If I had to pick a single favorite band, and only one, it would be Tangerine Dream.

I’ve been tempted over the last couple of years to give a focused, chronological re-listening to their music, and lay some thoughts down on paper – a short, personal review and reflection on each track as I go through their catalog.

[Not their *entire* catalog, because that would be silly and I probably don’t have enough time left on planet earth to take on such a gargantuan task.  I’ll just be blogging on my own personal library of TD - which is extensive enough.]

Since this forum has a sub-forum for such an endeavor with this ‘prog blog’ section, I think I’ll give this idea a shot.

I’ll also include whatever solo albums I have from TD band members (the “Big 4” anyway… Froese, Franke, Baumann, Schmoelling), just for my own fun.

The listening equipment:  AKG K240 headphones  |  Onkyo CR-N755 bookshelf CD player  |  U-Turn Orbit Special turntable with Ortofon 2M red stylus  |  Nakamichi CR-1A cassette deck

INTRODUCTION

My first purchase of/exposure to Tangerine Dream’s music was in 1981 with the release of “Exit.”

I was already a big fan of Vangelis, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze, Kitaro, and a few others – but for whatever reason I had not been exposed to Tangerine Dream yet.

In 1980 a friend of mine who lived abroad sent me a cassette tape of Peter Baumann’s “Trans Harmonic Nights” and in his letter he mentioned that the guy had been from a band called Tangerine Dream.  He recommended I get “Stratosfear” and “Force Majeure” - so these names and titles were in my head, but it wasn’t until a year later that I saw “Exit” in the ‘New Releases’ section of the record store and bought it.

I was immediately hooked, and thus began a lifelong love affair with this incredible band.  I hit every record store in town, made lots of special order import purchases (I waited six solid months for my copy of the ’70-’80 Box Set to arrive!) and continued collecting, listening, and enjoying the music throughout the years.

Okay, enough introduction... it’s time to don the headphones and listen to: ELECTRONIC MEDITATION.

Tangerine Dream

ELECTRONIC MEDITATION (1970)

 Track List:

 Genesis  |  Journey Through A Burning Brain  |  Cold Smoke  |  Ashes To Ashes  |  Resurrection

I first bought this LP around ’81 or ’82, after having already become familiar with several other titles of the Froese/Franke/Baumann and Froese/Franke/Schmoelling recordings.  At the time, I was certainly intrigued by the wild, white & orange record cover with the headless baby doll and all the patch cables… and had high hopes - but initially (and for many years afterward) found the music boring and unlistenable.  It wasn’t until later in life that the early Tangerine Dream recordings began to really resonate with me.

10-6-2021  |  Listening state of mind: Calm, serene, sober.

Genesis:

Starts out a bit ambient and spooky, but quickly morphs out of the ambient and into the psychedelic arena with some free-form, effect-heavy cello, violin, flute - and a young Klaus Schulze banging away on the drums as if there was no tomorrow.  Froese’s weird guitar noises (I would not call them “riffs” haha) come in, and then the piece ends [too soon, in my opinion] with an abrupt transition into track two.

Journey Through A Burning Brain:

Edgar’s guitar noises continue to be in the forefront on this longer piece, where there are actually moments of organ melody/chord progressions… the organ chord progressions then shares center stage with the electric guitar, but there is still plenty of dissonance.  About 5 minutes into the piece, a rhythmic guitar fires up in the background, and Klaus comes in with some radical drumming.  Still plenty of weirdness and processed noises going on throughout the piece, but the track maintains a bit of structure and melody throughout.  (I use the word “melody” in its loosest possible sense.)  The structure seems to cavitate around the 9 minute mark, and it gets more free-form and frantic.  Around the 11 minute mark, the drums drop out, and the organ and flute become center, and the piece mellows out (and ultimately fades out).  Good stuff.

Cold Smoke:

Another longer piece, which begins ambient-ish, with abrupt moments of discord frequently interrupting a more mellow organ background.  At about 3.5 minutes in, the organ starts pulsing a bit, with Klaus doing some faster-tempo drum work.  The organ begins to rock steady with Klaus, and at 6 minutes or so into the piece, things build (and continue to build) with Edgar bringing the electric guitar back into the mix.  Some weird vocal noises appear after the 9 minute mark.  Maybe the most “rocking” piece on the album… and at the height of the heavy rocking, the piece cuts out entirely and the odd beginning of track 4 begins.   

Ashes To Ashes:

The immediate drop of the cacophonous ending of track 3 is juxtaposed here with 4 deep human breaths, in and out, before a slower paced groove of organ, drums, guitar, and various weird noises commences.  I really like this piece, I think it may be my favorite track on the album.  The flute I’m hearing, in the background and panned right, is high-register and wild, and a subtle but integral component.

Resurrection:

Organ and backward voice open this final track.  The voice drops out after a minute or so, the organ fades, and the piece returns to the opening Genesis sounds, completing the circle.

Some brief thoughts after this re-listening:  I adore this album.  When I’m in the mood for weird psychedelic music, this is definitely one of my go-to recordings.  It’s really grown on me over the years.  It’s definitely not the album I’d play for someone to *introduce* them to the band, but it is a great debut for the very young and experimental band - and has stood the test of time with a vengeance, in my opinion.

Tangerine Dream

ALPHA CENTAURI (1971)

Track list:  Sunrise In The Third System  |  Fly And Collision Of Comas Sola  |  Alpha Centauri

“Alpha Centauri” was another LP I purchased in '81 or '82 - though it was a special import from Europe and when it arrived, it was a 2LP with "Atem" as the 2nd album.  For a few years I thought they were released together like that, and didn't realize they were separate recordings with "Zeit" in-between them.  Again, in those early days of my immersion into Tangerine Dream's music, all I wanted was minor-key bad-ass sequencing with ominous (but harmonious) chord progressions, and the early experimental recordings didn't do anything for me until many years later.  

10-6-2021  |  Listening state of mind:  A little tired but not ready for bed, and still calm & sober.

Sunrise In The Third System:

This opening track begins with a delicate, sublime plucking sound; shortly thereafter, organ, synth, and [what I think sounds like] electric guitar emerges.  It’s a short, relatively harmonious piece and more ambient and meditative than anything on “Electronic Meditation.”  A nice opener, but too short!

Fly And Collision Of Comas Sola:

Okay, *now* we’re getting into some serious “space music.”  A faint electric guitar-strummed melody resides in the background – the foreground is all spacy oscillating synth, LOL.  An organ joins the guitar melody after a couple of minutes, and then a flute to compliment them.  So far, it’s a mellow piece of music, far less frantic than anything on its predecessor LP, until about the 8 minute mark, where the drums come in and take over the forefront from the VCS synth.  At the 10 minute mark, it’s primarily drums and flute in front, with the guitar and synth taking a back seat.  Franke’s drumming seems a bit better (yet similar in its overwhelming, full style) than Schulze’s.  The piece closes with the guitar dropping out, the drums and VCS taking us back into outer space, and the piece can no longer be called “mellow” – it gets busier, with the drums creating more of a ‘wall’ (or a ‘wash’) than a ‘beat.’  The ending is abrupt.

Alpha Centauri:

The longest track on the album, at just over 22 minutes.  Another spooky, spacy ambient-like opening, no semblance of melody or structure.  After 2-3 minutes, flute sounds coalesce over an organ drone, with some synth weirdness thrown in for good measure, sounding more like sirens than synths.  The background drone is maintained, but begins to fluctuate and change pitch here and there, the flute departs, and a little after 7 minutes, that droning organ starts ascending and descending all over the place.  After the 9 minute mark, some electric guitar notes appear, but nothing that resembles a melody or riff – just plucked notes sliding down the fretboard.  The flute returns to the front to join the guitar sounds, but the guitar is short-lived; the flute remains.  The piece seems rather free-form and random at this point; still fairly mellow – albeit spooky, with the high-register synth voices going everywhere and back, like some choir on LSD.  Some German recitation begins around the 18 minute mark, and a low drone returns.  Voices emerge, but this time in a minor-key undulating melody with the organ – a strong and majestic 4-minute finish to the composition.

Some brief thoughts after this re-listening:  Of the 4 early and experimental studio albums, I think this one’s my favorite.  It’s that closing 4 minutes of the title track – just phenomenal!  [I actually have not heard “Zeit” or “Atem” in quite a while, so it’ll be interesting to me to see if I still favor “Alpha Centauri” after tomorrow’s listening excursion.]

Tangerine Dream

ULTIMA THULE (1971)

Track list:  Ultima Thule (Part 1)  |  Ultima Thule (Part 2)

This 7” was not something I had ever heard of until the late 1990’s.  I had saved up several hundred dollars for a music shopping spree, and had been told that there was a CD shop in Burien, WA (“Soundwaves”) that specialized in prog.  One Saturday morning, I went there with my wallet full of cash to get some good new titles for the collection.  Sure enough, it was a really great CD shop.  There was only one other person in the store when I got there, some younger kid, clearly high on something… jittery and talking to himself.  I had already picked out a dozen or more titles, and had a stack at the counter I was going to purchase.  The kid was watching me flip through the music, and soon came over to chat.  I happened to be flipping through PFM CDs, and the kid scoffed, “Everyone’s heard of PFM.  That’s not prog.  The only true prog band is Brainticket.”  I was trying to be polite, but also really did not want to engage with him much.  The store clerk spoke up from the counter – “Don’t bother the paying customers!”  (Which got a slight chuckle out of me.)

Anyway, after having browsed through the whole place, and after picking out a couple tall stacks of CDs to buy, I asked the clerk, “Do you have any… oddball recordings behind the counter?”  (My way of trying to be discreet about bootlegs.)  He asked what bands I was looking for, and I said “Tangerine Dream, Jethro Tull, and Kate Bush.”  He pulled out a brand new 4 CD bootleg of TD called “Electronic Orgy,” and said “80 bucks for this one.”  He also pulled out some live Tull stuff that I also bought.  He didn’t have any unique Kate Bush stuff.

Those familiar with TD bootlegs will know that “Electronic Orgy” was a treasure trove of previously unreleased & rare material.  So that’s where I first heard these two short songs.

[It ended up being a good investment.  I burned myself a copy, and put the original on eBay and got $250 for it.  My days of collecting for the sake of collecting rarities is long gone.  I’m just interested in listening to the music.]

Ultima Thule (Part 1):

The track definitely has some charm as a non-traditional Tangerine Dream “rock jam.”  I honestly don’t know what else I can say about it, it’s short, structured, and simple… but kind of fun.

Ultima Thule (Part 2):

Less driving and forceful than Part 1, and more in-line with what one would expect from TD in 1971.  More reliance on the organs than the guitar – in fact, I’m not even sure if I heard *any* guitar in it.  I think I hear an electric bass in the background, toward the end of the piece.  Still pretty energetic, though.

I don’t have any real comments or conclusions on this one.  It doesn’t blow me away by any means, but it’s not… bad.  Just sort of an unusual nugget from them.

ProfPanglos wrote: Anyway, after having browsed through the whole place, and after picking out a couple tall stacks of CDs to buy, I asked the clerk, “Do you have any… oddball recordings behind the counter?”  (My way of trying to be discreet about bootlegs.)  He asked what bands I was looking for, and I said “Tangerine Dream, Jethro Tull, and Kate Bush.”  He pulled out a brand new 4 CD bootleg of TD called “Electronic Orgy,” and said “80 bucks for this one.”  He also pulled out some live Tull stuff that I also bought.  He didn’t have any unique Kate Bush stuff. Those familiar with TD bootlegs will know that “Electronic Orgy” was a treasure trove of previously unreleased & rare material.  So that’s where I first heard these two short songs.

I also sold mine. When it first showed up, a friend who was working at a shop got us two copies (they didn't even make it out of the stock room). He quickly described the title and the cover photos, and I thought he was joking. Then I saw them. 

Of course, Electronic Orgy is pretty much obsolete now, but 25 years ago, it packed a wallop!

Tangerine Dream

OSZILLATOR PLANET CONCERT (1971)

This 8+ minute piece came from an album called “Ossiach Live.”  I never had this album; my copy of O.P.C. comes from the aforementioned TD bootleg, “Electronic Orgy.”

10-7-2021  |  Listening state of mind:  Still recuperating from listening to that cheesy new “Yes” album.  And I’m incredibly hungry… haven’t eaten all day.  But I have a giant plate of homemade spaghetti in front of me, which I plan on horfing down while I listen to this.

Oszillator Planet Concert:

The first 5+ minutes have no guitar, and no other instruments than synth & organ, that I can tell.  Some guitar notes are finally plucked & bent, starting at the 5.5 minute mark of this mostly formless and ambient piece.  A minute or so later, a lower-register guitar comes in with a slow, methodical note progression which changes key back and forth until the end.  There are moments that remind me of the title track of Alpha Centauri, but this is mellower.

Some brief thoughts after this re-listening:  It’s another interesting historical nugget in their early material, but that’s as far as I can go.  The piece doesn’t offend my ears, but I don’t ever foresee myself saying, “Hey – I’m in the mood for Oszillator Planet Concert!”  My spaghetti, on the other hand, was absolute dynamite!

Tangerine Dream

ZEIT (1972)

Track list:  Birth Of Liquid Plejades  |  Nebulous Dawn  |  Origin Of Supernatural Probabilities  |  Zeit

“Zeit” was another TD album I purchased around ’81 or ’82 - a “special order” from Europe - and I had ordered both “Zeit” and “Alpha Centauri/Atem” at the same time (paying about $20.00 for each) which at that time seemed astronomical since LPs typically ranged from around $7.00 for a standard LP and maybe $10 or $12 for a double LP.

As an aside, I lived in Taiwan from 1977 to 1980 and the pirated albums there sold for the equivalent of $0.18 USD.  I built a huge LP and cassette collection from my years living in Taiwan, and every summer from ’81 to ’84 I’d go back there for a month to visit my dad.  The last trip (’84) I actually got harassed by Customs because I had so many LPs that they thought I was re-selling them in the US.  I was taken to some office in the airport and had to explain to these Customs officers that they were for my own personal collection; that I was just a music buff.

In the early 1980’s when I was in high school back in the USA 99.9% of my peers and friends had no clue who Tangerine Dream was.  Everyone was listening to Van Halen, Rush, Scorpions, AC/DC, Queen, Loverboy, The B-52’s, Talking Heads, Duran Duran, The Police, U2, or whatever.  The radio stuff.  The “New Wave” was in full swing.  Bright colors, shoulder pads, big hair, skinny ties, and androgyny was all the rage.  Running concurrent with the “New Wave” music was the increasing popularity with “New Age” music, and that was often where one could find interesting electronic (and acoustic) music.  I remember reading an interview decades ago with Edgar Froese where they asked him about the frequent labeling of Tangerine Dream’s music as “New Age.”  I can’t remember his exact words, but he said something like “We view things from a very high tower, and we don’t see this ‘new age’ anywhere.”  It cracked me up.

10-8-2021  |  Listening state of mind:  Calm & sober, and ready to don the headphones for an uninterrupted serious listening of this epic, generally well-respected double album.

ZEIT – I cannot separate the pieces to comment on them.  (Well, I can, but I won’t.)  Personally, I think this is a special album, and the 4 different tracks all belong together, and create a “whole” experience after listening.  I feel enveloped by all of it.  The tracks can stand by themselves, for sure… and each are distinctly different, but it just seems to me that they need to be taken as a whole – that the sum is greater than the parts, and that something is “lost” when they are separated and analyzed too deeply.

What comes to my mind as I listen?  “Minimalist.”  “Classical.”  “Encompassing.”  “Meditative.”  The album is aptly titled; a sense of… long passages of time, eons, evolution… things like this come to my mind.  Harmony, discord, complexity, simplicity, integration, disintegration, growth, decay, the material and the immaterial… it’s all here.  A very evocative album.

I rescind my earlier comment about “Alpha Centauri” being my favorite of the 4 early experimental studio albums.  “Zeit” is far better and more… mature.  And I’m looking forward to listening to “Atem” - but it won’t be today.  I feel an afterglow effect with “Zeit,” and I want to carry it with me for the rest of the day (or make a good attempt to, anyway).

Tangerine Dream

ATEM (1973)

Track List:  Atem  |  Fauni-Gena  |  Circulation Of Events  |  Wahn

The first album of the famous Froese/Franke/Baumann trio, and the last album on the Ohr label.  Also, their last album without the use of sequencers, as far as I know.

Atem:

The heavy use of drums - which took a brief departure on Zeit - is back in full force on this track, at least, in the beginning of the piece.  The track starts out with more structure and melody (again, using “melody” in a very loose sense), but after about 5 minutes in, the drumming and synth work build to a bit of cacophony before cutting out entirely around the 6 minute mark, where it goes back to a somewhat discordant spacy ambience.  This ambience ebbs and flows for several minutes.  The music takes a slightly ominous turn after 14+ minutes in, with the help of a lower-register synth or organ drone applied, and then that drone migrates to a slow minor-key phrase over the next few minutes.  At 17+ minutes, the drone drops out for a bit, it gets spacier, and a white-noise-ish rhythm comes in, and then the drone reappears.  Kind of a dark piece, in my mind – moody and a little spooky.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fauni-Gena:

What strikes me almost immediately is the flute-like sound in the front of the mix.  It’s a distinctive sound/mood Tangerine Dream will continue to use for several years forward.  Synthesizer “bird” noises arrive in the background, along with some faint and sparse whispered voice noises.  A rhythmic low-register undertone begins around the 6 minute mark, helping the whole piece to… I don’t know how to put it – “burble” a bit more.  That low rhythm makes a more pronounced appearance in the last minute of the track, an almost sequencer-like groove.  Overall, a good piece, and fits in nicely with the mood of the first track.

Circulation Of Events:

This one remains in the same slightly discordant, ominous mood as the previous piece.  A cool, rhythmic pulsating organ & synth begins around the 4 minute mark.  It’s too bad that the piece ends only a minute or two later, I felt like it should’ve been longer.

Wahn:

Multiple weird processed voices start this one out.  The bizarre intro hearkens back a bit more to the style of Electronic Mediation.  The voices are joined by drum hits with some kind of delay on them.  The synth doesn’t make its entry until 2 minutes in, but the drums keep going throughout.  The distinctive flute-like sound mentioned in Fauni-Gena returns briefly to close out the piece.

Some thoughts on this re-listening:  Yeah, it’s definitely a good album (if you like weird, experimental electronic music, LOL - I wouldn't play it at a party).  I like the dark, overall mood of it, but I enjoyed Zeit more.

Tangerine Dream

GREEN DESERT (1973/1986)

Track List:  Green Desert  |  White Clouds  |  Astral Voyager  |  Indian Summer

In the early 1980’s (maybe 1983 or 1984? – I can’t remember) I had written a fan letter to the band, and received a signed photograph of the band by Edgar, Christopher, and Johannes.  On the back side of the print was a discography, with “Green Desert” listed with a 1973 reference.  Having never heard of this album before, I was intrigued.

TD-knowledgeable record store clerks I talked to knew nothing about it.  In 1986, the box set In The Beginning was released, and included the “previously unreleased” Green Desert, which was the first time I heard this album.  I loved it.

From what I have read of this recording, it was the first TD material to use the sequencer/rhythm controller.  Apparently the original 1973 material was embellished with more contemporary synthesizer sounds/additional tracks before its release in the box set – and it *is* certainly more “accessible” than Atem before it, or Phaedra after it.  I suspect the original, unaltered Green Desert material was far more experimental than what was ultimately delivered to us in 1986.  I don’t know if an unadulterated version of the material exists.  If so, and if anyone has a copy of it, I’d love to hear it.

Peter Baumann had taken some kind of hiatus in India & Nepal at this time, so this was a duo Froese/Franke effort – which they scrapped (due to Baumann’s absence) after getting signed with Virgin records.

Most (if not all) discographies place this in 1986 due to its release date, but I’m putting it here now, because its birth was post-Atem 1973, and because I have a thin vein of rebellious iconoclasm.  Plus, according to Froese, “Green Desert should have come out before Phaedra. We'd just acquired our first analogue sequencer and were playing around with it, but we got an offer from Virgin Records to use their Manor Studios in 1973, so we abandoned those tapes and started from zero."

Green Desert:

For me, this piece is just “signature” Tangerine Dream at their coolest.  Though very simple, it ranks quite high in my personal list of favorite TD tracks.

It’s that low, ominous minor-key droning synth pad running the length of the long piece that really makes my socks roll up and down.  I just love it.  I have to suspect it was a 1986 addition, but it doesn’t matter – it’s brilliant.  Franke’s drums fade in with a slow rock-oriented beat (different from the previous drumming heard on Alpha Centauri and Atem) around the 4.5 minute mark, accentuated by low, single-note bass synth notes in-key with the drone.  Edgar’s electric guitar comes in at the 5.5 minute mark, far more melodic than anything heard previously (so again, possibly a 1986 addition?).  But its placement is perfect, and the slow groove continues its menacing advance without any hurry – the mood and feel is dead-center perfect, and they just roll with it for a while.  Franke’s drumming gets more “fill” filled at around the 10 minute mark, ratcheting up the tension and intensity.  The tension continues to build until we get to that catharsis moment at 15:27.  The concluding 3-4 minutes is a complimentary melodic closing to an altogether fantastic piece.

White Clouds:

A straightforward melodic piece, much more accessible and melodic than anything previously listened to so far.  Franke’s drumming is clearly 1973 material to me, but the main melodic parts sound very mid-80’s.  It’s actually a bit of a boring piece, in my opinion.  It’s certainly listenable, and has a few brief similarities (especially toward the end) to the preceding track, but not nearly delivered with the same menacing atmosphere or muscle.

Astral Voyager:

The sequencer starts this piece out with a nice, pulsing, alternating chord change groove.  The track progresses without much change at all, other than increasing synth layers; Froese’s almost-signature “whistling” sound (familiar on Stuntman and Pinnacles) makes an appearance, surely an 80’s track addition.  I remember liking this track quite a bit when I first heard it, but to my current set of ears, it’s a bit uninteresting.

Indian Summer:

Plenty of white-noise whooshing, against a simple melodic phrase.  I’d be curious to know what, if anything, was 1973 material (other than the white noise).  Froese’s trademark whistling 1980’s synth sound comes in around the 2 minute mark, which definitely compliments and improves the piece a bit.  Again, like Astral Voyager and White Clouds, it just doesn’t move me much.

Some thoughts on this re-listening:  Side 1, the epic Green Desert title track, is what makes this album special and worthy to me.  Side 2 is music I can live without, but certainly very listenable.   

ProfPanglos wrote: GREEN DESERT (1973/1986) Track List:  Green Desert  |  White Clouds  |  Astral Voyager  |  Indian Summer

Monumental album. You covered it:

ProfPanglos wrote: Green Desert: For me, this piece is just “signature” Tangerine Dream at their coolest.  Though very simple, it ranks quite high in my personal list of favorite TD tracks. It’s that low, ominous minor-key droning synth pad running the length of the long piece that really makes my socks roll up and down.  I just love it.  I have to suspect it was a 1986 addition, but it doesn’t matter – it’s brilliant.  Franke’s drums fade in with a slow rock-oriented beat (different from the previous drumming heard on Alpha Centauri and Atem) around the 4.5 minute mark, accentuated by low, single-note bass synth notes in-key with the drone.  Edgar’s electric guitar comes in at the 5.5 minute mark, far more melodic than anything heard previously (so again, possibly a 1986 addition?).  But its placement is perfect, and the slow groove continues its menacing advance without any hurry – the mood and feel is dead-center perfect, and they just roll with it for a while.  Franke’s drumming gets more “fill” filled at around the 10 minute mark, ratcheting up the tension and intensity.  The tension continues to build until we get to that catharsis moment at 15:27.  The concluding 3-4 minutes is a complimentary melodic closing to an altogether fantastic piece.

Well said. I do think Edgar's guitar track was recorded ca. '85 or so, but it may have been based on an earlier idea. Either way, its restraint and retro-licious tone lends "Green Desert" another dimension that pairs well with that ominous bass drone. By keeping the proceedings much less busy than what we were used to at the time, there's an ambiguity intrinsic to the music that parallels the abstract title and the now legendary album cover photo.

ProfPanglos wrote: White Clouds: Astral Voyager: Indian Summer: Some thoughts on this re-listening:  Side 1, the epic Green Desert title track, is what makes this album special and worthy to me.  Side 2 is music I can live without, but certainly very listenable.

I love Side B as a trio of abstractions that don't reprise Side A: we get a moody rocker, a minimalist sequencer piece, and a brilliant (and definitely new) ambient piece that wouldn't be out of place on the Flashpoint soundtrack!