THE PINK YEARS

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*)

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