ALPHA CENTAURI

After Edgar Froese formed the legendary TANGERINE DREAM all the way back in 1967 it took many personal changes before the classic years of Froese, Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann would release classic albums like 'Phaedra' and 'Rubycon.' With the debut 'Electronic Meditation' Froese initiated the talents of Conrad Schnitzler on cello, violin and addiator and the percussionist talents of Klaus Schulze along with two uncredited musicians: Jimmy Jackson on organ and Thomas Keyserling on flute. Despite TANGERINE DREAM's multi-decade exploration into the world of cutting edge synthesizer technology leading the way and dominating each album in a completely unique way, 'Electronic Meditation' was a complete anomaly in the TG playbook as being the only album that contains no synthesizers but rather was a tripped out jam session that explored the furthest trips achievable through the sounds of the German Krautrock psychedelia and created a wild and rather unpredictable journey through surreal soundscapes. For some way too unfocused but the album was a masterpiece of the unconventional and pioneered the next stage of TANGERINE DREAM for which the band would become more known.

It didn't take long before the lineup on 'Electronic Meditation' started to disintegrate. Conrad Schnitzler left and founded Kluster and Klaus Schulze jumped ship and set out for an equally prolific solo career. Ironically as a trio the band didn't focus on the electronic aspects of music but once apart all embarked on similar journeys of exploring the limits of electronic sound manipulation and in the process would invent the new form of progressive electronic music called the Berlin School or more electronic oriented section of the Krautrock scene. For the second album ALPHA CENTAURI Froese had to start from scratch with a new lineup. This was when a 16-year old Christopher Franke entered the picture and replaced Schulze on the drums along with the adventurous organist Steve Shroyder who would himself only stick around for one album. Also on board were flautist Udo Dennebourg and synthesizer wizard Roland Paulyck. As a quartet TANGERINE DREAM was a completely different band and with all new members minus Froese himself and therefore ALPHA CENTAURI took on a completely different style than its predecessor.

Franke despite being a mere teenager was already quite the accomplished multi-instrumentalist and not only contributed drums and percussion but flute, zither, piano and his newly acquired VCS-3 synthesizer as well which is why ALPHA CENTAURI delved into the bizarre new world of electronic experimentation but this wasn't quite 'Phaedra' yet. This is more of a transition album from the unhinged jamming Krautrock sessions of 'Electronic Meditation' and the inter-dimensional escapism of the synthesized reality of what was to come. ALPHA CENTAURI consisted of only three tracks. Side 1 hosted the short opener 'Sunrise in the Third System' and the longer 'Fly and Collision of Comas Sola,' which took the earliest psychedelic otherworldliness of Pink Floyd space rock and completely left Earth's gravitational pull altogether. While 'Electronic Meditation' was harsh and unforgiving, ALPHA CENTAURI displayed a heavier focus on the melodic flute and a placid introspective mystical organ processions that were accompanied by various bursts of percussive bombast both refined and at times delicate but as a band the focus resulted in a less random radioactive decay affect displayed on the debut.

While the 13-minute "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola' achieved the most structured achievement in the TANGERINE WORLD up to this point, all that flute improvisation and direct energy procession completely disappears on the massive sprawling title track that originally took up the entire second half of the vinyl LP and slowly slithered on for over 22 minutes. The track points towards the direction of where TANGERINE DREAM was heading with a formless drifting of sonic possibilities that float around like seemingly randomly like the gaseous colors of Jupiter's atmospheric turbulence. Heavily fortified with Froese's brand new VCS3 synthesizer sounds, the track also incorporates psychedelic freak folk flute sounds as well as massive cymbal attacks that usurp the traditional role of percussive drive. Eerie otherworldly choral backing vocals haunt the tail end of the piece along with occasional guitar sounds, reverberating organ drones, pulsating synthesizer freak outs and sine wave generators. There was even a coffee machine that was used to create mysterious sounds nestled somewhere in the mix. Some of the rare spoken vocals occur in the German language towards the end.

ALPHA CENTAURI has the distinction of being the very first electronic space album and delivers an entire album's worth of otherworldliness that Pink Floyd initiated with the title track on 'Saucerful of Secrets' but never built upon it thereafter. While ALPHA CENTAURI may have gone too far and too fast for even the burgeoning Krautrock scene, it nevertheless paved the way for the more focused efforts of the following 'Zeit' and the true birth of the Berlin School progressive electronic world of 'Phaedra.' Existing somewhere in between the band's beginning and ultimate classic period, ALPHA CENTAURI is as unique in the TANGERINE DREAM canon as was the debut and an absolutely fascinating display of early progressive electronic engineering splintering away from the context of a rock music paradigm altogether. The album was accompanied by the non-album single 'Ultima Thule' which was a much more accessible slice of psychedelic rock that implemented heavily distorted guitars. Both parts of this track are included on the newer remastered versions but are hardly essential parts to the ALPHA CENTAURI experience as they seem to be trying to keep the band grounded in the more commercial aspects of music which clearly weren't suitable for the band's telescopic cosmic visions. While not the crowning magnum opus of TG's career, ALPHA CENTAURI is still one wild ride through the untamed sound fields of the nascent world of synthesizer explorations.