Largest Afternoon

Your nervous system is you. All the thoughts, perceptions, moods, passions, and dreams that make you an active, sentient being are the work of this amazing network of cells. For many centuries, people knew that this was true. But no one was sure how it happened.

Without doubt, the recordings of Tangerine Dream have made the greatest impact on the widest variety of instrumental music during the 1980s and '90s, ranging from the most atmospheric new age and space music to the harshest abrasions of electronic dance. Founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese in Berlin, the group has progressed through a full three dozen lineups (Froese being the only continuous member with staying power) and four distinct stages of development: the experimentalist minimalism of the late '60s and early '70s; stark sequencer trance during the mid- to late '70s, the group's most influential period; an organic form of instrumental music on their frequent film and studio work during the 1980s; and, finally, a more propulsive dance style, which showed Tangerine Dream with a sound quite similar to their electronic inheritors in the field of dance music.

Without doubt, the recordings of Tangerine Dream have made the greatest impact on the widest variety of instrumental music during the 1980s and '90s, ranging from the most atmospheric new age and space music to the harshest abrasions of electronic dance. Founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese in Berlin, the group has progressed through a full three dozen lineups (Froese being the only continuous member with staying power) and four distinct stages of development: the experimentalist minimalism of the late '60s and early '70s; stark sequencer trance during the mid- to late '70s, the group's most influential period; an organic form of instrumental music on their frequent film and studio work during the 1980s; and, finally, a more propulsive dance style, which showed Tangerine Dream with a sound quite similar to their electronic inheritors in the field of dance music.

On a crisp autumnal Friday afternoon a young boy by the name of Toby races out of his classroom towards the School gates as the final bell blasts. Weaving sharply in and out of the mass of excited kids and disgruntled parents he heads eagerly towards the skate park. Toby had been dreaming all through double Science about getting back on the ramps and trying out his latest trick. Krrrrrrrr, snap! Crack! Krrrrrrrr. As Toby jumps, twists and spins faster and faster an intriguing and somewhat familiar tune keeps catching his ear. It’s only as the air cools and the sun dims and the other children now hungry for dinner have set off for home, that Toby notices a small console peaking behind a fallen branch playing that repetitive tune, now firmly lodged in his head. As he grabs the console the music stops; just for a moment and then the device brightly flashes as if awoken from a deep slumber and like the credits of a movie a story starts to unfurl.