PHAEDRA

I agree that this album is a musical journey. And a beautiful and hypnotic one it is. However, contrary to what the general opinion seems to be, I do not think this album is as rewarding as it's successor, Rubycon. Somehow, Rubycon feels like the completion of the ideas that the group had for Phaedra. Everything that Phaedra has, Rubycon has in greater quantities. And everything that Phaedra has, that Rubycon has not, Zeit has in greater quantities. Let me explain; Phaedra consists of four different tracks, whereas Rubycon has in fact one track in two pieces. That adds to a more ambient, relaxed feeling throughout Rubycon - you have more time to get into the over-all feel of the album, to get into the hypnosis. There is so much more diversion on Phaedra, it is in a way more complex than Rubycon - and, as I said, less ambient. However, if you want complex music from Tangerine Dream, you get that in greater quantities in records like Atem or Zeit.

Still, Phaedra is a highly rewarding record, even if it is not as "clean" in its expression as its predecessors Atem and Zeit, or as Rubycon on the other hand.

Phaedra is the track that I like the most. It starts off in a "casual" and non-linear way, but when the linearity kicks in with a menacing beat (like a shark going after its prey) after 4 min 50 sec, the track really starts happening. Perhaps the song that resembles the following record Rubycon the most. The next track, Mysterious Semblance At The Stand Of Nightmares, is also a fantastic track. More instantly beautiful, but also more changing and more demanding, than Phaedra. The absence of the Phaedra-beat makes it almost a song not intended for the same listening-purpose. Movements Of A Visionary contains elements of both the pre-Virgin era, especcially in the non-linear and experimental beginning of the song, and of the Virgin era with straighter and more familiar beat patterns that kicks in after a while. In that respect, almost a mixture in style between the first two tracks. The records ends with the short, atmospheric non-beats track Sequent `c`.

Four great tracks, which in my book earns this record a strong 4-star rating, but the tracks do not make up a unity to such a degree as the other TD-records mentioned, and therefore cannot get the full 5 stars here.