THE SEVEN LETTERS FROM TIBET

With "The Seven Letters From Tibet" Tangerine Dream took everyone by surprise. Since the mid nineties their albums had all been influenced by the dance/club scene with the emphasis very much on rythm and the last thing anyone expected them to do at this point was a tranquil,serene,symphonic,beatless concept suite. So in the time honoured TD tradition of doing the unexpected, that's precisely what they did. Once again they re- invented themselves and "The Seven Letters From Tibet" sounds like nothing else in the TD canon. It's the closest TD have come to the dreaded term New Age but that would be an erroneous assessment of this album. It's feel and compositional structure owes much more to classical music than to the blandness of New Age and even though it has an ethereal beauty to it,there's nothing anemic or anonymous about this music. It's identity and integrity is very strong and makes it quite clear that,while the music is tranquil and beautiful,it's not meant to lull you to sleep but instead affect a kind of spiritual awakening. The actual concept has to do with Tibet obviously and even though there are liner notes "explaining" the concept (something about an extra dimension of reality that one can only enter spiritually) it's more than a bit hazy and difficult to grasp,but that doesn't really matter. In fact,that it is vague is one of it's strengths since then the listener is allowed to infer what he/she wants the music to convey,rather than being tied down to a concept that doesn't allow for the listener's own imagination to play a part. And with song titles like "The Long Distance Blue" and "The Purple Of All Curtains",imagination definitely plays a part in appreciating this album. "The Seven Letters From Tibet" is not only my favourite TD album but one of my favourite pieces of music of all time,I don't hesitate to call this the most beautiful music I have ever heard and it has almost spoiled me for "lesser" albums,most music falls through in comparison with this jewel of an album. It stands out in my cd collection like nothing else and it has further convinced me that in Edgar Froese we have one of the few geniuses in modern music.