Tangerine Dream Phaedra

In 1973 Tangerine Dream signed with Virgin Records, recorded Phaedra and embarked on the most commercially successful and critically lauded phase of their existence. What made Phaedra different from Tangerine Dream's earlier albums was the use of the sequencer (the band had used sequencers on their previous recording, Green Desert, but that album was not released until much later), a device that was a crucial component of the band's classic style. Phaedra is a landmark album of 1970s electronic music and was also Tangerine Dream's most accessible and "musical" to date.

Phaedra is one of the most important, artistic, and exciting works in the history of electronic music, a brilliant and compelling summation of Tangerine Dream's early avant-space direction balanced with the synthesizer/sequencer technology just beginning to gain a foothold in nonacademic circles. The result is best heard on the 15-minute title track, unparalleled before or since for its depth of sound and vision. Given focus by the arpeggiated trance that drifts in and out of the mix, the track progresses through several passages including a few surprisingly melodic keyboard lines and an assortment of eerie Moog and Mellotron effects, gaseous explosions, and windy sirens. Despite the impending chaos, the track sounds more like a carefully composed classical work than an unrestrained piece of noise…

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.

Originally recorded in 1973, Green Desert did not see the light of day until it was remixed and released as part of the In the Beginning box set in 1986, then as its own album later the same year. It is difficult to ascertain how radical this release is from the original recording, but as it stands, it is a logical step between the rawer-produced Atem to the ambient/sequencer-driven style of Phaedra. A key element of this is attributable to Edgar Froese's guitar playing on the title track, an unhurried solo that lasts only about five minutes in the nearly 20-minute piece, yet is easily the most memorable part of the entire song. None of the three shorter songs are as dynamic as the first, each containing a keyboard melody played over synthesized noises and the rhythms of drums, sequencers, or a series of chords.

Exit marks the beginning of a new phase in Tangerine Dream's music: Gone were the side-long, sequencer-led journeys, replaced by topical pieces that were more self-contained in scope, more contemporary in sound. Johannes Schmoelling's influence is really felt for the first time here; Tangram, for all its crispness and melody, was simply a refinement of Force Majeure's principles, and the soundtrack to Thief not an album proper. On Exit, listeners are introduced to electronic music's next generation, notably on "Choronzon" and "Network 23," which brought the sound of the dancefloor into the mix (it hasn't left since). That's not to suggest that Tangerine Dream has stopped creating eerie, evocative music…

Exit marks the beginning of a new phase in Tangerine Dream's music: Gone were the side-long, sequencer-led journeys, replaced by topical pieces that were more self-contained in scope, more contemporary in sound. Johannes Schmoelling's influence is really felt for the first time here; Tangram, for all its crispness and melody, was simply a refinement of Force Majeure's principles, and the soundtrack to Thief not an album proper. On Exit, listeners are introduced to electronic music's next generation, notably on "Choronzon" and "Network 23," which brought the sound of the dancefloor into the mix (it hasn't left since). That's not to suggest that Tangerine Dream has stopped creating eerie, evocative music…

Despite being credited to both Edgar Froese and Jerome Froese, in fact only the final track of the disc carries anything of Edgar's fingerprints, being an alternate mix of his own composition Mombasa, originally released just a few months ago on Booster III (2009). All of the other remixes on DM V are solely the result of Jerome's work on classic TD material from the seventies and eighties, all of which have the original music more or less discernible at some point within them. The most deeply buried of the originals is the brief inclusion of a snatch of Rubycon (1975) as an inner layer to The Return of Time, largely swallowed by a newly minted percussion pulse and swathe of electronic textures. Other tracks, however, offer substantial representations of clearly recognisable original thematic materials, in bold but entirely appropriate new ways, such as the title track from Exit (1981) as Flow Paths…

Tyranny of Beauty is one of Tangerine Dream's best CDs of the early and mid-'90s. That's not saying a lot. The group's albums from that period - and even back into the late '80s - are relatively weak. And, to be sure, this disc has its weaknesses. However, they are overshadowed by its strengths, and the disc earns high praise. The TD lineup for this CD is Edgar Froese, Linda Spa, and Jerome Froese. Mark Horn and Gerald Gradwohl contribute various guitar performances. Those performances are the keys to this disc's merit. Gradwohl's lead guitar spots play off and to Edgar Froese's lead guitar. The sparring adds clout to the atmospheres. The atmospheres, in turn, build upon each other and create a grand soundscape. The strongest track is "Stratosfear 1995," a redesign of the Virgin era standard. This CD is a return to the basics with polish and tact. It is essential Berlin school electronica.

The Anthology Decades is a compilation of older studio material which has been previously unreleased, though some of the tracks seem to be remixed ('tangentized') or alternate versions of some well-known material: Sunset In The Fifth System obviously bases on an excerpt from Alpha Centauri, Exit To Heaven is very similar to Edinburgh Castle, and Landing On 51 essentially overlays Astral Voyager with some new melody lines. On the other hand, official information from the Tangerine Dream Forum state: "Speculations on so-called 'tangentized' material or the use of some 'overwashed' production methods are completely false. They are compositions out of the 70ies and 80s which have been recorded for the first time or have been taken from Edgar's personal sound library"…