ZEIT

I am a big Tangerine Dream fan, and I´ve been ever since I encountered "Cloudburst Flight" lying on the ground in my friends´ parent´s flowerbed, spewing large doses of booze-infused penne with chili all over the tulips... (- Chili is much more enjoyable on the way down ;-) I struck electric gold with the "Force Majeur" album, and I thought I´d explore more from this band and maybe start digging in the past. I found "Zeit" in a used recordstore, where it practically jumped down from the shelf and into my hands with its rather stunning artwork and a ludicrous price attached to it. It was either "Zeit" or a big bag of onions, and I allready bought the onions the day before...

I can´t say that it was the mindblowing experience that I was hoping and cheering for, but more in the realm of: Are you fucking kidding me?? Where is the drummer? Where is the guitar? And why does this album sound like the perfect romance music for people in coma trying to get it on? Is it dance music for humpback whales? OR am I listening to this in the right manner?

The music is so minimalistic that you are struggling to see the minuscule changes that actually DO happen. The trick is not to listen. Yep, that´s what I said! I had it in my cd-changer for a while, and sometimes it would be playing when I wasn´t aware of it. It eventually struck me as a good record, whilst listening to this after a 10 hour long workday as a sub in the local kinder garden, where I strut my stuff from time to time. I was tired like Santa turning 350 - put the album on, and suddenly I got it! It was music of giant immoveable mountains and planets spinning on their own axes to the slow droning of TD. The music moves extremely slow - like a caterpillar with untied shoelaces, but when you finally calm yourself down to the point of 4 heartbeats a minute, the droning of the caterpillar suddenly transforms into this galactic butterfly, and you are left with an absurd mental image of Time.

The problem with this album then is its inaccessibility. It´s a masterpiece in its own right, but I am so seldom in the mood for it, that it looses the attraction. It truly is a mental voyage to listen to this album, but more so a never ending hunt for the right mindset, which is a shame.