Prog-Electronic that is not Ambient?

Ah, but should they be? Surely they're prog? 

Hi,

I'm on the bubble about this, since for me TD is not about "prog electronic" or "ambient" at all, but in the early days a lot of excursions about the behemoth synthesizers and later, what I would call "pastoral classical music done electronically", that we could close our eyes to and fly away with. 

Sometimes the title of the pieces in a subtle sort of way mentioned a book or a piece of art, and while this might have been Edgar's way of identifying how he saw a lot of his music, in the end, I have never felt it was "wrong" or out of place. Listening to his Kafka album, is almost better than reading the book (The Castle), and the same goes for a lot of his music, going back to STRATOSFEAR, though I think that the earlier material might be considered "ambient", 20 years before the term even came around!!!!!!!!! But they were a very fine "interpretation" of many things, and ideas, even if the titles were a bit strange and out there!

Another example ... I would rather listen to the live concert of "SORCERER", than I would to sit and watch the movie, since what he did with the music is something that even the director could never have understood or thought about! ... and it was finally done in its entirety in the last concert series that Edgar Froese did in this life before he departed.

I don't know that we are capable, anymore, of just listening to music and enjoy it, WITHOUT having to put some sort of label in it ... it's just scary to me, that we must label something in order to even consider putting a little ear to it! At that point, it is not about the MUSIC and its ART ... it's about glorifying the fan, and ignoring the artist!

ProfPanglos wrote: I think TD lost their fire to a great degree when Christopher Franke left.  For me, there was a noticeable change, a lack of edge & complexity, when Franke departed.  As much as I love the band, Optical Race was the beginning of the end of the TD I knew and loved.  Not to say there are some really good tracks here and there after Franke left, but there was also a tremendous amount of... what I would call 'canned,' somewhat 'cheesy' music that they churned out.

I totally agree; with "Optical Race" TD went totally downhill, even if they did an album inspired by one of my favourite books afterwards: "Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster" by Gustav Meyrink. (The title was badly translated as "The Angel from the West Window" by TD; correct would have been "The Angel of the West Window").

Hi,

I disagree. There is some outstanding material by TD after that, and as expected, it was slightly different, and I wonder if it wasn't (at the time), Chris's ability to get past the behemoth synthesizers he was still in love with, and still played in his first solo albums, although it appeared they got simplified and he had a much better control of them, something that Edgar stated in the book, was always a problem and caused the other members to have to improvise while Chris found what was needed for the piece they were trying to do.

It wasn't easy, but Edgar admits that most often Chris did get it right, though not always the same.

It was, just another change in their history, but the amount of material that ended up coming out and its presentation on stage was fantastic and second to none. I don't think there EVER WAS another band that was so clean and so mature in concert, and then even be able to add moments of improvisation to the show ... it's all over their live concerts that were video'd, and it's just sad that it is not appreciated as much as it should have been. Even the time with Jerome was nice, not specifically outstanding, but it was a much needed ability to be added to the band, and right after the addition if Iris (along with Linda) made it a superb live show ... but folks still think that she should have stayed at home making babies, or the keyboards and not played the saxophone or the flute. 

Sadly and crazy that their 3rd (or 4th or 9th) life in music is not enjoyed. It should be!

And we did not list the incredible list of concerts that stood out, and specially the last 2 the band performed with Edgar. Both are tremendous and a magnificent testament to a band that did not quit, and went on with their music.

There is some far out and incredible material in all these and I'm missing Mahlia (not sure the spelling) or something like it. They are not all "perfect" but there are some outstanding things. The Kafka album is actually "better" than the book if one can say that ... it's interpretation is excellent, for example. The Madcap thing is different and while I did not think it was great, it was nice.

(I'm not a great fan of the TD after Edgar ... too mechanical and they lost their "classical" feeling altogether, which was likely essential and very important. It feels like (now) just a bunch of synths with no life of their own other than the electricity!)

Hi ! I know well Quantum Fantay because I've got many albums of them. But I think it is more psychedelic / space-rock not progressive electronic music.

You can try the album of the keyboardist of Galahad: Dean  Baker - Constellations (UK).

A kind of mix of Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream.

Indeed. Chris took his vast sound library and sequencer templates (one of the aspects that distinguished TD from their imitators, that nobody could quite get a lock on) with him.

One would think Johannes' departure would have been a more immediate critical blow, but somehow the band produced Underwater Sunlight without him, which is a positively fantastic album that features some of my favorite guitar playing by Edgar. The "Song of the Whale" suites sound as fresh today as they did in 1986! With that album, TD's trademark for each new album bearing a remarkably new 'sound' ended, with Tyger being something of a coda to that arc.

Optical Race has some beautiful compositions ("Sun Gate," "Mothers of Rain," "Cat Scan," "Atlas Eyes") and some strangely half-cooked duds. The sound palette is noticeably milquetoast, which doesn't help the less inspired pieces one bit. The title track is forgettable contempo. "The Midnight Trail" has a cool intro and a very unsatisfying resolution. "Twin Soul Tribe" should have been another worthy contribution of Edgar's, but it goes nowhere.  

Your comment here cracked me up, because when I posted above that I loved a couple of tracks, the 2 I had in mind were "The Midnight Trail" and "Twin Soul Tribe!"  (Although I can agree that The Midnight Trail needed to go much deeper.)

I loathe that title track.  I always thought it sounded like some crappy video game theme.  I still remember hearing it for the first time, and thinking, "This is Tangerine Dream?"