Tangerine Dream

 

Few artists or groups could forge a sound so unique and engaging combining electronic equipment as group Tangerine Dream did. The group was one of the leading and advanced after the psychedelic and progressive experiences in rock. The group was especially successful in the combination of different equipments (VCS, Moog, Farfisa) and sound manipulation possibilities (mixing, effects, pedals) for designing an unmatched sound.

 

Formed in Germany in 1967 by Edgar Froese – musician and sculptor who came from a contact with the surrealist painter Salvador Dali – the Tangerine Dream recorded his first album, Electronic Meditation in 1970, a work full of instrumental experimentation of psychedelic influence. The album Alpha Centauri (1971), with a predominance of keyboards, already showed signs of the electronic working that the group would adopt in the following years. The albuns Zeit (1972), Phaedra (1974) and Rubycon (1975) marked the best of its abstract and suggestive audio concept. A work that made a strong impression in director William Friedkim who knew the group's sound when promoting The Exorcist on Europe. Friedkin invited them to write for his next movie, Sorcerer/Wages of Fear (Sorcerer, 1977) which marked the debut of the group in the cinema. In the early 80s the Tangerine Dream adopted the techno-pop rhythms and recorded a lot of soundtracks that incorporated their traditional atmosphere along with rock/pop rhythms. Edgar Froese made the music to the punk-futuristic adventure Kamikaze 1989 (1982). The soundtracks for The Keep (1983), Wavelength (1983), Firestarter (1983) and Legend (1986), deserve remark as great works in a lot of not so inspired soundtracks. Over the following years, the Tangerine Dream became practically a solo project in which Edgar included some of his family relatives. After usual creative ups and downs the group is placed in history as one of the most creative of instrumental electronic music. Edgar Froese passed in 2015 at the age of 70.