Klare, Frank

Artist: Frank Klare & Ron Boots
P: 2007
"Digitalic" can be defined as pure Space Sequencer Music, with melodic atmospheres that come and go, as well as hypnotic sequencer solos in a trance key. The structure of the work is very rhythmic. The rhythms even sustain the melodies, in the shape of minimalist sequences that keep oscillating around a determined basis.
All the themes have been composed by Frank Klare, except for Digitalic Five and Digitalic Six, where Ron Boots has participated.

Artist: Frank Klare & Ron Boots
P: 2004
Frank Klare is an experienced musician from Germany who already has a long career behind him in electronic music with band like Synco and Traumklang, numerous solo releases, many collaborations and a lot of appearances on compilation albums.
“Monumental Dreams” is dedicated to the “Tangerine Tree”-project, an initiate of Tangerine Dreams fans to release all kinds of live material from this legendary band. Not surprisingly, Frank’s music has traces of that of “TD”.
The sequences and melodies on “First Movement” and “Second Movement” could have come from a TD album out of the eighties (listen to these leading chords!).
Frank has a sound of his own. This can be heard very well in the sequences he uses. The one in “Third Movement”, for example, is excellent. “Fifth Movement” is a slow rhythmic affair with soft melodies. The highlight on the album is “Sixth Movement”; here Frank creates the best sequence on the cd and this, together with the typical TD-sounds, makes this track an absolute treat. After so many years of being around in electronic music, “Monumental Dreams” could mean the real breakthrough for Frank. And then the cover: again it is a fantastic surreal and futuristic masterpiece by the Argentine artist Pablo Magne. Within some tracks, Ron Boots joins the musician and gives all the special touch.

Artist: Frank Klare
P: 1998/ 2005
You want prolific and uniformly excellent electronic music? Then Frank Klare is for you. ANALOGIC is a striking sequential Berlin School release done on analog equipment and digitally re-mastered to allow the full spectrum of sound to emerge from the mix. From his days with the Berlin trio Synco up to today, Klare has made some incredibly diverse music that ranges the full spectrum of synthetic moods and tone colors. His music reflects his mastery of the EM craft, as well as being enjoyable listening.
Frank Klare is undoubtedly an underrated artist. Mostly ignored from the larger audience of EM, he is however one of the most important jewel in Berlin School EM. Let’s take Analogic. We are dealing here with a super opus of pure analog music which travels between the oddness of Irrlicht and the voluptuous of Body Love, both from Master Schulze.
Analogic One is a charming track. Beautiful synth layers illuminate a space striate with shooting stars. Consistent, they fluctuate under a slow movement, with floating sound arabesques, like a strange ballet with dubious movements but of a sensual beauty. We let ourselves pitch and toss by this slow movement which recalls first Schulze and the musical wanders of Jarre’s Oxygen. Analogic is a pure wonder of sanalog softness. A poetic album where Klare sensitivity transforms into enchanting musical odes of a Berlin School tinted of romanticism. Without really exploring percussive rhythms, Klare divides time by offering superb analog parts which musical structures are punctuated harmonious series of arpeggios to musical tangles which come very close to nostalgic softness. In that spirit, the string of chords that winds Analog Two is of an appealing beauty.
Ikarus starts in these same floating zones. More fluid, the musical structure is struck by heavy pulsations, with looping reverberations, giving a brawler effect in a cemented space. Crazy Dance is a dance with clock movements created by a sequential pulsation of a great realism. Analogic Three is the pièce de résistance on Analogic. After a short eclectic intro, this long movement pulsates on a ramming and hypnotic rhythm where synth dandles itself on a sober sequence, whereas the percussions over sizing the cadence, as Klaus Schulzer used to do at his semi-analogue a semi – digital area. This is a great hypnotic impulse with subtle variances and a superb set of percussions. Fans of Berlin School, get your headphones and threat yourself with this amazing track. Go Ahead encloses this great opus on a more hatched rhythm. A hypnotic trance full of hammering percussions mixes with a synth filled of twisted solos. A gruff track which clashes in this universe of whirring and enveloping layers, but which is a brilliant continuity of the sublime Analogic Three.
Analogic is impossible to circumvent for any analog EM fans. Frank Klare is unquestionably a composer of talent which controls all the aspects of conservative Berlin School, with just what it takes to avoid the traps of redundancy. A superb album which will please all fans of Schulze music in, the analog area, as well as fans of great and sensitive EM.

Artist: Frank Klare
P: 1999/ 2005
This re-release of Franks CD about musical mystery themes is a kind of Synco style CD.
If you like the music of Thief by TD, this is near to that.
Sequencer based melodies and straight sololines is the right combination.
 

Artist: Frank Klare
P: 2004
This release in Frank Klare's Berlin sonic series is on the more upbeat side. Filled with crisp sequences and colorful melodic tone colors, it offers a vivid sonic expose of Berlin's exotic night life.
 

Artist: Frank Klare
P: 2003
The Berlin school theme has been a recurring one for Frank Klare, and has turned up of late in his titles. Taking this concept a step further, Berlin Parks is a not-so-veiled reference to Tangerine Dream’s classic 1985 CD Le Parc.
Rather than song titles named after world parks, Klare has kept within the confines of Berlin. And that is appropriate, given the music is strongly rooted in that style.
“Grosser Tiergarten” is a lengthy hypnotic sequencer piece. A single intricate musical phrase is repeated throughout, with the exception of key changes from time to time, and mild shifts in the variance of the notes toward the end. Punchy drum machines thump along in parts but not through all of it. The drums are a touch on the thin side, but otherwise this is great vintage stuff in the style of Schulze and TD.
“Victoriapark” starts with heavy beats and sequencing together. The drums sound better here, and there is a nice lead synth line that goes through a variety of classic sounds such as Mellotron strings.
“Treptower Park” is a touch moodier, in a good way. The sequencing here is a little TD like but actually reminds me, just a touch, of The Who’s classic song “Eminence Front”. The track is a bit more low key than the first two, and that works to its favor.
“Schlosspark Charlottenburg” is beautiful, with flowing synth pads and really nice piano by Klare, a strong composition. The diversity from one track to the next is a real plus, and makes Berlin Parks more and more enjoyable as you delve deeper into it.
By “Britzer Garten”, I am totally hooked by the great blend of synths, sequencing, and melodies.
“Mauerpark” closes things out, the longest track. The drums are too heavy-handed and the sequences don't change enough for this to work as the big epic finish that is apparently intended.
 

Artist: Frank Klare
P: 2002
“Berlin in the evening” is a rapid romp, sounds like recent Ashra live albums and the almost-Ashra album Viermal Drei. The beat and sequencing become completely mesmerizing, as the hypnotic loop and a few bongos run for several minutes unabated.  “Berlin at night” sounds like another Berlin school graduate.  Light, crystalline sequences and gentle, fast-rolling drums are just like Tangerine Dream’s Poland CD. Again this is heavy-handed on the sequences, so if you go for that sort of stuff you will be in heaven by now, with 45 minutes down and 27 still to go.
“Berlin in the morning” has scintillating classic lead lines that beg comparisons to Klaus Schulze and other pioneers of the genre.
Even more Schulze-like is “Berlin at (old) day(s)”, with a softer, more haunting quality, more strong solo synth sounds, and drums that sound as good as Harald Grosskopf did when he played with KS in the 1970s. This track is perhaps the best, with a shade more variety than the rest.

Artist: Frank Klare
P: 1997
His first works in a pre Synco time.
All recordings made between 1981 and 1985.
The music is somehow sequencerbased. Slow titles, all played with analogue vintage gear.
Sometimes the music reminds to the followup he made with Synco.

Artist: Frank Klare
P: 1996
It has to be said that ex SYNCO member Frank Klare released a brace of albums conspicuous by their blandness earlier in the year. The title, and the fact that four of the 6 track are specified as being improvisations, would suggest that there's room for optimism here though. 'Intro' opens brightly enough, with a heavy bass beat backed by a lively sequence. The melody is pleasant enough but after a while it becomes predictable and repetitive and consequently the track out-stays its welcome, even at only 5½ minutes. The four part 'Improvised Eternity' dominates the album, and thankfully proceedings take a marked turn for the better with the arrival of part 1. Choral refrains introduce the piece before a sequence slowly starts to take shape, backed by a foreboding drone. Simple drums and percussion also join the fray, building in intensity as the track progresses, and though variety is not the track's strong point it compensates with lots of atmosphere and imagery. Part 2 repeats the formula with a traditional style sequence underpinning choral synths straight from the Tangerine Dream archives. Part 3 confirms that Frank Klare has very much done on this album what he didn't achieve on his previous two: recapturing some of the form shown on the SYNCO 85-89 album. Overall this album does more right than it does wrong, and SYNCO fans I'm sure will welcome it. (GG)

Here the last copy!

Artist: Frank Klare
P: 1997/ 2008
The music reminds kinda of TD's 'Cyclone'. 1997 Noah Walhut aka John L. (vocals) collaborated with Frank Klare on the album KLAL! John L.'s more common collaboration was in 1971 on the Ash Ra Tempel album 'Schwingungen'. This re-release is dedicated in memory of John L. who died on 15th September 2007.