SORCERER (OST)

This album is the soundtrack of the film Sorcerer. It sounds a bit like Ricochet, but there are other moods, like the first song "Main title", who is made for horror movies. It is not really a scary soundtrack; it rather expresses desolation: it is not a party album. I think Rubycon would have been more suited for horror movie soundtrack than this record.

Without any doubt the best soundtrack released by Tangerine Dream. With a relatively similar material used in the precedent records, Rubycon, Stratosfear (concerning the keyboards and electronics: a lot of sequencers, electronic arpegiattos to support rythmically the melodies, mellotron and analog synthesizers), the members wrote a very dark and gloomy score. The main title is terrifying and throws the listener in a creepy adventure. This track is a great opening to what is coming next. Less experimental than the precedent title but as vibrant, the following tracks added one to an other create a long and epic journey throw the unknown. Globally less imperishable than others T.D. works, this record remains a good musical moment to discover (if you are in touch with the Virgin T.D era)

TANGERINE DREAM's first foray in to film scoring. This was the soundtrack to William Friedkin's Sorcerer, which was a remake of an old movie called Wages of Fear. Apparently Friedkin was a big fan of prog rock and electronic music and had he knew of TANGERINE DREAM back in 1973, he would have used them for his best-known film, The Exorcist, but instead he used MIKE OLDFIELD, whose "Tubular Bells" gave him wide exposure, no doubt helped by the beginning part of the album used for the film.

I had seen Sorcerer, and I thought it was a particularly boring film, the only thing really sticking out was the heavy monsoons pouring in the Central American jungle as these trucks haul explosives over dangerous territory.

Given this was a soundtrack, the band went for much shorter compositions, in the 2-3 minute range, for the most part, but it proved TANGERINE DREAM was still able to float within the time constraints. No side-length epics here. "Main Title" is a truly bizarre experimental piece that harkens back to the old stuff they did when they were with Ohr, only this time on synthesizers rather than glissando guitars and VCS-3 synth effects. Most of the rest relies on sequencers with lots of synthesizers and Mellotron. Some of them sound like unfinished pieces, but worked in context to the film. After watching the film, I discovered only about half of the album's 12 songs were used in the film. I understand the band was less than pleased how their music was used in the film, but then the band never saw the film when they did the soundtrack.

I wouldn't call this their best '70s effort, but at least it's still a lot better than the crap they've been giving us in the last 20 or so years.

Not really essential TD effort - it served a purpose for the film soundtrack, but in the form of an album does not catch attention. Although, I must say because this is from my fav TD period, second half of 1970s, there are few excellent themes like "Main Title", "Vengeance", "Abyss", "Grind" and "Betrayal"! Recommended only to strict electronic music fans or TD collectors. 2,5 stars actually!

For my next trick, I shall make all interest in the film vanish

The film "The sorcerer" was released in 1977 as a sort of follow up to "The exorcist". It is based on a French film called "Le Salaire de la Peur" ("The Wages of Fear"), the title being changed as much as anything in an effort to align the film more obviously with "The exorcist". While there was a huge amount of public interest in the film up to the point of its release, that interest waned rapidly after the premiere, and the film was a commercial disaster.

Director William Franklin says in his sleeve notes for this album that, had he heard Tangerine Dream sooner, he would have asked them to score "The exorcist". As it is, the score they wrote for "Sorcerer" was composed without the band having seen a second of the movie it was commissioned for. Franklin seems to have been impressed with what was delivered though, saying that it "captures and enhances every nuance of each moment (of the film)". The reality is though that for their first venture into soundtrack recording, Tangerine Dream simply did what they already did well.

The music here may be nominally broken down into bite sized pieces (tracks), but the album has all the trademarks of a Virgin era Tangs recording. At times, the music become so familiar that I am convinced some of it has actually appeared on TD studio albums. There is perhaps rather more in the way of atmospheric, scene setting type sounds, and less of the more heavily rhythmic synthesiser runs, but the difference is very much in the equilibrium of the album, the overall feel is the same.

Those who enjoy the music of Tangerine Dream from around this time should not avoid this album simply because it was written for a film. From the band's point of view, it seems that the intended use was incidental, and they just set about recording in the same way as usual.

Uninspired, flaccid and lame, this knock-together soundtrack made the TANGS a fair wad of cash.

The Main Title is a 'pink years' avant-garde wall of dark, droning sound, and actually works quite nicely. Sadly, few of the remaining tracks do, sounding like out-takes from previous efforts. 'Search', for example, introduces a nice pulse with no context, then fades it out after a couple of minutes of noodling. Listening to this album is like viewing the artworks in a gallery through a series of portholes: a frustrating exercise in what-might-have-been and wonder-what-that-is.

Sadly, this set TANGERINE DREAM on their soundtrack career. Reviewers suggest that this is the best of them: I can't comment, as I've avoided them assiduously ever since. I want to purchase music designed for me to listen to, not as an accompaniment to visual images I can't see when listening to the album.

I don't count this as an 'official' TD album, instead choosing to pretend it doesn't exist.

As ''Ricochet'' was the first TD live album, ''Sorcerer'' was their first soundtrack. And they will release an awful bunch of them in their amazing long career. I have not seen this version of the movie, but it was a remake of a great French movie from the late fifties (Le Salaire De La Peur'') which is a fave of mine and well worth a viewing if you are ever interested.

There are some true TD moments here (''Search'', ''Betrayal'') but the ones who were waiting for some scary stuff won't be satisfied: there is nothing too scary to expect from this album since the story is not at all linked with terror or devil stories. It was just a great thriller, for sure.

I would say that this is a ''cheap'' TD effort. Some sort of second tier. Let's not forget that the band released several major albums from '74 through '76 and that this entry can't be compared to these great works.

There is nothing weak in here, but the grandeur of their major and previous recordings can't be felt. Still, ''Vengeance'', ''Grind'' and 'Abyss'' above all do have lots of qualities.

But the global feel is that this is somewhat a lesser TD album. Still good but with some unfinished taste. Three stars.

The first foray of Soundtrack material from Tangerine Dream. It is a great start too and to this reviewer has always suspiciously sounded like Stratosfear ( Take 2), especially listening to " Creation" and ' Search" or " Vengeance" smacks of " The Big Sleep in Search of Hades" or "...Okefenokee". So very much a dark broody album with some excellent guitar work from Froese and the atypical Baumann/Franke influences. " Abyss" is particularly spine chilling but the the last two tracks are exceptionally good " Impressions of Sorceror" and " Betrayal", has Froese and his crew saving their best for last. This could have been a great album release regardless of the " Soundtrack" tag. Four stars.

I don't know anything of the movie, but it was just question of time before the cinema went aware of TD as a possible source of soundtracks.

Sorcerer is just the first of a number of movie soundtracks commissioned to Tangerine Dream. This one happened between Stratosfear and Cyclone, so the periond in which their music was turing to a little more (but just a little) commercial, or at least less experimental than in the pink period.

This is not true for "Main Title" that's totally spacey and full of electronic noise, but since the second track "Search" we can hear the difference. Four bass sequenced notes provide the rhythm and the main chord for the keyboards, then the bass note remain just two and a guitar riff starts. In general in TD albums there are side long tracks with changes occurring each 5 minutes, more or less. What makes "Search" appear more commercial is the fact that the same number of changes happen in just 3 minutes. On a different album "The Call" wouldn't have had a title of its own, but those two minutes of music are one of the most melodic things released by TD up to this album.

Things become darker with "Creation", at least because it's based on minor chords, but from a rhythmic point of view is not too different from the previous one. Here they sound very close to Vangelis.

"Vengeance" is even darker. Not knowing anything of the movie or of the images that the music was made to comment, giving it an interpretation is not easy. However it has the feeling of "music for films".

"The Journey" is a two minutes track with a good evocative melody over the usual electronic rhythm.

Then comes "Grind". It seems taken from Rubycon or Stratosfear. Only it's short. "Rain Forest" is more spacey, it maybe comments a moment of thrill in the movie.

"Abyss" is where TD have more time available to develop their music in their usual way: repetitive rhythm with few variation which transform the track into something different, but very slowly. Of course also here less than 8 minutes are not enough to have a birth of liquid plejades, so the various sections have a shorter duration. The spacey part in the middle is very good, indeed.

Less than two very melodic minutes with "The Mountain Road", that I think appropriate for the end titles, followed by "Impressions of Sorcerer" which features a good electric guitar.

The album is closed by what I suppose is the main theme of the movie. It's a very nice piece, quite dark.

To be honest, at this point of their career TD are not yet ready for short things. This is a good album but as many soundtracks non-essential. Three full stars.

A remake of the classic French thriller 'The Wages Of Fear', William Friedkin's $20m remake - titled 'Sorceror' - would prove to be the first flop of the Hollywood director's then stellar career. Having previously excited and shocked audiences in equal measure with the gritty cop thriller 'The French Connection' and the seminal supernatural horror of 'The Exorcist', both enormous commercial and critical successes, Friedkin pretty much had carte blanche to do as he pleased. Like many of the 'New Hollywood' set of film-makers(the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steve Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman etc) Friedkin was a huge fan of the French new wave and cinema verite. Made in 1953, Henri-George Clouzot's 'The Wages Of Fear' was classic suspenser, a brilliantly executed thriller about four desperate fugitives trapped in a steamy South American hell-hole who are offered crazy money to transport a cargo of highly-explosive nitro-glycerine through three-hundred miles of dangerous rain forest terrain. The film would feature all the hallmarks of 1950's French cinema, with a grainy, documentary-style feel, artful photography and plenty of tense discussions on the existensial state of man's primal fears. It was ripe for a Hollywood re-dressing, and Friedkin seemed the perfect choice to take on the difficult task of doing so. Sadly, however, the film proved a financial disaster, and for several reasons. Firstly, the studio made the oh-so enormous mistake of releasing 'Sorceror' on the very same weekend as a certain sci-fi blockbuster called 'Star Wars'. Secondly, the film featured no real stars bar 'Jaws' actor Roy Scheider, not quite an A-lister, who was otherwise backed by a cast of talented but relatively unknown(In North America at least) Europeans. Thirdly, Friedkin completely overestimated his audience, pulling out every cinema verite trick in the book and loading 'Sorceror' with complex political themes, deliberately washed-out colours and a dark and foreboding atmosphere. Finally, 'Sorceror' was just far too long for mainstream audiences to take, the film pulled for extensive(and expensive) re-cutting after just a week and then re-released to little effect, the whole time completely overshadowed by Lucas' super-popular space western. But here's the punch-line. 'Sorceror', despite it's negative reputation, is actually a superb film. Sadly, however, it would spell the end for Friedkin as a major director and he would never again reach the heights scaled by his early-seventies output. With all the fuss regarding the film's financial failing, the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream seems to have been completely overlooked. Friedkin, of course, had a penchant for choosing music by experimental rock acts for his movies as opposed to classical scores(had had used Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' for 'The Exorcist' to great effect) and his choice of the teutonic trio for the 'Sorceror' soundtrack now seems positively inspired. Like the film, the soundtrack is a dark, ominous, brooding beast, full of sparse electronic rhythms. It's also one of those great movie soundtracks that can be listened to as a stand-alone album, always a good sign, and one of the better Tangerine Dream offerings from one of their strongest periods, perfectly complimenting Friedkin's moody visuals and the film's overall foreboding tone. Viewed now, both film and soundtrack stand up incredibly well, showcasing the inate talents of both group and director and proving a stark reminder of just how high the creative bar was during the 1970s, a decade when Hollywood produced proper, grown-up films and music was so much more than just confection for kids. A strange and alluring album, 'Sorceror', much like the movie it accompanies, deserves to be wholly re-evaluated, and those that do so will find a challenging and mysterious album full of fascinating moments. This may be Tangerine Dream at their least accesible, yet it also finds them mining the spirit of their early masterworks - albums such as 'Zeit' - to very impressive effect.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

'Sorcerer' - Tangerine Dream (6/10)

Progressive rock seems to have a connection with horror films. Goblin wrote the haunting soundtrack for Dario Argento's Suspiria, and William Friedkin's The Exorcist was scored by none other than Mike Oldfield. Friedkin's interactions with progressive rock would not end with his horror masterpiece however; with his next film Sorcerer, he would enlist the musical conjurings of Tangerine Dream. Although I am a fan o Friedkin's work, I have never seen the film for which Tangerine Dream made their first-ever Hollywood soundtrack. For what I've read, it seems as though Sorcerer was met with less-than-thunderous applause, thanks in large part due to the esoteric nature of the film, and the fact that it was released a month after a certain director named George Lucas cemented his name in history with Star Wars. Although this soundtrack fits snugly within the golden years of Tangerine Dream's strongest material, there is a scattered structure and emotional distance that would go to define much of the band's soundtrack work. With that being said, "Sorcerer" still retains many of the qualities that made these years so great for Tangerine Dream, although anyone expecting something along the lines of "Phaedra", "Rubycon", or even "Stratosfear" will find themselves sorely disappointed.

Regarding the palette of sounds used, "Sorcerer" is similar to the previous album, "Stratosfear". Although much of the sound relies on meditative synth arrangements and eerie soundscapes, there is a moderate use of the electric lead guitar. The greatest strength of Tangerine Dream remains their ability to fuse and develop textures of sound, and "Sorcerer" capitalizes on this. The opening piece, "Main Title" is a solid indicator of the direction TD take with their style here. Although there remains a sense of composition and deliberate pacing, the music is left largely incidental and ambient, rarely changing pace or fostering a surprise for the attentive listener. In the context of a film, this spacey atmosphere could paint an eerie backdrop for a suspenseful scene. For the experience of listening on its own merit, "Sorcerer" comes off feeling like Tangerine Dream-lite, bringing the sounds, but not the inspiration and willingness to innovate.

Although it's perhaps a necessary shortcoming of the soundtrack format, Tangerine Dream's compositions are cut up into bite-sized chunks. Eschewing the sprawling side- length epics for shorter pieces, the compositions on "Sorcerer" feel more like unfulfilled ideas. Particularly considering the sort of artistic success Tangerine Dream were so capable of at this time, it is disappointing that they did not do more with the opportunity. With that in mind, it's certainly enjoyable as far as ambient music goes, and considering the quality of some of these (albeit unfulfilled) ideas, it would be unfair to dismiss this as purely apocryphal. It's good, but not great, although compared to some of the soundtracks Tangerine Dream would do in the decade to come, this is nothing short of a masterpiece...

A bewitching soundtrack

3.5 stars

First movie soundtrack by TANGERINE DREAM, "Sorcerer" was commanded to the German trio by film director William Friedkin ("The Exorcist", "The French Connection"...). Contrarily to what the title may suggests, the film deals neither with witchcraft nor black magic, but is a remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1953 "The Wages Of Fear". The scenario is about trucks transporting nitroglycerine, "Sorcerer" being the name of one of the vehicles. Friedkin discovered the band's electronic soundscapes during a projection of "The Exorcist" in Munich and confessed he would have asked TD to take care of the film's music if he had knew them before.

TANGERINE DREAM supposedly composed the soundtrack before a single scene of the movie was shot, only by reading the scenario, which is quite unusual in the cinematography industry. Initially an hour and a half long, the selected material was finally shortened to 44 minutes by the film director. The style is on par with the band's releases of the 1976-1977 period, "Stratosfear" and "Encore", however the tracks are much shorter than usual. This may surprise the fans used to long evolving soundscapes. Instead, this disc consists of small disturbing, threatening or gloomy ambiances. The danger lurks everywhere...

The opener "Main Title" is in fact not a theme at all, but is rather a nightmarish ambient piece with strange electronic effects. "Search" is more melodic with its nice changing sequences. One of the best passages of the record. Then comes "The Call" a cool floydian track in the vein of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"'s opening. The slow "Creation" displays a menacing atmosphere, whereas "Vengeance" possesses slight reminiscences of "Statosfear", however more sinister. The most original composition is "The Journey". Its unusual robotic rhythm contrasts with the smooth melody.

"Grind" pre-dates the fast sequence used 3 years later for "The Thief", that will become a gimmick of TD's concerts during the 80's Schmoelling-era. Not very peaceful, "Rain Forest" is a rather somber HELDON-esque jungle. "Abyss" is the longest track but unfortunately not the best. A crazy and messy ambient pit. Calm and hope come back with "The Mountain Road" and "Impressions Of Sorcerer" and their tribal percussions. The ender "Betrayal (Sorcerer Theme)" is of course the iconic tune of the disc with its dark electronic loop and hazy mellotron interventions.

The music represents well the title and the picture. I did not saw William Friedkin's movie, but I saw Henri-Georges Clouzot's, so I would tend to say the soundtrack suit the film scenes. Overall, despite a few less interesting passages, "Sorcerer" a nice collection of different eerie ambiances. Do not expect long hypnotic spacey soundscapes here.

Recommended for fans, this first movie soundtrack by TANGERINE DREAM is probably their best. It marks the entrance of the band into the film industry, who will become one of its most prolific film music composers...

I'm a pretty big fan of "Sorcerer" TANGERINE DREAM's first soundtrack recording and their best at that. If your a fan of the mellotron like I am then TD has to be on your hit list because they have many mellotron soaked records including this one from 1977. Nine of the twelve songs feature mellotron. All three guys play it on here as well as synths with Edgar bringing out his guitar and adding piano. This record along with "Electronic Meditation" and "Stratosfear" are their only 70's albums not to feature a side long track. Please read Stefro's review for some excellent information about the movie this soundtrack was made for.

William Friedkin had previously made "The French Connection" and "The Excorcist" while "Sorcerer" was a remake of the classic 50's movie called "The Wages Of Fear" which in turn was based on a novel. This movie flopped and I can't help to think that this in part was because he named it "Sorcerer" trying to capitalize on "The Excorcist" success. People aren't that dumb apparently and while many feel it was a good movie it sure wasn't a great one like the two I mentioned that he did prior. This has nothing to do with sorcery but it is a fairly dark album that clocks in at around 45 minutes. I love this record, I mean there's mellotron and electronics all over it, plenty of atmosphere and some really cool ideas. They sure didn't just mail this one in as I find it very creative.

While this is dark and melancholic I wouldn't call it haunting or scary in the least, I mean "Creation" is a song that opens with a haunting mood but there's not much more of that. "Main Theme" the opener is a top five track as sounds build with spacey winds and experimental expressions. This is dark and certainly headphone music. It ends with some pretty intense sounds. "Vengeance" isn't a top five for me but I want to mention the three guys all playing separate synth melodies different from each other.

Next top five is "Rain Forest" with those fast paced sounds and atmosphere. A real cool sound to this one like we're on a train. "Abyss" is the longest at 7 minutes and man it's so well done with that dark soundscape, I mean this just sounds a little different. It starts to move after 3 minutes with sequencers as spacey sounds and mellotron create atmosphere. The intensity rises before 6 minutes as it gets a little crazy. "Impressions Of A Sorcerer" has Froese adding his guitar which I really like and this is somewhat catchy. The closer "Betrayal(Sorcerer Theme)" is my final top five track ending this record in style with the electronics, beats and mellotron standing out.

This holds up very well on it's own without any visual needed. I just love the sound of this one.

Review Nº 594

Tangerine Dream is a German progressive band that was founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. They helped to develop the German musical scene known as "kosmische music" (cosmic music). The work of these electronic pioneers can be subdivided in several phases. The initial phase, 1970-73, also called "The Pink Years", started with the avant- garde and misleading title "Electronic Meditation" released in 1970. It was an album partly influenced by Floyd's "cosmic music". Only on their second album "Alpha Centauri", which was released in 1971, are used synthesizers. Until then you came out without any electronic instruments. After that they released two more albums "Zeit" in 1972 and "Atem" in 1973.

It was only after the recordings for "Green Desert", originally recorded in 1973 but only released in 1986 in a revised form that probably the best Tangerine Dream's line up, Froese, Franke and Baumann, signed a record deal with Virgin Records. And then the second phase began, 1974-83, which is known as "The Virgin Years". This is the phase that began with the groundbreaking Tangerine Dream's works, "Phaedra" in 1974, "Rubycon" and "Ricochet" in 1975, works of the so-called "Berlin School". "Berlin School" is a sub-genre of electronic music and the pioneers are Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, who were based in Berlin in the 70's. After these albums, Tangerine Dream released two more albums, "Stratosfear" in 1976 and the soundtrack "Sorcerer" in 1977, before the departure of Baumann from the band.

"Sorcerer" is one of the many soundtracks that Tangerine Dream composed and recorded all over the years. All began when the film director William Friedkin, who always will be remembered best for the classics "The French Connection" from 1970 and "The Exorcist" from 1973, asked Tangerine Dream if they were interested in making the soundtrack for his new film. The band reportedly composed and recorded nearly one hour and a half of material, and handed it over to Friedkin who at this point didn't have the slightest idea about what film he was going to make. As a result, the final film was actually inspired by the soundtrack instead of the far more usual other way around. The film was titled "Sorcerer", which is a remake of the 1953's French film "Le Salair De La Peur" (The Wages Of Fear) directed by Georges Arnaud.

"Sorcerer" tells us the story of four criminals hiding out in Nicaragua who are given the chance to make a lot of money, by driving 200 miles with unstable dynamite, which could explode if exposed to extreme vibrations or shock, needed to help put out a blaze in an oil field. They inevitably meet lots of dangers along the way, including bandits, a fallen tree blocking the road and a ddodgy rope bridge, which is the image chosen to be put on the front cover of the album.

Sadly for Friedkin, the film became a flop in addition to being a critical fiasco. But, the soundtrack itself ranks among Tangerine Dream's classic albums. The original material that had been sent to Friedkin was edited down to a single album. The best way to approach it is to forget the film and instead, view it as a regular Tangerine Dream's release.

The most significant difference from this and the other best and classic works from the band was the number of tracks and their length. There were no less than twelve tracks here, several of them with two or three minutes range. But, it doesn't matter at all when considering the overwhelming quality of the material. "Creation" and especially "Vengeance" could both have been taken from "Stratosfear", while the rhythm of "Rain Forest" is very reminiscent of "Phaedra". And the lengthiest track of the album, the seven minute "Abyss", has certain similarities to "AF 765" from Froese's "Macula Transfer" album. "Search", "Grind" and "Betrayal (Sorcerer Theme)" are all short but classic themes in Tangerine Dream's catalogue, perfectly demonstrating the band's classic sound even within the short running time. "The Call" is two minutes of pure atmospheric beauty at its most pleasant, and "Impressions Of Sorcerer" have a surprisingly funky rhythm that fits well along with a superb Mellotron work. "The Journey" has the Mellotron-flute that was so typical for Tangerine Dream. "The Mountain Road" reminds me new age with its electronic ethnic percussion sounds.The weirdest and most experimental piece on the album is "Main Title", consisting of five minutes of sinister and dark synth sounds.

Conclusion: While we listening to "Sorcerer", it's hard to deny that the music really sounds as if it was made for a film. It can fits the images of the film very well. The music is mostly performed with Mellotrons, electric guitars and many synthesizers. But, it sounds rather strong compared to other soundtracks of Tangerine Dream made some years later. Therefore, many people who fancy Tangerine Dream's music consider "Sorcerer" to be the best soundtrack the band ever recorded. The music on this album is quite similar to the music on their preceding albums "Phaedra", "Rubycon", "Ricochet" and "Stratosfear". This is maybe due to the fact that Tangerine Dream stuck to the electronic sounds that they also recorded on their previous releases. Those albums are loved by most of their fans, in which I include myself. Therefore, the music was very recognizable and enjoyable for most band fans. "Sorcerer" is a classic Tangerine Dream.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*

Though it was recorded in between Stratosfear and Encore and released in 1977, many compilations of Tangerine Dream's Virgin years don't include Sorcerer - probably due to rights issues since it wasn't actually released on Virgin, coming out instead on MCA. The anomaly may be explained by Sorcerer's game-changing nature - though the big departure isn't so much the music (which is in the classic spacey Tangerine Dream style) but in its purpose, since this is the first movie soundtrack that Tangerine Dream would compose.

As such, it represents the first chapter in a whole other strand of the Tangerine Dream story - one which arguably would become more important than their non-movie work by the mid-1980s. At the same time, good chunks of this - including the Main Title - are much more in the style of early works from Zeit to Rubycon than the slick digital approach of much of their later soundtrack efforts - note how there was a years-long gap in between them putting the finishing touches on this and tackling Thief, their next soundtrack album, and the one which really kicked off their soundtrack career.

The difference is less due to the quality of the music - this is perfectly solid Tangerine Dream in nice bite-size portions, at least on a par with Thief - and more due to the relative successes of the film they were attached to. Sorcerer was a cinematic oddity which was something of a commercial failure, whilst Thief was a smash hit whose aesthetic presentation made a huge splash - and, of course, the music was very much part of that presentation. Set aside from the movie, however, the music of Sorcerer is a decent but oft-overlooked bit of mid-1970s Tangerine Dream; the main thing holding it back is the sense that we are just getting extracts from longer pieces here.