GREEN DESERT

Background aside, this is a very good Tangerine Dream album. There is some discussion surrounding this album, whether the remix of the original tapes has changed radically the original music or not. I don't know if it is very important. Structurally, the album either relates to Atem and Phaedra or to White Eagle and Hyperborea, since all them have a twenty minute track (which is usually the main song of the album) and three other songs with varying lengths.

What is interesting about this album is that it was originally recorded with only two members: Froese and Franke. And another treat is that it features some drumming from Franke in the title track. Although you can hear some sounds from synthesizers and drum machines not available in the 70s, the title track is a lot like the longer songs by Tangerine Dream in the early 70s: a structured atmospheric intro and outro, and a lengthy improvised part with marked rhythm and lots of improvisations on synth, keyboards and guitar. The ending of the first song is quite similar to parts of Mysterious Semblances... from Phaedra.

As for the other songs, White Clouds act as a mini-Green Desert, with a vigorous drumming rhythm and all kinds of synthesizer sounds over it, finishing with a short atmospheric synth outro. People who care about instruments might be able to guess which were sounds originally recorded in the 70s and sounds added in the 80s. Astral Voyager is distincive for being based on a sequencer rhythm, certainly a forerunner for the sequenced rhythms of future Tangerine Dream albums. Apart from the sequencer, the song has a new-agey feel, dominated by string synths and flute-like synth melody. The last song is more ambient, with very little rhythm. Interestingly enough, it doesn't sound like anything in either Atem or Phaedra, or with songs from Tangerine Dream mid-eighties album. What sounds closer to it is some of the quieter parts of Edgar Froese solo album Aqua.

We don't really know why Green Desert original music was not released at the time. Maybe not much of it was complete when used to convince Virgin to sign them, and they opted to record a completely new album instead with newly available equipment. Anyway, it is a pretty interesting album, since it sounds a bit like a early 70s album, a bit as a 80s Tangerine Dream album and a bit as something completely new. Although not very polished, it is a great listen to anyone who is fan of Tangerine Dream and prog electronic.