RICOCHET

The first live record released by Tangerine Dream is one of their best releases ever. Ricochet wasn't previously released as studio album and it's likely that it's the result of a live jamming.

It followed Phaedra, but it's closer to the pink period than to the new electronic deal. Keyboards, guitar and drums for a suite which has an oriental or north-african flavour, I see a parallel with Agitation Free's Malesh even when after 7 minutes drums and spacey sounds transform it. The rhythm is hypnotic. Just one minute more it drastically changes. It's a totally different track, more electronic and closer to Phaedra. Froese makes a good guitar work, but what matters is the ensemble. Even in the most improvised moments the music flows without breaks. There's then a crescendo full of square waves as usual in TD music. What's unusual is the drumming: something TD have often given up to. The last three minutes are a harmonic sequence of bass keyboard chords, then the side A is gone.

Side B starts with a reverbed piano. Another thing quite unusual for TD at this time. Electronic flutes create quite a newage piece which sounds far eastern. I can see chinese mountains, even when the rhythmic part starts. How much should Alan Parsons pay them for this rhythmic use of keyboards?

In this part the electronic sax sounds a bit jazzy, too. Froese places some guitar slided notes while the keyboards are filling the music. The oriental flavour is gone and now the music is a bit darker and mittel-european. Even if the pink period is considered closed after Atem, Ricochet is one of the most floydian things released by TD. At approx half of the B side it turns into spacey with voices, loops and various electronic noises, then Franke plays a tune that as on other albums reminds me for a while to the Hungarian composer Gyorg Ligety, Just one minute and it restarts with keyboards and percussions. This is the right moment to look at the cover sleeve. That image fits very well with the music, maybe because that Mediterranean environment is used to inspire Vangelis, and there are various contact points between him and TD in the middle of the 70s.

Only the applauses at the end can bring us back to Earth.

If TD are essential for prog this album is essential for TD so I have to rate it with 5 stars.