From: lllowen@netcom.com (lllowen) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -= T A N G E R I N E D R E A M - A HISTORY =- From the box album: '70-'80 Edgar Froese, a trained artist and sculptor, entered music professionally in 1965. Influenced by British rock and roll, he formed a group called the Ones. In the summer of 1966 the group played a season in Cadaques, North Eastern Spain. Here Froese spent considerable time with Salvador Dali. This episode and also Froese's increasing exposure to modern contemporary and electronic music gave him the determination to break beyond the limit- ations normally present in a conventional rock band. The Ones continued through 1967, visiting Cadaques again (including a concert at Dali's villa), and played for four poverty-stricken months at Johnny Halliday's club in Paris. Froese: "We played soul numbers. We used to do 'Midnight Hour' three times a night-- it was the best number we had!" The band broke up and Froese was now in a position to start realising his ideals. In September 1967 he formed Tangerine Dream, having devised the name from "Sgt. Pepper." Initially TD was very definitely a rock band, but fluctuating constantly inside and outside convention. They were power- ful, loud and most unpredictable. Their first gig was in Berlin in January 1968 following four months of solid rehearsal. The student uprisings of that year were an important factor in determining the band's direction. TD's audience was mostly highly political students, who demanded a total break with the past. Songs were even considered bourgeois, because they were structured! Thus TD started to play "free" music. They performed frequently for five and six hours a night at the Berlin Zodiac club, where one room was totally white and the other was totally black. In such an atmosphere, it was compara- tively easy to shed all one's conditioned preconceptions of "music." However, despite a strong Underground following, TD was not exactly a commercial success and the band split up in March 1969. Froese persisted with two more formations, but these two were also short-lived. Then in November of 1969 Froese teamed up with Klaus Schulze (drums) and Conny Schnitzler (cello, violin and flute). They made an experimental tape spliced with sound effects, and to their great surprise this landed them a recording deal with Ohr Musik in Berlin. The first fruit of this relationship was "Electronic Meditation," released in 1970. Schulze then went his own way, and Froese recruited a guy who had a a reputation for being one of the best young Jazz drummers in Germany. His name was Christoph Franke. Froese, Franke and Steve Shroyder (who has replaced Schnitzler) then recorded "Alpha Centauri," their first vague commercial success in Germany. Soon Shroyder left, and Froese came across Peter Baumann playing on the Berlin club scene. The line-up was now fairly stable, at least on vinyl, for the next six years. In early 1972 they recorded TD's most experimental work-- "Zeit"; without doubt this double-album represents their furthest departure from rock. Paradoxically in the same time period they released their first single "Ultima Thule Parts 1 and 2": this was essentially high energy driving rock. TD was always a group of contradictions. TD's next album, "Atem," was crucial in terms of gaining recognition outside Germany. British DJ John Peel chose the import as his album of 1973. In the meantime TD severed what had become very bitter connections with Ohr Records, and signed with a new British record company-- Virgin. In early 1974 "Phaedra," their first international release, appeared. It must rank as one of the strangest albums ever to reach the Top Ten in Britain. The album received no airplay except for John Peel, and TD had as yet not performed in Britain, nor even given any British press interviews. "Phaedra's" success inevitably led to UK concert appearances. Their first was in London in June, and Britain was introduced to TD's tradition of not even acknowledging the audience, and of performing in almost total darkness. The phenomenon, which was unbroken until 1977 except for the occasional use of film or video-synthesizer, was particularly bizarre at say a French Festival with an audience of 50,000. TD did a major UK tour in late '74 establishing a strong popular base. It is interesting to note that at this time the band's space-age equipment travelled in a battered fifties Berlin furniture removal truck with a top speed of 40 mph! Every concert at this time consisted of total improvisa- tion. Only in 1977 did a little preconceived structure start to develop in their live performances. The end of the year saw TD's most notorious performance-- at Rheims Cathedral. The group's last appearance in France has been in July 1973 at a small club near Lyon; forty people were in the audience! At Rheims however 6,000 crammed into the ancient building with a 2,000 capacity. The overcrowding resulted in chaos and a certain lack of respect for the historic place; international outrage ensued. The Pope decreed that TD would never play in a catholic cathedral again, and that Rheims itself would have to be purified! All of this provoked a wealth of publicity around the world for TD. Rheims also marked what was to become something of a trademark for TD: to try and transform selected performances into events rather than simple concerts, particularly by the use of unusual venues. Thus over the next two years they played at the Roman amphitheatre in Orange in Southern France, the French communist-party sponsored "Fete de L'Humanite," Coventry Cathedral, Liverpool Cathedral, York Minster, and two concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall. "Phaedra" meanwhile had gone gold in Australia, and TD toured there in March '75 with Michael Hoenig temporarily replacing Baumann. Here the band was plagued by equipment problems, not the least of which was that Franke's main massive synthesizer had been irreparably damaged during transit. Audience reaction was mixed. Nonetheless TD's first tour out- side of Europe was a considerable experience, especially a nine hour flight across the Australian desert in an eight seater plane necessitated by an airline strike. The next two years saw a steady build-up in Europe with extensive touring interspersed with the aforementioned special events and of course further albums-- "Rubycon" and "Ricochet." The latter, recorded live, was titled after the group's obsession with an electronic game during a French tour. During this period TD developed a reputation for being one of the loudest groups around, often reaching 130 DB. This fact was not totally unrelated to the absence of any outfront mixer. "Stratosfear" appeared in early 1977; it was a radical departure from previous albums as it employed recognisable instruments and melodies. To promote the album in North America, TD toured there in March and April. Almost all concerts sold-out, although as usual the group received essentially no airplay. This tour also marked the first time that TD worked with a live visual accompaniment-- laser effects by Laserium. A lot of hopes of reaching a wider audience in the USA hung on a movie called "Sorcerer" (in Europe it was titled "Wages of Fear), directed by William Friedkin whose track record included "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist." At his request TD had recorded the soundtrack before filming actually began so that he could shoot in relation to the music. Unfortunately the movie did not emanate the success of Friedkin's previous efforts-- in fact it was a box-office disaster, although critics now agree that the film and the music had very considerable merit. The soundtrack album is interesting, as it consists of short pieces, showing TD at their most disciplined. Another blow was the sudden curtailment of TD's second North American tour in July '77 after only two concerts, when Froese suffered an equestrian accident. Shortly thereafter Baumann left the band to pursue a solo career. Froese and Franke, who still remain the nucleus of TD, added Steve Jolliffe (vocals, keyboards and wind instruments) and Klaus Krieger (drums)-- thus the band was a foursome again. This line-up recorded "Cyclone," which was followed in February/March 1978 by a massive sold-out European tour, once again featuring Laserium, but also incorporating exclusive lighting effects. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this tour was that it marked TD's final breakthrough in terms of popular recognition in their own country, Germany. The addition of vocals however was very much a mixed success, and the experiment has not been repeated. 1979 was largely a year of solo projects and experimentation, excluding the release of "Force Majeur," a more traditional TD album than its predecessor. In February 1980, after over a year of negotiations, TD became the first western rock group ever to play live in East Germany. It was particularly significant given that TD is from West Berlin. The band played two concerts in the Palast des Republique in East Berlin. Tickets were chang- ing hands for up to 50 pounds on the black market. The East Berlin concert introduced TD's new member Johannes Schmoelling, who is also featured on "Tangram," the latest album in their long and distinguished career. Ten years have now elapsed since "Electronic Meditation," and thus this compilation represents a decade of TD. Popular music is notorious for elevating, before tearing down its artists within a short time-span. TD, in turn the darlings and the scape- goats of the media, have more than survived. They have continually proved themselves innovative and prepared to operate with a high element of risk. Always single-minded in the pursuit of their own musical direction, TD are far beyond the whims of fashion.