVE 16, and to be honest, while it's a big set and tempting at the price, it wouldn't be for me.

However Michael Bruckner would probably be the one to ask on this as I believe he's a bit of an authority on Klaus Schulze (that's a compliment by the way Michael)

P.S. I just "reviewed" LVE 8 in a private mail conversation (triggerd by the fact that I've just realised that I have confused it with LVE 7 before - so that's for showing how much of an 'expert' I am... ).

Since I've written it anyway, why not share it here?

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As for LVE 8, there are still many nice offerings on that one as well, although to my taste it's not quite as essential as LVE 7. "Hitchcock Suite" is great (however it seems much like an alternative mix / different take for / of "Mirage", so doesn't feel entirely unfamiliar).

CD 1: "Danse Un Jardin" is a live track from '79 and as such similar on the recordings on the classical "...live..." album from that tour. Sound and performance are OK, to me it isn't an essential recording, though. "Faster than Lightning" from the same tour is similar, but I like it (partly) much more musically (especially the first 5 minutes with those metallic ring modulator sounds that remind of the abstract opening of "Dunes"). This track features Arthur Brown, nothing bad in my eyes, but I have to be in the mood for it..
"Phonetisches Plakat" is, erm: very sparse - actually it seems like just the percussion track of some composition of which the rest is missing, and except for proving that at times Klaus did some drumming himself as late as 1979, it is of only little interest (even for me ).

CD 2: I already mentioned "Hitchcock Suite". "L'affaire Tournesol" is yet another concert recording from 1979, basically good with some parts better than others, solid sequenzer - drum computer work with the usual soloing on top of it. The same applies to "Bona Fide", a typical KS live track of that tour. It's musically a tad better than "L'affaire Tournesol" for my taste, than again the sound is (slightly) worse.

CD 3: "Keep Up With The Times" is a quite cool sequencer exercise - however since that particular rhythm (which he used in a couple of other pieces during that time as well, including some from "Audentity") is running from beginning to end, and the sound is a bit harsh compared to his earlier analogue sequencer work, it would have benefitted from some edits to make it a bit more concise. On the other hand, it really has part which are quite a gas!
"I Remember Rhasaan" then - featuring Steve Joliffe and Michael Shrieve - is quite a treat, and also a rare case (if not the only) of a KS track featuring saxophone (which works well...).
"A Quick One" & "Count me in", both with Michael Shrieve, are also cool brief electronic jams, with a rare (for KS) "funky" feel to them and some fine soloing. I think you could look at that as sketches / early versions of stuff that happened on "Trancefer" and "Audentity" (a bit wilder and less refined than the official versions).
With "The Martial Law" we have reached "Dzjekuje Ploland" terretory, it's a typical track from the "Audentity" tour with Rainer Bloss. I personally always felt that in the early 80ies, Klaus was still at his best in the studio, but the new digital sound didn't translate as well to a live situation as the analogue sound did; for some reason I found the live recordings from that tour always a bit strenous and nervous. On the other hand, in good moments the feature great soloing as well and have something like a live rock feeling to them which can be exciting as well. This particular track is of the same quality than any from the official release from that tour (maybe the sound is even better). Here's that same sequencer rhythm again, btw.
"Zugabe (Encore) Timbales" finally doesn't seem to really be an encore though, but rather one of the pre-recorded backing tracks Klaus and Rainer used on the '83 tour. Interestingly, I quite like it in that minimalistic form (which seems to second what I wrote above: that sound of '83 worked much better when fine-tuned in the studio...)

The two interviews are nice, but not essential. Cool to hear Klaus' voice from those old days, though (but that's about it )

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Michael didnt you say Hitchcock Suite is basically off of Mirage? Found LV6 sounding like it was a Mirage repeat.