RICOCHET

This is one of my all-time favourites as what comes to live recordings. It shows a more symphonic side of Tangerine Dream along with a few other albums, such as Force Majeure. And a part of the treat is to hear Edgar Froese play guitars and Peter Baumann play the drums. It's almost ROCK at times! But of course the keyboards play the major role; synths, mellotron, piano.

The record consists of two parts, simply "Ricochet part one" and "Ricochet part two." Part one kicks off with a dark synthesizer sound before developing into a fantastic combination of a soft, dreamy guitar á la Froese and hectic drumming by Baumann while Chris Franke provides the background soundscapes with keyboards. After a few minutes of great jamming between the three the guitar and drums fade away and the song takes a whole new direction; the commandingly floating and bubbling synths come back to lead the audience to outer space once again. Magical moments from the German trio!

Part two starts with a quiet and relaxing piano intro, then a flute-like synth enters the background. This sort of reminds me of the end of "Invisible Limits", the final track of their 1976 studio album "Stratosfear." No guitars are to be found on part two, so the presence of keyboards; synths and mellotrons, is all but overwhelming. The flow of sweet sounds and hauntingly grasping soundscapes is just breathtaking. Was this music made by a human being?? The ever growing pulse of the track takes you on an almost 20-minute trip, then there's a long, quiet, conclusive synth outro, which slowly fades into outer space..Breathtaking, beautiful, simple yet so complex, proggy, spacey.. adjectives or any kind of words don't do justice for the beauty of this album. It's really hard to describe what makes this album so good, but I for one will certainly love this piece of art till I die!!

*****