ALPHA CENTAURI

Space music -ground breaking frontiers- number one. Klaus Schulze leaves and in steps Christopher Franke. Tangerine Dream leave behind their highly regarded rock electronic debut and embark on new territory with Alpha Centauri. The album starts off with the eery " Sunrise In The Third System", great blends of synths and keys before leading into the exquiste " Fly and a Collision Of Comas Sola" where electronic soundscapes segue into one another to great crescendos, ebb and flow, as a flute overrides beautifully for a mind numbing 13 minute journey.

The title track is a 22 minute opus giving a clear indication of other works to come namely the austere and powerful Zeit. The flute again plays an important role on this album almost acting as an anthithesis to the electronic layers underneath. There are some interesting voice overs too. All in all an excellent depiction of deep space and I am sure a great portal for all those astral travellers of the time! Make no mistake this is ground breaking music, it is not silly noodling, maybe hints of improvisation but clearly excellent material released to appreciative audiences when record companies encouraged creativity. This is TD marking their own unique sound, which some 40 years later, still presents itself in their evolving music. But dismissing this classic would be foolhardy unless it is a genre you cannot comprehend.