AGES

Edgar Froese's fourth solo album is something of a mixed bag. Originally a vinyl double album, it was almost a classic case of one disc's worth of good material spread over two. The final track has been left off the CD reissue, presumably to fit it onto a single disc, which makes it pretty good value.

The opening track, Metropolis, sees Froese exploring darker, more dissonant territory than he normally did with Tangerine Dream and is one of his best solo pieces. This mood carries over into the mellower Era of the Slaves, which is more of an old school T.Dream track but with rather more rhythmic punch courtesy of Klaus Krieger's drumming. After this promising start, the 21 minute Tropic of Capricorn is a bit of a letdown - a pleasant but rather aimless track, it sounds like unused ideas from Phaedra/Rubycon reassembled in a slightly haphazard order. Nights of Automatic Women veers back into the more experimental territory of the first two tracks, weaving old style T Dream sounds over some feverish drumming after a slightly unsettling opening. A couple of shorter tracks follow which sound like sketches for side long Tangs epics, while the CD closes with the excellent uptempo drums and guitar driven Pizarro and Atahualpa.

Nothing on this CD is actually bad, but too much of it sees Froese tackling pieces that would have been better realised with his colleagues in Tangerine Dream. Klaus Krieger's drumming really lifts some of the pieces, and there is enough good material on here to make a worthwhile purchase for a fan, but definitely non essential.