TRANCE-FORMATION (WITH THE SECRET SOCIETY)

Although the original Harvest LP will try to convince you this isn't Gregorian music, it really is. The notes even try to tell you this is more like Gamelan, but that more applies to Bali-Agung, where he did explore Indonesian gamelan with German electronic. Here he explores Gregorian chants with his brand of electronic music. Now one might think this is some sort of proto-Enigma, but to me if someone tried something proto-Enigma in 1977, they would have likely added a disco beat, and Eberhard Schoener naturally stayed as far from that as possible. What you get is choral singing, male and female, frequently in Gregorian chant style with Schoener providing synths and Mellotron. The music doesn't go at a particularly fast pace, but I am rather surprised to see Andy Summers showing what he's made of on guitar, because I never seen him do that in The Police (which happens that all three would soon play for Schoener for the album Flashback, and Sting and Andy on the original Video-Magic). I get reminded a bit of what Tangerine Dream may have sounded like in 1977 had they continued the direction they were doing on the Ohr label (i.e. Alpha Centauri, Zeit, Atem), but with that added on Gregorian chanting. To me, I find this more interesting than Enigma's MCMXC a.D. as there's no annoying dance beats to get in the way (although I did like the samples of Aphrodite's Child's 666 on MCMXC a.D.) and it's done in a truly wonderful progressive electronic context. As it's clear from what I've heard from this guy was that he never repeated himself, and the albums that I own only proves that, from the droning meditation sound of Meditations to the Gregorian chants of this one (Trance-Formation) to the Police going full-on Mellotron-heavy prog (Video- Magic) and the gamelan of Bali-Agung, it's clear he didn't want to stagnate. Certainly Trance-Formation is one of his better albums and worth having.