Science March 14 2008

Apart from Green Day, SW are probably ex-Lookout Records' best known band, but they supercede the aforementioned band in their unquestionable dedication to the DIY punk ethic, and for that they must be more respected. Having sold over 150,000 copies since it's release in 1991, and being out of print for a short time, the album was remastered and re-released by Asian Man Records.

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.

Sun Rings began with a call from NASA to Kronos Quartet's manager. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Voyager 1 space probe's launch was coming, and the agency wondered if Kronos would be able to use the "space sounds" that Voyager 1 and 2, as well as other spacecraft, had sent back to Earth in its performances.