TANGERINE DREAM

Clearly the most successful stage of Tangerine Dream was the so-called Virgin Years, between 1973 and 1983. Indeed during those years the band recorded several acclaimed albums like Phaedra, Stratosfear or Tangram, just to mention some of them. In the middle of this period there was an isolated experiment and this was Cyclone. This moment coincides with the departure of Peter Baumann, whose last presence was in the previous album Sorcerer. The band recruited and english multi-instrumentalist called Steve Jolliffe, who in fact was a band member in the very early years as a flute player, even before the recording of Electronic Meditation. The novelty was that Jolliffe would sing in two tracks and his aura would fly over the entire album. This fact divided the Tangerine dream followers. Edgar Froese, TD mastermind, said once talking about Cyclone "As far back as I can recall some people have thought we're geniuses and others have dismissed as a bunch of dumb knob-twiddlers". The truth is that probably the majority of TD fans dismised Cyclone and a minority love it. You can count myself between this minority. The album begins with what I think is a prog masterpiece of 13 minutes long called Bent Cold Sidewalk, with real drums, flutes and an extraordinary voice, all of it over the typical TD kind of music. Starting with a vocoder intro, the piece gets into a four minutes sung section. The voice of Jolliffe sounds amazing and the same goes for the melody line, which added to the kind of lyrics creates a sort of mysterious enviroment. After that the track flows into a fascinating instrumental section of six minutes long to then returns to a sung conclusion with the same motive than the begining. Amazing really. Second track is by far the weakest, sung again, luckyly it is the shortest piece of the album. Finally, Madrigal Meridian is a typical Tangerine Dream instrumental, very well designed, with a "train" rhythm pattern over which the synths make a great job. About this Jolliffe said "For Madrigal Meridian, Chris (Franke) worked out some nice bass and sequencer patterns, and we just sort of began jamming over the top of that". Highly recommended at least to give it a spin and check the feelings.

Review Nº 823

Tangerine Dream is a German progressive electronic band that was formed in Berlin in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band is considered a pioneering act in the electronic music, one of the earliest explorers of the electronic instruments, which was something new at the time. Their electronic work produced albums that had a pivotal role in the development of the German music scene known as "kosmische music". They were able to create music without a regular pulse but just with organ chords, a few manipulated guitar lines and synthesizer effects. Tangerine Dream became a landmark band.

"The Pink Years" is a compilation album of Tangerine Dream that was released in 1998. As its name indicates it's a compilation that it's only focused in the first years of their career, the years that became known as "The Pink Years". Thus, has only tracks that belong to the first five albums of the band when Tangerine Dream was linked with their record label Ohr, "Electronic Meditation", "Alpha Centauri", "Zeit", "Atem" and "Green Desert", despite this last one have just been released in the 80's. So, from "Electronic Meditation" we have "Genesis". From "Alpha Centauri" we have "Sunrise In The Third System". From "Zeit" we have "Nebulous Dawn". From "Atem" we have "Atem" and "Circulation Of Events". From "Green Desert" we have "White Clouds", "Indian Summer" and "Astral Voyager".

So, "The Pink Years" is a compilation album with eight tracks. It opens with "Genesis" that is dominated by Schnitzler's scratchy creaking cello, combined with wild drumming and furious flute sounds performed by their guest musician on "Electronic Meditation", Keyserling. After a while something like a rhythm develops, but as soon as this is the case, the piece is already over and it goes straight and abruptly into its second track. "Nebulous Dawn" is the second movement of the four movements on "Zeit". It follows in the same vein as the first movement. It has an even more ominous feel and predicts the band's more frenetic later sequencer driven efforts with some shuddery treble rhythms echoing in the background. It's one of the band's most experimental and less accessible pieces. It's a disturbing ambient piece. However, here we have only an excerpt of that movement. "Sunrise In The Third System" contains some slow spacey sounds and effects. It's a stealthy and hypnotic piece, with a dense organ and a ghostly flute. It has also a clear nod to Pink Floyd thanks to the sound of the organ. It forms a perfect introduction to the main cosmic journey, a kind of a decompression chamber that helps the listener get acclimated to the alien landscape of Tangerine Dream's musical world. "Atem" is one of the best and most flawless pieces that Tangerine Dream recorded for Ohr. It opens very powerful and loud with thundering drums and majestic grandiose Mellotrons. This music has a kind of a mysterious and epic ancient feel to it. It picks up the thread that started three years earlier with "Electronic Meditation", with Franke's impetuous drumming dictating the rhythm in a swarm of noises and effects, the organ and the synths to leave a liquid trail, where, for the first time, the unmistakable and the majestic sound of the Mellotron creeps in, which will become recurring in the band's subsequent music productions. However, here we have only an excerpt of that piece. "Circulation Of Events" hasn't a recognizable melody or rhythm. It's dominated by organ and synths, slightly rippled by the vibrations of VCS3. It can be seen as a sinister sounding piece due to the strange electronic effects, basically nearly six minutes of humming and gloomy electronic sounds, making a great tension, a reminiscent of the earlier work "Zeit". "White Clouds" has an interesting combination of lively drums and a bright synthetic backdrop. It can be seen as the most rhythmic track on the album due to the strong percussion parts. However, this track contains an overall mellow sound. The piece is pervaded by a fantastic cautiously optimistic melody. "Indian Summer" offers wave movements and scattered string chords that come across as suspiciously modern. This sound image is interspersed with delicate melody lines. It's a mellow piece on which some synthesizers take the lead from time to time. "Astral Voyager" is carried by a fast sequencer-like motif, and with its digital-sounding sounds much like an intensive Edgar Froese post processing, more after 1984 than after 1973. If one knows the Edgar Froese's pronounced "improvement vein", this assessment becomes almost to certainty. You may never know how it sounded in the original, but here it sounds great.

Conclusion: After all I wrote before, we can say that "The Pink Years" is a good compilation album of Tangerine Dream that it's entirely focused in the bands first musical era, the era that became know as "The Pink Years", the era that comprises the first studio albums of the band. Those were the years when the music of Tangerine Dream was more psychedelic, experimental and avant-garde, a music that was closer to the German krautrock scene than to the new electronic music, what is particularly evident on their debut work, "Electronic Meditation". This is a very interesting musical phase of the band, a less known phase and a phase a bit more difficult to digest for some fans of the band that are more used to their later phases, the phases of their better known and melodic works. But, this is an amazing phase.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Review Nº 819

"(3)" is a compilation album of Tangerine Dream and that was released in 1992. This is a very special compilation album of Tangerine Dream. This compilation album consists on an economic package that includes their second live album "Encore" that was released in 1977, their ninth studio album "Cyclone" that was released in 1978 and their tenth studio album "Force Majeure" that was released in 1979, in only one package. So, we can say this can be a very interesting purchase for those who don't have the three albums. Besides, with it we can say that we could save in price and space.

This is a very good compilation album because these are three great albums of the band. But it's also very interesting because it includes three very special albums of Tangerine Dream if we look at them in their position in the band's career. "Encore" is the last album with Peter Baumann and represents the end of a line up and an era. "Cyclone" is a kind of a transition album, an atypical album from the band with vocals and with a unique line up. "Force Majeure" is officially an album with only Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke in the line up of them, an album before Johannes Schmoelling join the band and begin another change to the music of Tangerine Dream. It's also interesting to mention that these three albums belong to their second musical phase, a phase that became known as "The Virgin Years".

As I've already reviewed these three albums previously on Progarchives, in a more extensive way, I'm not going to do it again. So, if you are interested to know, in more detail, what I wrote about them before, I invite you to read those my three reviews. However, in here I'm going to write something about them in a more short way. So, of course, I'm not going to analyze them track by track, as I did before, but I'm only going to make a global appreciation of those albums.

"Encore": Tangerine Dream's USA live tour of 1977 resulted in this excellent "Encore". The title would unfortunately prove to be very fitting, as it was the last album to feature Baumann and the last where the classic band's sound still was fully intact. "Encore" reflects the unique magic of Tangerine Dream's concerts in that era. Every evening was a different happening which delighted the fans. It was pure improvisations on sound effects and surprising laser plays that gave unique moments, engraved in our contemplative memoirs. The set is uniquely Tangerine Dream, however, with similarities to other prog rock bands of that era. "Encore" was an enormously worthy way to end their classic years, consisting of four side long tracks that blend new ideas and material with older themes. "Encore" was Tangerine Dream's last masterpiece and is one of the strongest proofs of the genius that the band possessed from 1972 to 1977.

"Cyclone": Atypical is the best adjective that can define "Cyclone". At the time, Tangerine Dream was a renowned electronic prog group formed by Baumann, Froese and Franke. With Baumann's departure, Froese and Franke decided to innovate, bringing Joliffe to take care of wind instruments and vocals. This change was considered a heresy by many of band's followers who didn't understand the new proposal presented. Many negative reviews have been said about Steve's vocals, especially that his singing style did not match the sound presented. But to say that his voice is bad is close to exaggeration. The album's poor acceptance led the redirection of the band again, which culminated in Jolliffe's departure and the return to the electronics in the following year with their next work "Force Majeure". But, if you like prog rock with elements of electronic and psychedelic music, "Cyclone" is a nice and highly recommended album.

"Force Majeure": "Force Majeure" is one of the best albums of this great band. This is a calculated and compelling work from two experienced artists who move through the electronic music with great grace and precision. Overall, the album doesn't look as electronic as their earlier works, as the drums in particular, when used, provide a driving beat that is more familiar with rock music and when Froese reaches into the guitar, you maybe think that you are in the wrong film. But we cannot complain too much. After all, it's a good thing when a band tries to develop further. Due to its more rock oriented music, it may be suitable for people who are otherwise not into the electronics. So, it's an absolute necessity for those who might be curious about the band, or even successful experiments within the rock genre. Sections of the album would later appear in slightly altered versions on the soundtracks for the films "Thief" and "Risky Business".

Conclusion: As I mentioned above, "3" is a great compilation of Tangerine Dream that contains three great albums of the band. I also said that it's also a very interesting compilation because it has three very special albums for Tangerine Dream if we look at them in relation to its date release. So, we have the last album of the band with what is considered their best line up, Froese, Franke and Baumann, "Encore", a transition and controversial album with a unique line up, "Cyclone" and an album released before the beginning of a new era with Schmoelling, "Force Majeure". So, all this makes that "3" is an interesting compilation of them to be purchased by those who don't have these three albums yet.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

I have no doubt that Edgar Froese knew the controversy that would erupt upon the release of "Cyclone" in 1978. I'm pretty sure that's why he called it "Cyclone". I would have loved to have seen the expressions on the faces of hard core TD fans when they first heard the vocals here. I mean I was really surprised myself, knowing there were vocals sure, but I didn't expect such a passionate singer. I was thinking the vocals would be more like FLOYD's "A Saucerful Of Secrets" style, you know mumbling the words pretty much. Nope! Steve Jolliffe is a singer. And a player adding more synths, flute, english horn, bass clarinet, tenor and soprano sax, electric and grand pianos. He brings a lot.

So it's been fun reading the passionate reviews on here for this controversial album. I like it myself but I'm also glad this was a one-off, and I'm sure that was the question many a TD fan had after spinning this record, is this a new direction? I would have been concerned. Reminds me of RUSH's "Signals" album, a complete left turn and I wasn't happy at the time. This is much more extreme. So three tracks with Froese and Franke doing their thing. And yes I like drummer Krieger's playing on here a lot. This is a great sounding album.

The first side has the vocals and certainly that opener "Bent Cold Sidewalk" would have shocked many a fan. I'm not into the processed spoken words to get us started but a nice relaxed sound takes over with upfront bass. Vocals come and go and then a complete change of direction at 4 1/2 minutes as the sequencers kick in along with synths. Some theatrical shouted words before 8 minutes. Back to that original theme after 10 minutes. Then we get the short "Rising Runner Missed By Endless Sender" at under 5 minutes and a post rock- like title. A determined sound that sounds really good as the vocals arrive. And he's singing with passion at times. Some theatrical vocals later and I love those spacey synths when the vocals step aside.

"Madrigal Meridian" ends it at 20 1/2 minutes. No vocals here and more like the TD we know and love. Lots of atmosphere early before it turns experimental. Sequencers kick in after 3 minutes and here we go. Fast moving here with active drumming. Violin-like sounds will follow which is cool. Sequencers continue but when the step aside it turns spacey. Piano after 16 minutes then flute 19 minutes in as it trips along to the end.

This may have been accepted more at the time if the singer wasn't so passionate, but I have no problem giving this 4 stars. I like it a lot.

Review Nº 810

Tangerine Dream is a German progressive electronic rock band that was formed in Berlin in 1967 by Edgar Froese. Tangerine Dream is considered a pioneering act in the electronic music. The band's career is divided into several phases. The first one started in 1970 and ended in 1973. It marks a sound inspired by the psychedelic era of Pink Floyd in the Syd Barrett's phase, with several keyboard interventions and sound effects. It's close to the German progressive scene called krautrock. Their electronic work in those years produced albums that had a pivotal role in the development of the German music scene known as "kosmische music". In those years Tangerine Dream released four studio works.

"Decades 70's" is a compilation album of Tangerine Dream that was released in 2013. As its name indicates it covers the 70's but it's only focused in the first years of their career, the years that became known as "The Pink Years". Thus, has only tracks that belong to the first five albums of the band when Tangerine Dream was linked with their record label Ohr, "Electronic Meditation", "Alpha Centauri", "Zeit", "Atem" and "Green Desert", despite this last one have just been released in the 80's. So, from "Electronic Meditation" we have "Resurrection" and "Cold Smoke". From "Alpha Centauri" we have "Sunrise In The Third System" and "Ultima Thule Part 1", despite this last track have just been released in the format of a single, at the time, a rare single in our days. From "Zeit" we have "Zeit". From "Atem" we have "Circulation Of Events" and "Fauni-Gena". From "Green Desert" we have "Astral Voyager" and "Indian Summer".

So, "Decades 70's" has nine tracks. "Resurrection" begins with an almost solemn organ melody, to which a narrator declaims a true incomprehensible text that was recorded backwards. In the further course, the theme of the opening track is taken up. "Cold Smoke" begins with quiet organ sounds, which are repeatedly interrupted by short outbursts of chaos. Then the cello scrapes again, and snappy drums come and go, and another relentless psychedelic guitar attack ensues. The pounding drums and acid guitar is one of the main characteristics of this track. I think it was mostly Pink Floyd that gave the inspiration to this track with its lengthy guitar and organ freak outs. "Sunrise In The Third System" contains some slow spacey sounds and effects. It's a stealthy and hypnotic piece, with a dense organ and a ghostly flute. It has also a clear nod to Pink Floyd thanks to the sound of the organ. It forms a perfect introduction to the main cosmic journey, a kind of decompression chamber that helps the listener get acclimated to the alien landscape of Tangerine Dream's musical world. "Ultima Thule Part 1" is an excellent song despite be short, an absolutely astounding piece. It offers a very edgy music, dominated by heavily distorted guitar sounds, which is still kept in the style of the debut album. This is an accessible slice of psychedelic rock that implemented heavily distorted guitars and drums for a change. "Zeit" consists of free form synths and electronic effects along with Froese's guitar. It goes into full avant-garde weirdness with a barrage of terrifying sounds. It leaves the listener with the possibility of returning to land or continuing the journey towards unexplored coordinates. "Circulation Of Events" hasn't a recognizable melody or rhythm. It's dominated by organ and synths, slightly rippled by the vibrations of VCS3. It can be seen as a sinister sounding piece due to the strange electronic effects, basically nearly six minutes of humming and gloomy electronic sounds, making a great tension, a reminiscent of the earlier work "Zeit". "Fauni-Gena" shows the primitive ancestor lost in the lush and bewildering rainforest. It sounds as a forest of an alien planet bending the sounds of birds and other creatures with Mellotron and flute. The Mellotron is mysterious with notes which are the wide eyed wonder of a human being showing the hesitation of him probing the primeval environment. The band did a superior job evoking birds and insects through electronics, creating a virtual mechanical botanical garden. "Astral Voyager" is carried by a fast sequencer-like motif, and with its digital-sounding sounds much like an intensive Edgar Froese post processing, more after 1984 than after 1973. If one knows the Edgar Froese's pronounced "improvement vein", this assessment becomes almost to certainty. You may never know how it sounded in the original version, really. "Indian Summer" offers wave movements and scattered string chords that come across as suspiciously modern. This sound image is interspersed with delicate melody lines. It's a mellow piece on which some synthesizers take the lead from time to time.

Conclusion: We can really say that "Decades 70's" is a very good compilation album of Tangerine Dream that is only focused in their first years, the years that became known as "The Pink Years", the years when the band was linked with the Ohr record label. As I said, it comprises only tracks that were recorded on their first studio albums, "Electronic Meditation", "Alpha Centauri", "Zeit", "Atem" and "Green Desert", despite the last one have just been released in the 80's. So, these albums that are more linked with their most psychedelic, avant-garde and most experimental phase. This is a very interesting phase from the band, the phase where Tangerine Dream used for the first time the synthesizer and Mellotron. This was also the phase where their most known and best line up started with Froese, Frank and Baumann.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

When Karlheinz Stochausen published his paper "...wie die Zeit vergeht..." (How time passes by) in 1957, he was essentially talking to a closed circle of colleagues, who periodically met in the legendary Darmstadt seminars. But the word got spread, as to influence a wider audience. And which was the word? That music is basically time, not only in its rhythmic dimension, but also in the others, such as pitch, - which is the way how we perceive sound above the 16 cycles per second threshold, when the distinction of the individual impulses vanishes, - and timbre, which is the way we perceive the waveform, and it can result from the addition of several different frequencies. The problem was that musical instruments were not constructed to do a continuous shift from rhythms to pitches, experiencing so the "threshold effect", and also that each instrument comes with its own pre-fixed timbre built-in, not allowing the modification of this characteristic at will during the performance.

But, as we know, the problem of one generation can easily be the joke of the next. One of the "infected" by these ideas was, of course Edgar Froese, and by the time he was putting together Tangerine Dream in 1967, electronic instruments capable of doing the aforementioned tricks were leaving the laboratories and falling in the hands of people like them. By the time they recorded Rubycon, sequencers and synthesyzers were already doing exactly what the band wanted, generating and modifying layers of sound with an amazing sense of flow. These are creatures of liminal vibration, so strange in the realm of rhythm, as in the realm of melody, though retaining a bit of both, and mutating their tonal colours with chilling fluidity.

So, welcome to a concert hall of the mind, where the old barriers had fallen, and new questions were raising. Where is this journey taking us? Which can be the place of this piece of time made music in our busy world and life? I think the existence of these questions speaks for itself. After all, only a masterpiece can be able to interrogate its own value as art.

Review Nº 799

Tangerine Dream is a progressive rock band that was formed in Berlin. The band was among the earliest explorers of a new musical universe opened by the electronic instruments. The universe of Tangerine Dream was born as a journey aided by the new electronic keyboards, transformed into a contemplative survey of the universe. They were able to create music without a regular pulse but just with organ chords, a few manipulated guitar lines and synthesizer effects. Tangerine Dream became a landmark and one of the first bands that made the first explorations in electronic realms.

"Tangerine Dream (1996 Disky Compilation)" is a compilation album of Tangerine Dream that was released in 1996. It's a compilation album with six tracks. It comprises the four tracks on their fifth studio album "Phaedra" that was released in 1974 in it's entirely, the first part of the two parts of their sixth studio album "Rubycon" that was released in 1975 and the title track, which is one of the four tracks on their seventh studio album "Stratosfear" that was released in 1976.

As I mentioned above, "Tangerine Dream (1996 Disky Compilation)" has six tracks. The title track of "Phaedra" would set a whole new standard for the Tangerine Dream's sound. The minimalism of their first albums was pretty much gone, as the sequenced rhythms provided the band with a rich and fat sound stuffed to the rim with mystical and delightful atmospheres. Given focus by the arpeggiated trance that drifts in and out of the mix, the track progresses through several passages including a few surprisingly melodic keyboard lines and an assortment of eerie Moog and Mellotron effects. Despite the impending chaos, the track can sounds more like a carefully composed classical work than an unrestrained piece of noise. The climax of the track comes surprisingly enough after the sequencer has stopped, and makes room for a sinister and incredibly moody part filled with Mellotron, gongs and haunting electronic sounds, building up some of the most fantastic atmospheres ever created by humans. And to add to the feel of beyond and mystery, some distant and faint sounds of children playing can be heard several seconds after the track has ended. It would become a standard track in the future of their music. "Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares" reportedly was a pure solo number of Froese. It has a line with a kind of a buzzing mysticism that consists almost entirely of grandiose washes of Mellotron, accompanied by free form of some spacey electronic sounds. The effect of this music is thoroughly hypnotic if you get involved with it, really. "Movements Of A Visionary" begins with some structureless noises. It seems to improve the voice experiments from their previous album "Atem". The rest of the track consists of a warm and comforting organ improvising around the sequenced rhythms that now was one of the band's main trademarks. It gently swings back in the direction of a hypnotic rhythm. "Sequent C'" is a brief piece for flute that closes the album in a moody way. It's a piece of ethereal and floating beauty that was recorded by Baumann's solo on the flute with some electronic alienation. It represents a very beautiful and melancholic musical vision of Tangerine Dream. "Rubycon Part 1" starts with a lot of atmospheric and mellow soundscapes performed on the Mellotron and the synthesizers. After a while the sequencers start which provide for pleasant rhythms. The frequent organ and piano parts move strongly towards the sound that Pink Floyd produced on "Meddle". It has some sounds where the mood alternates between dark and light, before it beautifully and graciously rises up toward a grandiose and haunting part with some fantastic atmospheres that in a dream take us to the ocean. It quiets down after a while, and starts to build up some tension to prepare us for the sequenced part. Together with the eerie Mellotrons, distorted piano chords and droning organs, the electronic sequenced rhythms carry you away in the same dreamlike state as "Phaedra" did. The title track of "Stratosfear" kicks off the album with grandeur and sheer elegance. It has frenzied hypnotic beauty mixed with swirling guitars and changing tempos that turns it in an awesome spacey song with a memorable melody. It opens with some relaxed and pleasant chords on guitar, which creates an atmosphere that fits the track very well, indeed. The electronic rhythms then start, introducing one of the best and most recognizable melodies that the band ever wrote.

Conclusion: "Tangerine Dream (1996 Disky Compilation)" is an excellent compilation album of Tangerine Dream. This is a compilation album that comprises tracks that belong to three of the best studio albums created by the band in the middle of the 70's. These are three works that belong of what is considered their golden era, the phase that became known as "The Virgin Years", albums released to the Virgin record label, as the name indicates. It was just missing "Ricochet", technically a live album with original music that wasn't released on any studio before. "Tangerine Dream (1996 Disky Compilation)" is a great starting point to all who aren't acquainted with the music of the band yet. Here, we can see why Tangerine Dream is a much respected progressive band and was able to create an aura that lasts till today.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

The early years of TANGERINE DREAM were a little tumultuous and rightfully reflected in its brash even hostile exhibition of nascent Krautrock that found founding member Edgar Froese's love of electronic sound experiments in competition with jagged guitar distortion and percussive bombast. It didn't take long for drummer Klaus Schulze to jump ship due to musical differences and the instabilities would remain for the the second album "Alpha Centauri" which found the quintet of Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, Steve Schoyder, Udo Dennebourg and Roland Paulick to be too much personal to manage so by TANGERINE DREAM's third album ZEIT (German for "Time") the group was streamlined to a mere trio with additional guest musicians picking up the slack.

However it wasn't only the band's lineup that was streamlined. So too did TANGERINE DREAM rethink its trajectory in the burgeoning world of experimental electronic based music as the Krautrock scene was expanding quite rapidly and offering the same wild tape manipulations and electronic loops that Froese and company had engineered on its first two releases. The answer to avoid becoming irrelevant in a crowded room was simply to take things to the next level of ingenuity. The next advancements in TANGERINE DREAM's march to critical acclaim arrived on its third album ZEIT which was the first to feature the band's classic 1970s lineup with the arrival of Peter Baumann. Likewise the band completely dropped the guitar and percussion and pretty much jettisoned any traces of the rock paradigm altogether and instead focused on the sublime surreal world of electronic improvisational sparseness.

Augmented by the arrival of the moog synthesizer and an increased layering of atmospheric keyboards, ZEIT was the first step for TANGERINE DREAM to unleash its bizarre amalgamation of musique concrète sensibilities with the freewheeling autonomy of jazz improvisation that conspired to conjure up freaky cosmic journeys into a completely new musical world of free floating electronic wizardry. While experimental electronic and ambient music were hardly unique to TANGERINE DREAM, Froese wisely embarked on a more adventurous journey where cosmic expansiveness and ominously sparse and sprawling soundscapes differentiated the group from the more classically infused approaches offered by Terry Riley and Igor Wakhévitch or the space age pop crossover appeal of bands like Tonto's Expanding Head Band or Mort Garson. The space age had arrived and TANGERINE DREAM was leaving the Earth's gravitational pull altogether and taking its act to the stars and beyond.

An ambitious undertaking, ZEIT featured four spacious track which each swallowing up an entire side of vinyl on this double album release from 1972. Relying almost exclusively on the cutting edge technologies afforded, ZEIT showcased the expansive possibilities of taking the world of progressive electronic ambience to vast surreal soundscapes that tested the patience of the listener. While the previous albums had the more familiar contrast of guitar and percussion to anchor it to some sort of Earthly connection, ZEIT simply drifted off into the Oort Cloud and drifted on for a 76 minute transcendental journey. The album opens with the 20-minute "Birth Of Liquid Plejades" which features a clamorous string section courtesy of the Cologne Cello Quartet as well as a cameo appearance by Popol Vuh's Florian Fricke who conjures up the bleakest and most ominous moog synthesizer sounds allowed by law. The second feature, "Nebulous Dawn" drifts into space for a gurgling and percolating sonic equivalent of existing in the vacuum of nothingness.

"Origin Of Supernatural Probabilities" offers a more angelic redemption vibe with a softer even tangible connection to an ethereal realm that offers that invisible string to another realm. The title track on the other hand drifts into a nebulous gas cloud and showcases the utter insignificance of what we perceive as time with a seemingly endless procession through dark ambient atmospheres and gurgling electronic noises that crackle with life as if emulating the birthing process of life in the universe. Sure it's all very heady and almost impossible to grasp but that's not really the point. Comparisons to other musical forms is mute with TANGERINE DREAM. More of a sound collage than a musical score, ZEIT evokes a visceral emotional response that for some may find comfort and for others a repulsive disdain. Certainly one of the more divisive albums in the TANGERINE DREAM playbook, ZEIT without a doubt was a significant step for albums like "Phaedra" and "Rubycon" to follow. Sure it's a cold and dark journey through these corridors of space but a unique and hard earned enjoyability factor is attainable. Perhaps not the best the group had to offer but a stroke of brilliance none the less.

This text aims to shed light on albums from a more advanced phase of Tangerine Dream's discography, after the 90s when Jerome Froese, son of Edgar Froese, joined the band. Let's go to the text:

Although I had known about their existence since the late 70s, it was only in the mid-2000s that I started listening to Tangerine Dream, thanks to an unconditional fan of the band. The first album I enjoyed the most was the masterpiece "Stratosfear". I quickly became familiar with other unquestionable masterpieces such as "Phaedra", "Rubycon", "Ricochet", among many others of musical excellence. After understanding the lineup and sound changes of the group throughout the first two decades of its existence, it was natural to choose to move on to subsequent albums, and there were four that received a lot of attention: "Turn Of The Tides", "Tyranny Of Beauty", "Goblin's Club", and "Mars Polaris". And this is exactly my order of preferences among these works.

The band now revolves around Edgar and Jerome, supported by a series of guest musicians. Among them, the highlight goes to Linda Spa and her saxophone, without which rich moments would not have existed. In addition to the presence of a wind instrument, the band now relies heavily on the drums of both Edgar and Jerome, as well as their guitars and those of other guests. Personally, I don't quite understand this need for guest guitarists, the work Edgar did on "Ricochet", for example, is very beautiful. Well, in addition to the presence of winds, orchestrations, and an intensification in the use of guitars, there has been a noticeable reduction in the participation of synthesizers.

And what about the music itself? Well, "Turn Of The Tides" exceeds in beauty. The opening, a re-recording of Mussorgsky's "Pictures At Exhibition", needs no comments, and the three tracks that follow, "Firetongues", "Galley Slave's Horizon", and "Death Of A Nightingale", are nothing short of formidable. In the first two, the prominence is on the guitars, including acoustic, of a guest named Zlatko Perica, while in the third, Linda Spa's saxophone shines. The brilliance of these tracks is repeated in "Jungle Journey" and "Midwinter Night". On the other hand, "Twighlight Brigade" seems to me to be just an average song, while the weak point of the album is the disco beat of the title track.

And the other albums? In "Tyranny of Beauty", the brilliance of Linda Spa's saxophone is repeated, but not so much in the guitars, and there are more average songs like "Twighlight Brigade". In "Goblin's Club", the limitations are amplified, and it's biggest problem lies in the absence of excellent compositions. Finally, "Mars Polaris" does not feature guest musicians, and perhaps because of this, the compositions no longer have the same appeal, I couldn't "get into" this album.

3.5 stars, rounded to 4. I would give 3 to "Tyranny Of Beauty", 2.5 to "Goblin's Club", and 2 to "Mars Polaris".

Review Nº 763

Tangerine Dream is a German progressive electronic band that was formed in Berlin in 1967 by guitarist Edgar Froese. Originally with an electric/acoustic sound, Tangerine Dream emerged in the experimental and German Krautrock scene. In the same year, Froese invited drummer Klaus Schulze and cellist Conrad Schnitzler to the band, later releasing, in the same year, their debut studio album, "Electronic Meditation". This album was considered one of the most advanced and experimental works in the history of the modern music. It was influenced by the works of John Cage and Stockhausen. Several times awarded, "Electronic Meditation" contains a unique sound palette, with keyboards, standard instruments and countless non-standard sounds, filtered through several effects processors, creating an experimental atmosphere.

In 1970, Schulze and Schnitzler embarked on solo careers and were replaced by drummer Chris Franke. With him, they recorded another album, "Alpha Centauri" in 1971, this time with the collaboration of keyboardist Steve Schroyder. However, after that album, Schroyder also left the band and was substituted by keyboardist Peter Baumann. And with the trio Baumann, Franke and Froese, Tangerine Dream would released a serious of very sucessful albums, of which stand out, "Phaedra" of 1974, "Rubycon" and "Ricochet", both of 1975, "Stratosfear" of 1976 and "Encore" of 1977.

But, again, Tangerine Dream saw another change in their line up. Baumann also left the band to pursue a solo career. This time, Froese and Franke chose to join them, multi-instrumentalist Steve Jolliffe and drummer Klaus Kruger. They released another album "Cyclone" in 1978. After "Cyclone", Jolliffe also left Tangerine Dream and the duo Froese and Franke with the collaboration of Kruger and Eduard Meyer on cello released their next album "Force Majeure" in 1979.

Tangerine Dream ended the 70's with one of their best albums. Froese and Franke continue their previous search here. In few words, they consisted of a combination of the electronic style of the band, known from the albums "Phaedra" and "Rubycon", with elements of classic progressive rock, derived primarily from the then work of Pink Floyd. In practice, this meant an increase in the role of traditional instruments and a stronger outline of melodic lines. Tangerine Dream returned to the purely instrumental territory again with "Force Majeure", but the album itself was musically still a continuation of the more conventional prog rock style they had explored on "Cyclone". And Tangerine Dream, at their best, had absolutely nothing to do with be conventional. This time, you can hear all the time who is the creator of this material. The sequencer based arrangements of past albums find their fruition on "Force Majeure". Froese and Franke change their longstanding collaboration into a complementary musical dialogue that is at once lean and evocative. The recordings were made in Berlin in 1978. The author of the cover of "Force Majeure" is Froese's wife, Monika Froese.

The album consists of three songs, two lengthy and one shorter, although with its seven minutes of length it's surely not a piece to play on the radio. The eighteen minute title track is mainly based on the electronic sounds, at first with an ambient character, then more vivid and more trance, in which parts of the electric and acoustic guitar, piano and drums are perfectly woven. There are plenty of expressive motifs and cool solos. There is also a lot of dynamics. "Cloudburst Flight" is already a more condensed recording, in which traditional instrumentation usually comes to the fore, and the electronics rather only complement the sound. The song shows the more prog-rock face of the band, but by no means imitating the style of someone else. The thirteen minute "Thru Metamorphic Rocks" is the oddest track on the album and looks like a bit less exciting but it doesn't spoil the high quality of the album. It's a two part song that contains the more heroic guitar from Froese, but it's generally a return to the amorphous and eerie compositions of past albums, with percussive space echoes that occasionally suggest the work of Klaus Schulze. The first five minutes are another example of a successful fusion of electronic and traditional instruments. The further part has purely electronic sounds. It's the track with most in common with the old Tangerine Dream, but with a more modern and less human approach.

Conclusion: "Force Majeure" is one of the best albums of this great band. This is a calculated and compelling work from two experienced artists who move through the electronic music with high grace and precision. Overall, the album doesn't look as electronic as their earlier works, as the drums in particular, when used, provide a driving beat that is more familiar with rock music and when Froese reaches into the guitar, you maybe think that you are in the wrong film. But we cannot complain too much. After all, it's a good thing when a band tries to develop further. Due to its more rock oriented music, it may be suitable for people who are otherwise not into the electronics. So, it's an absolute necessity for those who might be curious about the band, or even successful experiments within the rock genre. Sections of the album would later appear in slightly altered versions on the soundtracks for the films "Thief" and "Risky Business".

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)