KYOTO

The blurb from the back of the CD case: Back in 1983 when Tangerine Dream toured Japan the first time,Edgar and Johannes came up with a lot of compositions which should have been performed during the tour and released on record later.The tour happened successfully ,but due to controversies within the band ,this music material never saw the light of day.Because of the fact that the music had nothing to do with other band members at the time,Edgar and Johannes decided 22 years later to make the material a full length CD.Old 24 track tapes had to be restored to make this happen.So what you hear on this record is - with some technical polishing work - the emotional situation the two composers were into many years back at the peak of one of Tangerine Dream's most creative periods.

So is it any good?? Personally I love the 1980-1983 period.Schmoelling added new qualities to a band that was served well for so many years by Edgar Froese and Cristoph Franke.However to my ears there is a lack of melody on this particular record compared to say Tangram and a lack of atmosphere compared to say Hyperborea.The music is undoubtedly polished and listenable but nothing really grabs you by the balls.The missing vital ingredient must be Cristoph Franke I presume.

On the plus side though stylistically it is comparable to their soundtrack Firestarter.If you like that then you may well go for this big time.