TANGRAM

Tangerine Dream enter the eighties with a sound that would be a taste of things to come while still retaining a few traits of past work. Tangram, featuring newcomer Johanness Schmoelling, has always been one of the most viable of all Tangerine Dream albums, and certainly the most well played in my collection. The lines and swooping sounds are drawn together around a swath or dark ambient and progressive symphonic musings, and while the band are employing more electronic synthesizers here than previous there are also some lush, melancholic and some sympathetic acoustic and electric guitar parts throughout the album making a subtle juxtaposition between the new and the old, although the emphasis is most definitely on a continuing progression. Tangram has an acquired taste even for many Tangerine Dreams fans, but it is quickly addictive and a staple of their eighties albums.