EUROPA

In the late Seventies I used to visit my favorite record-shop almost everyday, I was hanging around there for hours in order to discover new music. One day I noticed a LP from Tangerine Dream entitled Encore with a remarkable cover: the USA banner on which a live picture was placed featuring three tiny figures playing on huge modular synthesizers and assorted vintage keyboards. Completely mesmerized I walked to that album, took it from the shelf and started reading the notes on the inner sleeve. Well, that moment turned out to be the start of my discovery of the world of electronic music: all three members were playing the Mellotron along lots of great vintage keyboards like ARP, Oberheim and Moog synthesizers, Elka string-ensemble, Steinway Grand piano, this looked looked keyboard heaven .. and it was!

I think that the members of UK electronic prog trio Airsculpture must have been even more excited than me about 74-78 Tangerine Dream because their music is one big tribute to that legendary and pivotal band. The music on Europa was recorded live during the Alpha-Centauri Festival in The Netherlands in 1997, it was Airsculpture their first Dutch concert and totally improvised. Most of the five melodic compositions (between 6 and 24 minutes) sound a bit similar: first a spacey intro featuring lots of sound effects and wonderful strings, then the exicting sound of pulsating sequencers enters, the music becomes more lush (a blend of vintage and modern synthesizers) and finally the music slowly fades away. In some tracks I hear a distorted guitar sound that sounds like Edgar Froese on Encore, I presume it is sampled because I cannot trace a guitar player on the booklet. I also hear wonderful choir-Mellotron waves on Part 3 and great fat synthesizer drops and slow synthesizer flights in Part 5.

This is a pleasant electronic prog album but I prefer other 74-78 TD inspired bands like Free System Project and Red Shift because their sound is more elaborate and dynamic.