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Colt1861Navy

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Re: Colt1861Navy post# 869

Monday, 07/15/2002 12:59:21 AM

Monday, July 15, 2002 12:59:21 AM

Post# of 1767
Rock 'n' Roll Artists A-Z...Tangerine Dream

http://www.tangerinedream.de/

Tangerine Dream was founded in September 1967 by Edgar Froese in Berlin. Edgar, who was actually studying painting and sculpture, never in fact intended to earn his living from music. Rather, he was totally fascinated with the strong expressiveness in the paintings of Dali, with whom he met personally for 2 years in Port Lligat/Cadaques (Spain), as well as Picasso's works and those of the early French Surrealists in the Twenties. The Dadaist and Surrealists manifests, the literature of Gertrude Stein, Henry Breton, Henry Miller, Walt Whitman and Gustav Meyerink meant a lot more to him than commercial rock'n roll or big career dreams that would only get cried into stale German beer anyways.

An invitation in 1967 to give several private concerts at Dali's villa was to have quite an impact on the further development of the group. Some of the most outlandish artists from the subculture of London and Paris met in Cadaques at »happening afternoons« in summery Port Lligat - only the absurdest ideas stood a chance of getting attention. Music mixed with literature, painting, early forms of multimedia and all sorts of action-happenings. Some of the highlights from this time: Dali, waist-deep in water, attempting to play Satie on a grand piano that had been rolled into the Mediterraean Sea. Gigantic half-eggshells floating on the water with ballet dancers in them, dancing to music by Debussy.

The musicians who participated in this project with Edgar unfortunately did not quite get the sense of all this. Upon explaining that: »in the absurd often lies what is artistically possible«, he soon found himself back in Berlin, on his own with only his guitar.

Back then it wasn't that easy to find musicians who were interested in making music other than mainstream Rock, Schlager or copies of American top 40 Pop. Most of the musicians found the crazy idea of transferring the visual arts to music uninteresting. Edgar searched a long time, tried various line-ups and had several frustrating experiences with musicians egos until he met Klaus Schulze in 1969, who at that time played drums with good timing, long before he made a name in the electronic scene. But Klaus had a soft spot for experimental music which he could express on his drums.

The two of them then looked for a third adventurer and met Konrad Schnitzler, a student of the art-action artist, Joseph Beuys, who was also on a very unconventional trip through the world of art. The first album, »Electronic Meditation« was in fact a session tape and never intended for release. Edgar had the idea of musical diaries, diaries in which all good compositions, but also the flops and improvisations were entered. This was either the score on paper, music on tape, or ideas spoken on a dictaphone and later acted on. The session tape from an afternoon improvisation 1969 in a loft in Kreuzberg, Berlin became the first longplay album from Tangerine Dream in 1970.

When Klaus and Konrad somewhat later both started their solo careers and Edgar met Chris Franke, then a drummer, at a studio session, the rough direction in which the TD project would develop was more or less clear. Even in the years following international acclaim, gold records and Grammy nominations, Edgar continued to cite the impetus that came from the Surrealists at the beginning of the century. In several international reviews the music of TD was described as an »unreal soundtrack« to an »unreal, unknown life«, a life in which all events happened at »the same time and the same place«. Simultaneity.

Especially the early music of TD met with harsh, polemic criticism. For example, when the first TD album was released in 1974 in England and the USA, the reknowned Melody Maker critic, Steve Lake, wrote about the first Virgin album, »Phaedra«, which was no. 8 in the international LP charts at the time: »People, eat more sh**, because 100,000 flies can't be wrong.«

Critics never seem to have to qualify such statements nor show proof of their own qualifications to make them. The artist always loses out, if it weren't for the most important support imaginable: the audience, the fans. Luckily for TD, there was always ample support from them. Certainly, some of these fans were disappointed over the years, when TD didn't always follow the course they imagined. Edgar commented on this in another compilation: The musician can only remain faithful to his work and take his music further, even if many of the audience don't understand these changes of direction. If musicians were to cater to the varied tastes of their fans, then each production would sound like a musical special offer from the supermarket - indiscriminately diverse. TD certainly can't be accused of mediocracy and indiscrimination in their music.

There were not only misunderstandings between TD, their fans and the press, there were substantially heavy discussions between the musicans as well. In the 28 year history of TD, there have been about 34 different line-ups which Edgar transformed into a unique body of human sound experiences. Not all of which saw the twinkling lights of a recording studio but some of these line ups have written history in modern popular music.

Although Edgar was the founder and conceptualist of the band - he gave titles to the 652 compositions which the band wrote between 1970 and 1995 - it was understood that the members were at the same time a democratic team, in which strong egoes could endanger the whole concept. You can imagine how tough it must have been, continually building up a team, making it work and achieving international success.

The band always held in respect the DJ without whom TD's music in the early 70's would never have been broadcast, for example, by the conservative British BBC and which otherwise never would have found such international acceptance at this time. This DJ is John Peel, a living legend in the meantime in the European radio scene. He made TD's LP »Atem«, which was on his BBC playlist, »Record of the Year« in 1972/73. TD thereby caught the attention of Richard Branson from Virgin Records and he signed the band for a total of 10 years - this period is known as »The Virgin Years«.

The Discography section contains the experimental »Pink Years« 1970-1974, the »Virgin Years« 1973-1983, the »Blue Years« 1984-1987, the »Melrose Years« 1988-1990, and the »Seattle Years« 1991-1995.

While producing more than 12 scores for feature Hollywood movies between 1980 to 1983 alone, TD remained also very activ on the Live concert front. One of the most remarkable concert events took place in December 1983 in Warsaw and became the first release on the Zomba-Jive Label in 1984.

The line-up, Froese, Franke, Schmoelling, had been around for 3 years before this concert in Poland, and they had experienced 2 unusual events: 1980, after 2 years of preparation, the first concert by a Western rockband in the Palast der Republik in former East Berlin - right behind the Iron Curtain - and a live TV concert with Munich's Philharmonic Orchester in 1981, as well as touring in Australia and Japan.

The Polish tour will always be remembered by everyone who was a part of it, as an adventurous jungle expedition. Power failures, truck breakdowns, minus 5° C in Warsaw's ice stadium where the concert took place. Edgar, Chris and Johannes played the Warsaw Concert in wool gloves with the tips cut off, so they had some feeling for the keys. The electronic instruments went haywire in the cold, not always delivering the desired results. The roadies dashed back and forth with pop cans filled with hot water, so the musicians could briefly warm their hands up. The concert was interrupted 5 times by power failure in the stadium. 2 meters of snow covered the glass roof which threatened to cave in - no one will ever forget that gig - Poland, behind the Iron Curtain in the winter of 1983. You'd never guess from the very relaxed musical atmosphere that the conditions were so catastrophic.

The studio album »Le Parc« is the last recording session with Johannes Schmoelling, who went on to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Paul Haslinger in January 1986, whose first studio production with TD was »Underwater Sunlight«.

Apart from the studio and live activities, Edgar was constantly in touch with the film studios and agencies in Los Angeles, securing work on various soundtracks. This turned out so successfully, that the band at times had often more work than the three of them could handle. TD delivered the music for many Hollywood films during this time, for example, Tom Cruise's first internationally successful »Risky Business«, Ridley Scott's »Legend«, Michael Mann's »Thief«, William Friedkin's »Sorcerer«, the Stephen King screen-adaption »Firestarter« to name a few, and this at times kept the band in the studio working into the early morning hours.

With the earnings made from these activities, the band members were able to set up individual studios, catering to separate needs, in different places around the globe, independent from the industry, allowing them to transform their ideas immediately without worrying about time or place. When Edgar, Chris and Paul started the studio production of »Tyger«, they were surfacing from a 'Hollywood blackhole', back to creative reality. In other words, moviepicture- free studio work. Edgar arrived with various books from the English mystic and painter William Blake and suggested using these texts as the basis for the new album. He assumed that people would fail to understand them and certainly the fans would tear the group apart when they found out they were working with vocals - but these kind of surprises were to be expected with TD. The project was produced together with Jocelyn B. Smith, a singer from New York, and released in 1987. The critics of course tore the album to bits, failed to catch on to the lyrics and probably none of them bothered to read the booklet. However, for many fans the meaning of this album continues to grow, since this album is about much more than just TD music with lyrics, - and as often the case in TD's long career - time will be the judge of the value of their individual works. In 1986, TD with the line-up Froese, Franke, Haslinger, toured Europe and the USA.

Due to differences of opinion and a lot of hassles with unprofessional management by American record companies, Edgar and Chris couldn't picture a really new, creative collaboration in the future. Edgar wanted to develop a creative approach to new technologies and methods of composition, and the endless USA TV series were absolute killers of this. They threatened to turn the group into a musical recycling factory. Although Edgar saw feature films as an ever-new challenge, he remained somewhat distant in respect to TV productions.

Chris wished to take a break from music for a while anyways, so the last appearance with Edgar and Chris together with Paul was on stage August 1st, 1987 for the 750th anniversary of Berlin. This concert, together with the gig in Alberquerque, New Mexico, was released on the CD »Livemiles«. This production brought the »Blue Years« (1983-1987) of TD to a close.

In 1988 Edgar and Paul looked for new production means, a new record company and they started work on the studio album »Optical Race« in the USA. This was the beginning of the next period, »The Melrose Years«, which is now history. Paul left TD in 1991, when Edgar's son Jerome joined as a regular member. This period, called »The Seattle Years«, came to an end in 1995.

As a »just for fun« production in summer of 1995, Edgar and Jerome did a remix of some of the »Seattle Years« material, called »The Dream mixes«, which also entered the US top ten New Age Billboard charts.

In many ways Edgar and Jerome are already in the process of writing a further decade in the big book of TD history. Beyond this new starting point, as in the early days in 1967, the musical diary will continue, a diary by adventurous surrealists or surrealist adventurers, romantics, explorers in time, loved and mocked, respected and derided, and those who never quite taste like the musical flavour of the day.

And it is exactly here, on this musical frontier, where the musical trend of the masses does not meet, that we find the »timeless home« of TD music.

Discography

http://www.tangerinedream.de/samples/

Photo Album

http://www.tangerinedream.de/pictures/

Video

http://www.tangerinedream.de/movies/

FAQ

http://www.tangerinedream.de/qna.html



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