POLAND - THE WARSAW CONCERT*

I admit to having a love-hate relationship with this band. When they are good, they are sensational, but most of the time they are rather mediocre - if not even below that. I am in the process of re-visiting my substantial collection of their works. Some may get a rating only, others I choose to touch on with a few words. The reasons may differ.

Firstly, a bit of history to put things in context. In 1984 Polish people led by Lech Walesa's Solidarity were engaged in a mortal confrontation with the henchmen of the occupying Soviet forces. Eventually, their struggle led to the liberation of all East-European countries (I hail from one of those).

At that time West Berlin (home of Tangerine Dream) was an enclave surrounded by The Wall and hostile forces. Safe travel in and out was possible by aeroplane only and the residents there were living under constant fear, bordering on paranoia.

The "Berlin School" of escapism through Electronic, Space, Ambient expressions was realized under such circumstances. Meanwhile, grossly overweight African-American soldiers in their airlifted Pontiac Firebirds were scoring underage girls and boys outside McDonalds joints with the lure of tax-free goods (jeans, alcohol, tobacco, etc.) they had access to.

Poland had a very lively Jazz and Prog scene then with numerous home-grown, world class talents, something that assisted general appreciation for quality performances. Enter TD with recent, credible works like "Tangram", "Force Majeure", even "Logos" under their belts to perform this absolute flop for their Polish fans.

The first tune is a non-event. A turn on the sequencer and go for a beer, popcorn music. An insult to those who could barely scrape the money together to attend.

30 minutes later and half-way through the second tune the band is starting to wake up - if on;y to demonstrate that they are actually present and deliver a lustless and watered down interpretation of "Choronzon" from the album "Exit". A rather poor cousin compared to the studio version, devoid of dynamics and drive.

"Barbakane" almost gets it up for a while, but before it could develop into anything of substance, it too fades into nothing.

"Horizon" is probably the only notable piece here. Within over 20 mins the band manages to deliver two short - but rather underdeveloped - bits of some interest that could have been part of "Logos", but discarded for good reasons.

Overall, this performance is a let-down and an insult to the Polish fans, especially in 1984 when they would have needed and benefited from heartfelt, artistic support, hence the history lesson above. Berlin and Germany are now united and a free democracy. TD owes Poland a big thanks and at least a free open-air performance to make up for this insulting and ignorant delivery.

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