Tangerine Dream is a German musical group known in the second half of the 1967th century, which was created by Edgar Froese in XNUMX. The group became popular in the electronic music genre. Over the years of its activity, the group has undergone multiple changes in the composition.
The composition of the 1970s team went down in history - Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann and Christopher Franke. Froese was the only permanent member of the team until his death (this happened in 2015).
Formation of the Tangerine Dream collective
The group is called the pioneers of electronic music in Europe. This is not surprising, given that musicians began to play in this genre almost immediately after its inception.
In the late 1960s, Froese began to periodically team up with various musicians and experiment in genres. It wasn't Tangerine Dream yet, but it was the beginning.
By 1970, the basis of the team was formed, it included Froese and Christopher Franke. Interestingly, the latter brought to the band the use of new music sequencers. It was they that formed the basis of the future best albums of the band, which began to actively experiment with sound.
At the same time, the group included more than 10 members. However, their participation was temporary. Nevertheless, new people constantly always brought something new. Froese was constantly looking for new sounds. Wherever he appeared, he constantly recorded new sounds on a tape recorder.
In 1970, the first release of Electronic Meditation was ready. It cannot be called electronics as such. It was most likely popular psychedelic rock. Nevertheless, the features of the future creativity of musicians were already openly manifested here.
The record was received very well and was interesting in the cities of Europe. The authors realized that they were going in the right direction and decided not to stop with experiments. Subsequent releases were filled with electronics. In the ideological part there was the spirit of space flights, exploration of the worlds.
This can be traced even in the titles of the albums. The second disc was Alpha Centauri. At the same time, live instruments were an integral part of the compositions. Electronic sounds did not replace them, but lived in a clear balance together. The Alpha Centauri compilation features organ, drums and guitar.
Album Atem and experiments with music
Considerable attention was given to Atem, which became the fourth in the band's biography. He was appreciated by both listeners and prominent figures of the electronic scene. In particular, the famous DJ John Peel, having heard the novelty, called it the best among all released this year.
Such an assessment allowed the guys to conclude a lucrative contract with the Virgin Records label. A few months later, another release was already presented on the label. The album contained "spooky" music that was not suitable for background listening or playing in clubs.
Interestingly, despite such "non-pop", the album took 15th position in the UK's main music chart. So Virgin Records got the first major project. It is also important that this record marked a sharp leap in the development of electronics as a genre. It was the first disc created with sequencers rather than live instrument recordings. It received acclaim and sold in significant numbers.
There are many interesting facts connected with this work. So, the title track was created by accident - the guys purchased a new synthesizer. They studied buying in the studio and tried different tunes. The recording was pressed in the background - when they listened to it, it turned out that an interesting song was accidentally created. Later, the musicians only added a few instruments to it and set it aside for the Phaedra album.
Digital music in the distant 1980s
Since then, the team, whose composition constantly "floated", regularly released one successful disc once a year or two. In the 1980s, thanks to the group, a sonic revolution was made. The Tangerine Dream team contributed to the transition of the world to digital sound. They first showed that digital music can sound "live" and deep back in the 1970s. However, the effect of their actions reached the world only 10 years later.
At the same time, a number of successful soundtracks for several films were created. Among them: "Thief", "Sorcerer", "Soldier", "Legend" and others. Interestingly, 30 years later they wrote music for the popular computer game GTA V.
For all the time, a different composition of authors has written more than 100 albums. This continued until 2015. However, on January 20, Froese unexpectedly died for everyone. The participants announced that they intended to continue the work of the composer. Only Edgar's son, Jerome, who was also a member, did not agree with this. He stated that without his father it would not be possible to continue his business the way he wanted.
A year and a half after the death of the leader, the first concert of the remaining composers took place. In 2017 they released a new CD based on the ideas of the founder. The last release came out in 2020. The team continued its activities. According to the leaders, they created new creativity around ideas that Edgar did not manage to bring to life.
