When "traces" was originally released on the Spheric music label in 1998, the album was made up of a collection of tracks recorded between 1994 and 1997, using the original mellotrons owned and used by Peter Baumann, Edgar Froese, and Klaus Schulze.
Unfortunately, Stephen felt right from the start that a major part of the music wasn´t as elaborate as he wanted it to be. not only on a musical level, but also on a technical level there was a lot left to be desired in his opinion. Harddisk editing was waiting somewhere beyond the horizon at that time, unattainable for mere mortals. When "traces" sold out in 2001, Stephen dabbled with the idea of producing a reissue of the album which finally ironed out all the flaws and glitches he had always felt annoyed with. produced in 2005, "traces redux" features the original tracks from the original album not only in greatly improved sound quality, but also greatly more focussed, more condensed, and rid of noodlings as pointless as they were endless. Editing the music allowed for the inclusion of a couple of bonus tracks from the same era which could not make it onto the first issue of "traces", and these bonus tracks alone should send everybody straight into berlin school heaven.
