I haven’t used my MOGspace much to blog about Klaus Schulze, and it does reflect some personal bias on my part… I just have the hardest time separating out one of his albums musically from any of the others in his early discography. That’s why the cover art is so important in identifying what’s what. (Check out Urs Amann’s art for Schulze in the 70s. Amann has an online gallery here). In 1983, Klaus Schulze released Audentity featuring cover art by Claus Cordes showing a young fellow wearing slit sunglasses and art deco headphones. I’ve become so used to earlier Schulze tracks plodding along endlessly with atmospheric synthscapes I had forgotten that Schulze had a go at some energetic music. You’ll have to listen to “Sebastian Im Traum” know what I’m talking about.

But I think the more significant thing about this album is the cover art. Check out those slit glasses. Remind you of anyone?

And speaking of slit glasses. How come I can’t find them anywhere? Why if fashion repeats itself has it taken so long for these to make a comeback? From my blog to your ears, Soho fashion geeks. I mean, take a look at this young gangster from John Carpenter’s whimsical 1986 synth-pop opera, Big Trouble in Little China.

I should also note that the soundtrack to Big Trouble in Little China by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth is excellent. Here’s a quality review of it written back in 2003 by the fantastically named, Messrob Torikian. I don’t have a copy of the soundtrack. It is rare! It is also expensive. If you have it, please share it with me. Also, if you know of a supplier for retro sunglasses, please pass on my request.

UPDATE: Some follow-up thoughts to this post are blogged about here.

About Aharon N. Varady

Aharon's Omphalos is the hobbit hole of Aharon Varady, founding director of the Open Siddur Project. He is a community planner and environmental educator working to improve stewardship of the Public Domain, be it the physical and natural commons of urban park systems or the creative and cultural commons of libraries and museums. His advocacy for open-source strategies in the Jewish community has been written about in the Atlantic Magazine, the Yiddish Forverts, Tablet, and Haaretz. He is particularly interested in pedagogies for advancing ecological wisdom, developing creative and emotional intelligence, and realizing effective theurgical praxes. He welcomes your comments, personal messages, and kind words. If you find his work helpful to your own or you'd simply like to support him, please consider donating via his Patreon account.

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“Audentity” is shared by Aharon N. Varady with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.