FORCE MAJEURE

Recorded in the wake of the disastrous reception of Cyclone - the first Tangerine Dream album with an attempt to include actual song lyrics - Force Majeure finds Froese and Franke still in the midst of retooling the band's lineup, but perhaps a bit more confident in their musical direction this time around. Rather than being a radical shift like Cyclone, Force Majeure builds on the approach taken on Encore and Tangerine Dream's soundtrack work of the time, in particular continuing the band's experiments with reintegrating acoustic instruments and rock techniques into their compositions (which, whilst being a major feature of Cyclone, was also part of Encore).

The acoustic instruments are used to add texture to what are fundamentally still progressive electronic compositions as opposed to prog rock opuses - a clear improvement over the compositions on Cyclone, which weren't sure whether they were one thing or the other. In short, this album finds Tangerine Dream back on course, and presents another excellent set of Tangerine Dream mood pieces in the group's mature style - that said, it will tend to come across as a little bland and plastic for those more used to the group's wilder, spookier earlier work.