STRATOSFEAR

Recorded shortly after Edgar Froese produced his solo album Macula Transfer, Stratosfear sees Tangerine Dream take that album's intriguing mix of synthesised cool and warm kraut-psych guitar and applied it to a full band setting, with percussion and flute joining the mix and showing more prominence than they had on a Tangerine Dream album for some time - particularly on closing track Invisible Limits. The preceding, more synth-dominated tracks have a cold, stark, spooky quality to them in keeping with what's expected from this eerie era of Tangerine Dream. As the last album from this particular lineup, it's an interesting swan song that doesn't quite hit the heights of Rubycon or Phaedra in terms of its ethereal, mystical explorations, but does provide a foundation for the more structured electronic symphonies to come.