![]() They’re no longer pushing the envelope hard and it’s equal parts hit and miss. The band is beginning to loose wind and catching themselves up. Phaedra marks the beginning of what we would now call Berlin School, and the sound that no one would mistake for anything other than Tangerine Dream. ![]() Truly pioneering stuff and they have a massive breakthrough with this kind of music in the public. The best of this music is truly immortal and always a joy to listen to, decade after decade. Massively pushing the envelope and moving the needle of what music is, and what electronic music can be. The best of this age is marked by sheer, unmatched, ingenious brilliance. They now have real electronic instruments, starting with a Moog modular and a Moog sequencer, and also including the Mellotron as a big part, and increasingly more and more great, classic synthesizers. This is the age of what I think most people love and think of as “the real Tangerine Dream”. The golden age (the Virgin years): Phaedra (1974) - Tangram (1980). Forgettable and only noteworthy for it being the steppingstone towards something different and quite brilliant. There’s a few enjoyable gems in there but mostly it’s, in the immortal words of Klaus Schulze, “rubbish”. They are in and coming out of the so called “Krautrock” years, together with other bands like Kraftwerk, and all this is brilliantly documented in the documentary “Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution”, which is an absolute MUST SEE for any lover of electronic music: Kraftwerk & The Electronic Revolution (documentary) - YouTube They don’t really have any proper electronic instruments yet, so it’s mostly wild and weird experimentation using whatever they could get their hands on. It’s a band knowing they want to do something different, something new, but they don’t really know how or what. This is not the music you would normally think of as Tangerine Dream. Proto-TD (the pink years): Electronic Meditation (1970) - Atem (1973). When beginning listening to Tangerine Dream I highly recommend you focus on what I call “The Golden Age”, which is where the good stuff is, IMHO. The band have had several distinct “ages” or phases during their lifetime, and this is how I would group them. Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, Johannes Schmoelling (1979 - 1985).Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, Peter Baumann (1971 - 1977).The classic lineup of musicians of their great years, the ones they are mostly remembered for, are: This is the track “Search” from the album “Sorceror” (1977): In the way of introduction, if you know very little about them, you might ask: So, what do they sound like? What’s a quintessential Tangerine Dream track? This is not an easy one, but after much handwringing I have come up with this one. They have released over a hundred albums and are still recording and touring as “Tangerine Dream”, although none of the original members are left, and to be honest I no longer associate them with what was Tangerine Dream and don’t find them interesting or relevant anymore at all. The band was founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese, who was in my mind a musical genious when at his best, and the only permanent member of the band until his death in January 2015. Of all of them, Tangerine Dream has always to me been the most groundbreaking and the most interesting, opening up a vast landscape of music that simply didn’t exist before, and I’m still in awe of their best works as it simply transcends music across all times and ages. But these 4 artists brought electronic MUSIC to the world in a massive way, and served as huge influences and inspirations to countless musicians and listeners after them, me very much amongst them. I’m very well aware that there are many other great electronic musicians, in the past and the present, as well as many early pioneers on the technical and academic side. Their classic works contain a large number of beautiful pieces of music, to enjoy, to be inspired by and to learn from, so I thought I would offer my perspectitive on them, as an introduction to their music for people who might not know them well, and as a retrospective on their history, their significance and their works.Īs an obvious disclaimer, it goes without saying that all of this is my highly subjective point of view, so you don’t need to tell me that I’m wrong in the comments But your own perspective and experiences are most welcome.įor me, the giants in electronic music have always been Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre, in that order. Many of us in here have a fond affinity for the band Tangerine Dream, whose groundbreaking work in electronic music brought the attention of this kind of music to a huge number of people.
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