Tangerine Dream Encore

Tangerine Dream follow up their superb In Search of Hades box set with another Virgin-era package. Pilots of Purple Twilight: The Virgin Recordings 1980-1983 showcases the next chapter and features newly remastered versions of the albums Tangram, Thief, Exit, White Eagle, Logos, Hyperborea along with the previously unreleased soundtracks.

It's very difficult to recommend this release to any serious Tangerine Dream fan. Why? Simply because all of these tracks have been released before on other compilations of TD Eastgate/TDI releases, making this a compilation of other compilations. It's a tricky business, but that's what it is, business. There has been no further remastering of the sound - which was excellent in the first place - and the only thing that's really "new" here is the digipack and its design. It's also difficult to recommend this set to those new to TD, simply because there is so much other material that's more cohesive and more important than what's here, from Edgar Froese's various incarnations of the band.

It's very difficult to recommend this release to any serious Tangerine Dream fan. Why? Simply because all of these tracks have been released before on other compilations of TD Eastgate/TDI releases, making this a compilation of other compilations. It's a tricky business, but that's what it is, business. There has been no further remastering of the sound - which was excellent in the first place - and the only thing that's really "new" here is the digipack and its design. It's also difficult to recommend this set to those new to TD, simply because there is so much other material that's more cohesive and more important than what's here, from Edgar Froese's various incarnations of the band.

Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. Tangerine Dream are considered a pioneering act in electronica. Their work with the electronic music Ohr label produced albums that had a pivotal role in the development of the German musical scene known as kosmische ("cosmic"). Their "Virgin Years", so called because of their association with Virgin Records, produced albums that further explored synthesizers and sequencers, including the UK top 20 albums Phaedra (1974) and Rubycon (1975).

Now the series of so-called cupdiscs continues: enjoy another full length EP (more than 40 minutes) with stunning new compositions and two well-known pieces in different so far unheard versions while having a cup of tea or coffee.

"Soundmill Navigator", a Tangerine Dream Classics Edition, contains a vintage live recording from 1976, where the trio Baumann, Froese and Franke performed a concert at the Philharmonics.The almost 42-minute track finds the musicians in good spirits, as the set features lots of mellotron and antique sound textures, which are later on accompanied by some nice sequencing. Halfway, Edgar’s typical guitar soloing is added as well. Music wise, "Soundmill Navigator" the space ambient contains lost of elements and characteristics from their albums "Ricochet" and "Encore".

Tangerine Dream - Tangerine Tree (Vol.01-Vol.92) (2002-2004)
MP3 320 Kbps | Run Time: 71 hours 54 minutes | 19.5 GB
Genre: Traditional Electronic, Berlin School | Label: Tangerine Dream

Tangerine Tree was a fan project operating from 2002 through 2006 with the goal of collecting, preserving and distributing unreleased concerts and other audio material by the band Tangerine Dream.
For almost four decades, much of this material had been traded on an informal basis and many were sold as bootlegs. Much was unidentified, misidentified, low quality and/or a multiple generation copy. Tapes were starting to degrade, as many were as much as forty years old. In the late 1990s, several collectors created the Digital Tape Tree project and distributed the material on CD-R.

Tangerine Dream - Tangerine Leaves (Vol.01-Vol.91) (2003-2006)
MP3 320 Kbps | Run Time: 71 hours 47 minutes | 19.9 GB
Genre: Traditional Electronic, Berlin School | Label: Tangerine Dream

Tangerine Tree was a fan project operating from 2002 through 2006 with the goal of collecting, preserving and distributing unreleased concerts and other audio material by the band Tangerine Dream.
For almost four decades, much of this material had been traded on an informal basis and many were sold as bootlegs. Much was unidentified, misidentified, low quality and/or a multiple generation copy. Tapes were starting to degrade, as many were as much as forty years old. In the late 1990s, several collectors created the Digital Tape Tree project and distributed the material on CD-R.

A multi-disc CD + blu-ray box set, In Search Of Hades, containing Tangerine Dream’s trailblazing 1970s recordings for Virgin Records is set for release through UMC/Virgin on 31 May.