Dream Connected

The Virgin Years 1977-1983 is the follow-up to last year's The Virgin Years 1974-1978 (see review) by Tangerine Dream (TD). The latter album was a 3CD-box set comprising the five remastered albums TD recorded for Virgin Records between 1974 and 1978: Phaedra (1974), Rubycon (1975), Ricochet (1975), Stratosfear (1976) and Cyclone (1978) plus a selection of rare single releases, 7-inch edits as well as two rarely heard radio adverts. However, it didn't contain Encore, originally released in 1977. The follow-up to this previous release contains seven albums plus two singles all packed on a 5CD-album set.

Few bands could have conceived of, let alone pulled off, the exercise in excess that Dream Theater have with The Astonishing. In a vast catalog that includes several album-length conceptual statements - Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - this is so extreme that it pushes at what their fans (a fanatical lot) may accept. Guitarist John Petrucci has written a double-disc sci-fi rock opera, set in a dystopian future in an invented country (the package contains maps). In it, music created and/or performed by humans has been outlawed by the state. Only government-sanctioned and programmed machines are entrusted with those functions. A small band of rebels cling to and fight for the vision (and redemption) of human music…

When the album "Phaedra" hit the album charts worldwide back in 1974, no one had foreseen such a remarkable career of a new musical sound created by Tangerine Dream. All instruments were new and unknown to the audience. The sound itself was the opposite of all common music at those days. During the concerts the band created an uncomparable atmosphere. Now, more than 30 years later you can listen to the modern form of this classic recording. The material has been re-recorded by using partly the same kind instruments as on the original recording. Also the new digital technology has played a keyrole during various recording sessions. It was not the intension to please all the TD purists and analogue fans ­ but you will have an idea of how the band is still connected to the style and trademark that has made them so original. The additional title "Delfi" has been composed 2005 in the spirit of the seventies.