STRATOSFEAR

"Stratosfear" is probably the closest thing to a masterpiece of TD according to my preferance. It is a flawless and melodic, atmospheric, very song or theme-oriented piece of music, without space-noise texture experimentation of their earlier works. It includes, apart from omni-present synths and rhythm machines, also an electric guitar, mellotron and mouth harp, which all contributed to a rich composition structure. This music is a perfect soundtrack for a horror or thriller movie, but it can also act as a solid stand-alone music listening. This was indeed very popular album too; I cannot recall how many TV documentaries, educational and science programs along with some TV and radio commercials were supported by these strong music themes, even in the late 1970s former Yugoslavian TV network. This is where Jean Michel Jarre picked to start his own electronic-new age-pop-glamour career, although his "Oxygene" from the same year 1976, bears many similar atmosphere like this TD artwork. I cannot but recommend this album to all novices to prog or electronic music in general.