ENCORE (LIVE 1977)

This was recorded during a US tour but has a life of its own since the stuff on here is all original. However the double vinyl had a different cover ( sporting a US flag , if I remember well). In concert , TD rarely played released material , preferring to present the public with new material and this flowed so fast and smooth that they had to release some of that material as a live album. Four tracks four four vinyl sides with the grandiose Cherokee Lane to start off and Coldwater Canyon as highlights. By now they had firmly established their newer more symphonic style started with Ricochet and Stratosfear.

After I have played this album I cannot for the life of me think how they start and end each piece. This is a double album that contains four sides of music but I simply do not remember starting each side. Maybe it the years of decadence and swinging from a bong, the nitrogen bubbles in my brain or the fact that I may have a short attention span or something. One thing I do like is a good riffing and hypnotoic guitar wail, and Encore is flooded with those strains as Edgar Frose' Les Paul gets caught up in a mesh of modulation and beats and pure electronic ambience provided by Chris Franke and Peter Baumann. Sometimes being on auto pilot can be a good way to get through to Tangerine Dream's music, just sitting there late in the evening slipping away. I can imagine going to a Tangerine Dream concert and seeing sofa's and settee's all over the venue just for the lazy indulgence of it all. I do not think it would be possible, for me at least, to keep fully alert at one of their gigs, but in a positive way mind. I like to semi-drift off when listening to the Dream. But if you smoke and your lazy it might be a safer thing to stay clear of these guys. Encore is a trippy album, but staying awake for the encore might be a little ambitious.

Another great live album from the 70's. Encore included all new material for this USA show and you can tell by the whole atmosphere of Encore how popular they had become stateside. The 4 songs are all of high quality and I would have to agree with a previous reviewer in that ' Cherokee Lane' and ' Coldwater Canyon' are the better of the four pieces.I would love to find a DVD of this concert, better start googling. Excellent stuff all round.

Late Seventies I entered my favourite record-shop. While looking around, one cover was a real 'eye-catcher': the double-LP "Encore" from TANGERINE DREAM (1977). Sometimes you do have the feeling that a special cover contains special music and this was such a moment: the 'Stars And Stripes' banner in the middle containing a picture from musicians who look part of their giant modular synthesizers, "those magical machines with all the knobs and wires". Without listening I bought "Encore" and went homewards. There I stepped into another world, as fascinating and soothing like my first time snorkelling on Aruba. The album "Encore" has also become "my gateway to the electronic galaxy" because I was highly impressed by this new musical experience: a splendid blend of keyboards, sequencers, electronic drums and electric guitar play. The captivating thing about "Encore" is the interplay between Peter Baumann, Chris Franke and Edgar Froese with the frequent waves of Mellotron, hypnotizing and pulsating sequencers and all kind of sounds from famous vintage (modular) synthesizers from Moog, Oberheim, ARP and PPG. Along this TAANGERINE DREAM offers inventive colouring of the music by the Steinway acoustic piano (great intro in "Monolight"), the Fender Rhodes electric piano (beautiful conclusion with Mellotron and sensitive synthesizer chords in "Desert Dream") and distorted electric guitar in "Coldwater Canyon", emphasizing how alternating TANGERINE DREAM's music was on this 2-LP. From the next day I went on a quest for more like KLAUS SCHULZE, NEURONIUM, GANDALF, SYNERGY and KITARO but I never got that exciting feeling back as on "Encore" from TANGERINE DREAM. Magical!

This is a mix of the Ricochet and Stratosfear albums; there is very much beat like on Ricochet; there are also cold floating keyboards played by the unique Peter Baumann. The 4 pieces are quite long (around 20 minutes). On "Cherokee lane", you start with some humming and then you get a minimalist and cold mellotron. There is a synthesizer that sounds like a flute too, actually a desperate flute. You can hear electric guitar a la Froese on "Coldwater canyon". I find "Desert dream" rather minimalist, full of desolation. It is not a very addictive album.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Live, honestly!

I have to confess, my love of this album stems from a section of "Monolight" which starts around 4:00, and lasts for about 4 minutes. This is an absolutely wonderful swirling and cascading synthesiser piece, with a lovely haunting tone, and a lush melody.

"Encore" is of course a live album, recorded during the band's tour of the USA in 1977. You'll be hard pressed though to spot much to indicate it was recorded live, apart from brief cheers before and after the tracks and occasionally during the tracks, presumably in reaction to the novelty of the accompanying laser show.

The album was originally released as a double LP, with one track on each side. The CD version draws together all four tracks unedited on a single disk. The tracks are very typical of the band's studio releases around that time, to the extent while they are original tracks, they reflect some of the themes from those albums.

The opening "Cherokee Lane" begins with the ubiquitous wind noises and bubble effects, before the familiar plink plink of a TD rhythm is picked out, laying the basis for flute like synth. While the pace remains pretty much unaltered, the band weave through various themes and sounds in familiar fashion.

Apart from the aforementioned section of "Monolight", the rest of that track has a pleasant, rambling feel, ending with some Pink Floyd ("Ummagumma") like effects. The Pink Floyd similarities continue in the intro to "Coldwater canyon", which opens with some "Echoes" like sonic pulses. Edgar Froese switches to guitar here, adding another dimension to the track, which is generally slightly harder.

The final track, "Desert dream" is the weakest of the four. The music would make for good backing to a creepy movie, with spacey ambient sounds, and a slow plodding rhythm.

This was Peter Baumann's final album with the band, and "Encore" certainly makes for a decent finale to his work with them. Those who enjoy the music of the Tangs, but who generally have an aversion to live albums should fear not. "Encore" is to all intents and purposes, simply another TD studio album.

This great work. "Encore" it my favorite disc. I listen to it's from childhood and I think it behind fairest in discography Tangerine. Essence of music of group fine.It does not harm, that melody Ricochet and Rubycon it change . Guitar perfectly sounds with integrity. It's GREAT!

Another great and much longer live album then Ricochet, this one have 4 near 20min long pieces loaded with amazing sounds from all types of keyboards, like with thire other live albums all this material was brand new so this culd almost be seen as a new studio album. If you like long cosmic instrumentals this will not dissapoint. I whuld say that the music here got more variation then thiere earlier albums wich makes it feel a bit more freash and modern then thos, which is a good thing. If your a fan of electronic music this is a very good album thats whort too pic up. 4 stars.

A double album (which fits on a single CD), this offering is representative of the TD sound on tour in 1977 in the USA.

Or is it?

Given the bootlegs I've heard from that tour (available in Vol. 2 of the Bootleg Box Set and as 'Detroit March 30 1977'), it's fair to say there's been a lot of studio tinkering post-concert. In this case that's fine: technology doesn't really do the raw TANGERINE DREAM live experience justice. Good to see them making the effort to refine the sound. It makes the tracks better sounding but less authentic, so take your pick.

'Cherokee Lane' is classic TANGERINE DREAM, a sweeping synth/mellotron start presaging the emergence of their characteristic blips and pulses. I love how the crowd roars their approval at the arrival of the blips! After that the track potters along without the inspiration of 'Ricochet' two years previously. No nonsense, in-your-face post 1974 TD.

'Monolight' is the most interesting track here. An opening classical piano is swamped by a few minutes of full-on avant-garde dissonance, itself superseded by a straightforward rock track not unlike the material they peddled through the mid-1980s. The pulsing sequencer arrives later in the piece, but is powerful and oh-so-typical of TD: a monotone blip gradually morphed into a more complex rhythm. The inevitable fadeout takes us back to the piano and rounds the piece off nicely.

'Coldwater Canyon' was a much rarer track in their live repertoire, and is basically an extended dirty distorted free-form guitar solo from EDGAR FROESE, harking back to the 'Pink' years. I'm partial to his guitar work, and delighted they chose to include this track here. 'Desert Dream' finishes the set with an ambient soundscape of the type found on 'Zeit' and 'Atem', a sort of chill-out finale.

Not an essential purchase by any means. It does, however, encapsulate the wide-ranging repertiore of the band, and is memorable as being the last album made by the classic TD lineup.

The year 1977 saw the pioneering trio of Tangerine Dream at the peak of their influence and popularity. So it made perfect sense to celebrate that hard-earned success with a two-disc live LP, recorded in the Unites States over several sold-out tours. Hence the tacky cover art, by the way, with its prominent stars and stripes: in retrospect an ironic image for a band initially formed in reaction against the Anglo-American cultural occupation of their native Germany.

The resulting document, if not quite as concise or creative as "Ricochet" (the Tang's first live album, from 1974), is at least more generous, with all four side-long suites of vinyl fitting snugly onto a single compact disc, in digital form resembling (even if only by accident) a four-movement symphony for electronic keyboards.

Consider it the American answer to the earlier album, substituting a typically Yankee obsession with quantity over a more circumspect European measure of quality (not an altogether unfair exchange, with musicians of this caliber). Looked at from another angle, you might say these gigs found the band approaching some kind of aesthetic fail-safe point, midway between the opposing cultural poles of Berlin and Hollywood: note the evocative Southern California flavor of the track titles ("Cherokee Lane", "Coldwater Canyon", and so forth).

The music is, as usual with live Tangerine Dream, all new, and (mostly) improvised. Attentive fans will recognize familiar themes from recent albums, surfacing at random: some "Stratosfear" here, a little "Sorcerer" there, and on occasion even a genuine melody or two. All of it has the patented hypnotic momentum of classic TD, meditative and galvanizing at the same time. But there's an unsettling suggestion of redundancy lurking just beneath the grooves: a hint that this once- groundbreaking band might in fact have been just past its creative peak. Those ubiquitous sequencer runs and dense synthetic textures were perhaps beginning to sound a little shopworn by 1977, and more than one passage (for example the opening march of "Monolight") clearly anticipates the more conventional sonic landscapes of later TD configurations. Only during the finale of "Desert Dreams" are the band's embryonic Krautrock instincts revived, closing the set on an eerie but effective mood of atonal introspection.

In the end it may be more quintessential than essential (and thus the scrupulous three-star rating), but the album is still a vital memento from the waning days of a now distant analogue age. And it marked the end of what would later be seen as the classic Tangerine Dream line-up. Soon afterward Peter Baumann would defect from the group for the last time, leaving Chris Franke and founding T. Dreamer Edgar Froese to cross the dumbed-down digital frontier of the next decade from an entirely different musical direction.

A collection of TD "songs" which represent these sound experimentalists extraordinaire at their peak (and before Baumann's exit); I rank this LP right up there along side Rubycon, Phaedra, and Ricochet. I love the progression of songs, from the more minimalist "Cherokee Lane" [6/10], to the washed, layered, and sectioned "Monolight" [7/10], then peaking with Froese's nearly eleven minutes of searing guitar soloing over the pulsating synth work of "Coldwater Canyon" [8/10], then taking us out with the stark, sometimes eerie, often cheerless, and certainly unearthly 'space journey' of "Desert Dream" [6/10]. (Could these guys create dreamscapes or what!?) While the debate as to the "live-ness" of this album seems to pale in the shadow of its near perfect representation of the Froese/Franke/Baumann collaboration, thus rendering it an almost moot topic, if it is a true live album, how wonderful it would have been to have been in the audience. I've always kicked myself that I turned down several invites to attend TD concerts in France and Germany while living there in 1978-79-especially since I had already owned this wonderful collection from three of the leaders of electronic sound exploration. 7 out of 10. Make it a high 3 because it is now sounding a little dated.

"Encore" was originally released as a double album consisting of four tracks (one per side) from their spring tour of the USA back in 1977. At the time this was only their second live recording, the first being "Ricochet". What makes this one so valuable is that the songs are all original, so it's like getting a lost studio album with the classic lineup on it. This was actually the last record that Peter Baumann played on for TANGERINE DREAM before going solo. In the liner notes it says that these improvised tracks were based on themes from "Stratosfear".

"Cherokee Lane" opens with an introduction of each band member then a roar from the audience. An impressive wall of sound follows. It then settles and organ runs follow with synths. An electronic beat arrives before 4 minutes, then the crowd cheers as a sequencer comes in before 7 minutes. The crowd again roars it's approval as the song winds down during the final minute. "Monolight" is the longest and my least favourite. Piano to open before we get these loud electronic sounds crashing in and out starting around 3 minutes. A beat comes in lightly then an electronic pulse with other synths. Back to the crashing sounds 7 1/2 minutes in then moog comes in. A change 17 minutes in as the beat stops and the piano returns.

"Coldwater Canyon" is the only track without mellotron in it. It builds quickly as the guitar joins in. Froese just lights it up here with his Gibson guitar. In the liner notes it says that this is his longest recorded guitar solo. Amazing ! "Desert Dream" is dark and haunting with mellotron choirs. This all sounds so eerie. We start to get a beat 5 minutes in. It stops before 9 minutes as that haunting soundscape returns. Relaxed piano after 12 minutes in this mellow section It's eerie again 15 minutes in. Sequencers come in a minute later to end it.

I had this playing in the store the other day and this guy comes in and says "Tangerine Dream !", then he listens and says "Rubycon ?...no i'm not sure which album that is". I told him he had a good ear for music and that it was a live cd, then we talked music for a while. This is a must have for TD fans.

This second TD live album is again a strong album by the band. Just as with ''Ricochet'', the band is releasing new material (improvisations?) during these live sets. And the result is again very good.

My favourite track is the brilliant opener. ''Cherokee Lane'' got it all again. It is a superb and melodic keyboards orgy. Pure beauty elevated to the rank of absolute harmony. Emotion all the way through with keys only. No guitar at all here, but this is fine too, even if these guitar sounds were adding another dimension to their music.

''Monolight'' is probably the most difficult track to get into. It seriously differ from what the band has released so far; at least during the first four minutes (as if the band needed to warm up). After that, the band is launching some sort of spacey-pop elements of the best texture. This melody is indeed very catchy and moving as well (this section lasts for another four minutes). What we'll get after, is more in line with a TD classic. The finale is just sumptuous, and again reminds me of the superb ASOS. Aaaaargh?

The mood of ''Coldwater Canyon'' is less spacey than usual, more dynamic. Surprising at the first listening, it needs to be experienced several times to be fully appreciated. Once this exercise has been done, the listener is again rewarded. The second half is particularly attractive.

My second fave from ''Encore'' is ''Desert Dream''. This is probably due to the fact that it is closely linked with earlier works from the band and sounds more as a conventional TD piece of music. Sidereal moments, outer space feeling, cold beauty: a complete TD phantasmagoria. As for ''Monolight'', the closing section is just wonderful.

Four stars. I can only say one thing: ''encore''.

So my final breakthrough into electronic prog music is happening now. I knew that Tangerine Dream are good, but after Alpha Centauri, I was worried if it also means good for me. Now, it seems like they matured. Melody, I always look for melody and Cherokee Lane has it. Not only have, but isn't losing any of prog-electro quality (as I understand it) . Taking it as a long composition (which seems like trademark for TD), it's long track run. There's basic melody and song slowly comes, slowly varies from it. It goes for 16 minutes, in fact without bigger changes, but as a whole, it sounds, persuasively. Heart grabbing, piano-like start of Monolight, with very soft sound really attract your attention. But of course, that's not the main course. Later, said Alpha Centauri like sounds and "music" came, slowly coming from piano intro. But what came in around 4 minute, synth solo. I know midi music, very used in games of early 90s. This is exactly same music as it was experimentally used 15 years before. And that's it. I don't mind that it sounds sometimes like AC. It's wrapped in human compatible package (it's listenable, pleasure, not horror), because I'm follower of idea that you can experiment a little bit. Even a lot, but show raw things isn't always best way to do it. And this song is perfect example of this philosophy. This one is more variable, explorer way, instead of first one's careful style. Expect even melancholic melody in the end. But as we get to second part, things starts to be little same. Again pattern from first song, but differs in final part. And last one is more like average.

4(-) and I have to thank you TD for allowing me to get aboard.

I was 16 at the time and as where most of my friends listened to Dylan, Young, Purple, Clapton etc., I was into this stuff already 3 years. I remember not really liking the album that much at first. I did love Cherokee Lane and Monolight but I utterly disliked Coldwater Canyon. Desert Dream kind of kept me divided.

My most loved TD albums are Alpha Centauri, Atem, Phaedra and Rubycon because of the spacey music. I found the music a bit too thick. But I started loving the album more and more... I even bought (an original) vinyl again... And a later reissue as well... and still have the CD...

As one may have noticed, I am NOT an electric rockguitar fan... I still utterly dislike Froeses guitar on Coldwater Canyon but I think this is quite a decent album overall.

As their first live album, also this "Encore" contains only previously unreleased tracks. All the four are instrumentals and the track titles are a sort of a tribute to the hosting country. I don't see other reasons to give a name like "Cherokee Lane" to a spacey track other than the fact that it has been recorder during a tour in the USA. I have to say that I hear some reminds to Gershwin and Copland here and there, or at least it seems to me. As on Stratosphear the tracks are less experimental and a bit more structured and melodic respect to the first "pink" period. In the middle of the track there's effectively a part with a flute sound that seems connected in some way to native american's music so to partially justify the title track.

"Monolight" is opened by a piano solo. Something unusual with TD until now. What the piano plays makes me think to the Wright's effort on the studio disc of Ummagumma, but I have to say that (I think it's) Franke is more classically skilled. Then when the dreamy keyboards join piano, we have what I can consider the first newage piece of this band. It's just for few seconds, anyway. Spacey noises like in the middle section of Saucerful of Secrets come to make clear which band we are listening to. Unfortunately this is quickly replaced by a trivial electronic ultra-melodic part that could be used as soundtrack for a 70s erotic movie. As usual, after other 5 minutes (we are at minute 10 more or less), the music changes to something less trivial and at the end the trivial moment can be forgiven.

"Coldwater Canyon" is another electronic suite (what else?) in which we can hear Edgar Froese's guitar in a good solo accompanied by rhytmic bass notes. Some keyboard accents remind to Oldfield's Tubular Bells, but in the first 10 minutes of the tarck is the guitar which dominates. After the first 10 minutes, while the bass line remains unchanged there's section with Froese playing acidly like in some psychedelic proto-prog acts. The final of the song has chords and sounds that can be found in Bo Hansson's Lord of the Rings.

Finally "Desert Dream". It has a very appropriate beginning. Even if we speak of pink period of TD, I think that the only Pink Floyd influence that's recurring often in TD's musc is from Saucerful of Secrets. This is my favourite album's track. The only one which has the spacey sounds and the athmospheres reminding of Georgy Ligeti and contemporary classics as in Zeit. After the usual 5 minutes a compulsive bass, like a heartbit introduces the second darker section. A sound of clavinet, electronic of course, drives it. It's like passing from the initial phase of sleep to a deep REM phase, specially when the music turns again to totally spacey (at about minute 10 as usual). The melodic final (a spaghetti-western like trumpet) appears to be another tribute to the hosting country, but it's an excellent diversion from their usual things. If all the tracks were of this kind this would have been a five stars album. Unfortunately this is the exception, so my final rate is only three stars.

This album was my first Tangerine Dream purchase, and as such, still remains one of my favorites. The four tracks originally had each taken up an album side on the vinyl version, and on the CD remain intact. Unfortunately, the 1994 Virgin CD is plagued by sloppy sound.

With the length of the pieces (all are over sixteen minutes, the longest almost twenty), Tangerine Dream is able to stretch out their ideas, and actually so some jamming. The first three pieces begin with some washes or sounds to set the tone of the piece, and eventually their way into a hypnotic rhythmic section, where Edgar Froese, Chris Franke and Peter Baumann weave their synthesizers arond each other.

Coldwater Canyon features a nice Froese guitar solo, which the additional liner notes in the CD desribes as falling somewhere between Hendrix and Page (I wouldn't go that far, but the solo fits the music).

The last piece, Desert Dream is more amorphous, beginning and ending with some excellent piano work, and between that containing a soundscape of eerie synth washes and noises.

This is still a very entertaining album.

Tangerine Dream's Encore is a tour document showing the long, involved, ambitious compositional structures featured on the band's 1977 USA tour. It took me a long time to fully appreciate this album - not least because previous CD versions hacked it about here and there - but with the new remaster coming out on the In Search of Hades boxed set I find I have a new appreciation for this material.

Encore is best approached if you think of it less as a product of Tangerine Dream, the enigmatic Krautrock nightmare band of old, but Tangerine Dream, the artful soundtrack merchants whose sound would add such a distinctive touch to so many movies. Don't expect another rendition of Zeit - their previous double album following a one-song-per-side structure - but do expect more twists and turns than some of their soundtrack work, including some really nice guitar work from Froese on Coldwater Canyon.

"Encore" is a compilation of concerts extracts taken from TANGERINE DREAM's 1977 U.S.A. tour, and their last release with Peter Baumann. It consists in four long 20 minutes pieces, each one with its own style. As usual with the german band's live performances of this decade, the compositions are not featured in their studio releases. However, some extracts from their recent records, "Ricochet", "Stratosfear" and "The Sorcerer", can be heard.

"Cherokee Lane" was used as the opener during the tour. This is the less original composition of the record, as it re- uses themes from "Ricochet Part 2" and "Betrayal" (from "The Sorcerer") and has not many variations. On the opposite, "Monolight" clearly is the highlight of the record. This composition is the most structered of the four, as it offers beautiful melodies, showing TD's classical music influences, pulsating hypnotic sequenced passages, and a beautiful aerial finale. The pre-trance middle section is visionary and sounds ahead of its time. The ending features a piano and guitar theme reminiscent of PINK FLOYD's "A saucerful of secrets"'s finale.

"Coldwater Canyon" displays the rock-oriented facet of the band during their concerts. Froese delivers here one of his longest distorted guitar solo, battling over a fast electronic heartbeat. In an entirely different style, "Desert Dream" finishes the record. This track is quite unique in TD's discography: it alternates pure atmospheric passages - like in "Zeit" - and very short synth melodies. Difficult to give an opinion on it. In fact, the featured strange sounds were rearranged from the "Oedipus Tyrannus" concert given in 1974. These extracts sound a bit random in this place, but I do enjoy the melodic incursions, especially the final one.

As it captures the band's performances in 4 long pieces, "Encore" has weaker moments and is not as perfect as "Ricochet". This is not the record to start with if you're new to TANGERINE DREAM. However, it's still pretty good electronic music and a faithful representation of their concerts during this period.

Another live TD winner.

Another live album showing Tangerine Dream to be great live improvisors and composers, this features four long pieces. While each of the four are musically compelling, Tangerine Dream are starting to use drum machines to a greater extent and they infuse parts of the tracks here with them. This tour occurred shortly after they recorded the album Stratosphear, which featured more traditional chord progressions and time signatures, and those creep a bit (but only a bit) into some of these compositions. While both "Cherokee Lane" and "Desert Dream" are great virtually the whole way through, I find parts of "Monolight" and (particularly) "Coldwater Canyon" to be not sufficiently musical, and have to skip those parts. But the rest of those tunes are still very good, and on the whole I would recommend making this a part of your Tangerine Dream collection (definitely better than Stratosphear and most studio albums that would follow). I give it 7.0 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to 3 PA stars.

Although there are but four side-long tracks, each comprises several discrete parts. Live, the classic Froese/Franke/Baumann line-up of Tangerine Dream passed the initiative deftly between their multitude of keyboards as they spontaneously created unfolding musical landscapes and then explored them. Having said that, there are some sections referencing album pieces while others joyously bring together their combined creativity into a shifting, swirling whole. Some piano softens 'Monolight' while Froese's psychedelic guitar provides adds a welcome charge to 'Coldwater canyon'. Perhaps falling slightly short of greatness, this excellent recording?made during the US tour of 1977?nevertheless offers a fine introduction to the Virgin era of a seminal electronic outfit.

1. Cherokee Lane .... live and the space intro train of the future which leaves towards the scarlet limbo near Aldebaran, that's it and it begins the tangerine spirit bewitches me; synths, it launches, it twirls, these beeps, these sounds sampled like a train to catch up the wagons; Well, it feels like we're in church on an organ played by a Beelzebub, in short, a long intro from the time when we had the time... that's it, the melody arrives like the tidal bore that we've been waiting for ages; a low base which beats, a languorous keyboard which hits against your ears, which amplifies, recedes, returns, throbbing, metronomic and bewitching nay, hypnotizing; it calms down, yes with TANGERINE DREAM we don't know when it starts but for the end it is often announced, soft melody which fades, and screams, full, therefore full room! 2. Monolight arrives, yes the piano reminds me of a tune on 'Stratosfear', but hey let's not skimp, this electric piano which wanders with... the wind, which leaves, which seeks itself, this flute which is one group markers; ah it comes, it rumbles, variations of the piano and gongs intermingling; well we are on the lookout... that's it a snare drum warns you... and the soft, airy, fatty, velvety melody like a langoustine soup comes to lick your nostrils; this tune how to translate it? That's precisely the problem, everyone has it in mind and assimilates it to their own sauce; title split in two with a final inverted crescendo which announces the end, an end which is long overdue; the more these metronomic synths and this trumpet air which is embedded on top; the real finale will take place on a captivating, reverberating piano, in short classically progressive

3. Coldwater Canyon have the ideal intro, fast, strong, imposing just to take you to the pinnacle from the start; strength of the instrumentation, this electric cymbal, this sampled bass that rhythms, this guitar that comes out of nowhere, well let's review this is when the guitar was introduced into their sounds... well that's okay it's is indeed a guitar but damn executed its notes; space electronic rock can we write in fact; another intrusive metronome base, the one that makes you nod your head... I restyle my hair upside down; the title becomes long since it is based on the most titles already listened to in their discography, yes the spatial sounds are indeed those of... yes, look a little; in any case a lot of 'Stratosfear' and 'Sorcerer' for the airy and dark lit atmospheres; the finale with Edgar who will have worn out his guitar on this title 4. Desert Dream will appeal above all to early fans, those of 'Zeit' for example and 'Sorcerer'; a composition which also looks towards VANGELIS' 'Beaubourg' which will be released later; 5 minutes of starting a brackish marsh to have this ultra bass dong; the sounds are getting darker and more reverberant, there are only 5 minutes left to hope for a clearing..; it comes precisely in a majestic, solemn way, in short it comes in a masterful way with this haunting air which has been brewing from the beginning; at the moment when the public thinks about applauding, we have the impulse effect with the saturation of the babes who come out from behind a last evil tune worthy of a POPOL VUH, when the music meets religious clarity; angelic choirs, that's it for this time there will be no return, the souls remain lost in the ether; fortunately this last synthetic arpeggio manages to recall the lost sheep, phew again.

Review Nº 591

Tangerine Dream is a German progressive band led by Edgar Froese, the only remnant member of the group's original formation, until his dead, and together with Kraftwerk, they were the great exponent of what is called the Progressive Electronic Music. With a career spanning over fifty years and dozens of albums released, Tangerine Dream is one of the most influential bands in and out of the progressive rock, with many artists and bands clearly inspired by their sound.

The band's career is divided into several phases. The first one, also called "The Pink Years", started in 1970 and ended in 1973. It marks a sonority clearly inspired by Pink Floyd, phase Syd Barrett, with several keyboard and sound effects interventions and close to the German progressive scene called Krautrock. Highlight for "Alpha Centauri" of 1971, "Zeit" of 1972, (a double disc with a bold proposal of an "electronic space symphony") and "Atem" of 1973, which even included tribal elements in some of its tracks. The second phase, also called "The Virgin Years", between 1974 and 1983, is considered by many to be Tangerine Dream's golden phase. It marks a turn in the sound of the band, which even though betting on long suites, marks a greater sonic independence, in which the band acquired their own identity and a greater and better use of keyboards, synthesizers and sound effects in some tracks, a slightly more accessible proposal, even if still quite experimental. Highlight for the albums "Phaedra" of 1974, "Rubycon" and "Ricochet", both of 1975, "Stratosfear" of 1976, "Encore" of 1977 and "Force Majeure" of 1979. "Encore" is the subject of this my review.

During the 70's, Tangerine Dream's live concerts were quite unique. Because of the delicacy of the analog equipments, the German trio improvised every evening a new show. Certainly, many lines got closer, but Tangerine Dream espoused on the spot the main lines of long concerts where the sequential fury supported the ferocity of synths, keyboards and Mellotron, as well as the rather rock approach Froese's guitar. And, "Encore" is surely one of the best examples of that.

"Encore" is the second live album of Tangerine Dream. This time, is a double live album that was recorded during the band's North American tour, of March-April 1977. But, unlike "Ricochet", which though is technically a live album had basically no audience presence, on "Encore" the audience makes their presence known at certain points, lending the recording proper live ambience. I think this album probably will hold its greatest appeal for those who picked it out of its chronological context with the other 70's albums. If you did track the band's output chronologically, chances are that by the time you reach "Encore", you may find it the grand summary of this great line up and of this style of music.

"Encore" is supposed to be the definitive Tangerine Dream's album among many fans. It was the last album featuring Peter Baumann. During the tour, he informed Froese and Franke that his private obligations no longer allowed him a full-time collaboration with the band and he left in 1977 for good and started working as a solo artist and a producer.

"Cherokee Lane" is probably the most conservative of the four tracks in terms of duplicating previous work. The Mellotrons are all over the place, creating that hauntingly beautiful and mystical mood that none other than Tangerine Dream at their best could do. "Monolight" provides a greater departure. It begins with a classical grand piano gradually given auxiliary support by some other keys. After that, the track is classically styled and represents the most thoroughly composed moment on the album, weaving through major and minor keys with the main melody played on Moog. "Coldwater Canyon" is Froese's track title. It's an intense, upbeat and a rocking track that features Froese in top form on guitar. He releases his guitar work in a pure improvisation, such as a rock star. It's a cutting edge track which distances itself from the band's repertory, although keyboards pads, sequences and hatched percussions didn't lie about their origins. The last track "Desert Dream" encloses the album in a purely atmospheric style, shifting from dark, experimental passages to beautiful and ethereal parts with tons of Mellotrons and an Eastern feel that fits the title of the track. It ends recalling the steams of "Invisible Limits" of "Stratosfear". This is a nice swan song for a legendary line up.

Conclusion: Tangerine Dream's USA live tour of 1977 resulted in this excellent "Encore". The title would unfortunately proved to be very fitting, as it was the last album to feature Baumann and the last where the classic band's sound still was fully intact. "Encore" reflects the unique magic of Tangerine Dream's concerts in that era. Every evening was a different happening which delighted the fans. It was pure improvisations on sound effects and surprising laser plays that gave unique moments, engraved in our contemplative memoirs. The set is uniquely Tangerine Dream, however, with similarities to other prog rock bands of that era. "Encore" was an enormously worthy way to end their classic years, consisting of four side long tracks that blend new ideas and material with older themes. "Encore" was Tangerine Dream's last masterpiece and is one of the strongest proofs of the genius that the band possessed from 1972 to 1977.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

In the late 70s I bought this live album as a double LP, mesmerized by the cover picture: I was very much into symphonic rock with tons of vintage keyboards and looked at all those huge synthesizers, like a triple version of the late Keith Emerson with his modular Moogs, wow! At home I was blown away by this new musical experience, named electronic music, a hypnotizing blend of synthesizers, Mellotrons, sequencers, piano, electronic drums and electric guitar play. The recordings are partly from the USA tour in 1977 (see 1-4 track information) featuring Tangerine Dream at their artistic peak, with extended improvisations, based upon work from their previous albums, like Ricochet and Statosfear. The music is performed by the legendary trio Peter Baumann (who did the 1977 Encore mix and then left, as a 'parting gift'), Chris Franke and Edgar Froese. The captivating element on Encore is the interplay between the three musicians: frequent waves of Mellotron, hypnotizing and pulsating sequencers and all kinds of sounds from famous vintage (modular) synthesizers (Moog, Oberheim, ARP and PPG). The music is more lush and extended than on their studio-albums, in my opinion unsurpassed, I have never heard a more captivating electronic music album than this one!

Four wonderfully coloured and varied electronic musical landscapes.

Side 1 - Cherokee Lane (16.19) : This track contains references to the music on Sorcerer, and is recorded during rehearsals in Berlin, mixed with parts from the Seattle concert on April 21th, 1977.

The long intro delivers ominous swelling keyboards, and some beeps and bleeps. Then the sequencing starts, a cheerful crowd applauds, soaring Mellotron violins join, wow. Now the Mellotron flute section, what a wonderful blend of Mellotron (both the violin as the flute section) and sequencing, the sound becomes more intense, topped with lush synthesizers. Finally again that dreamy Mellotron flute.

Side 2 - Monolight (19.54) : This track is recorded in Washington DC on April 4th, 1977, in fact the only complete live recorded piece, and in mono, that explains the title, haha. The music contains references to Stratosfear and Invisible Limits.

First a long and wonderful, classically inspired piece on the Steinway grand piano. Then captivating interplay between the synthesizers, sequencer and string-ensemble, it sounds cheerful. Halfway a pulsating sequencer, in an exciting accellaration, embellished with brassy synthesizer flights, this is trademark TD interplay. Finally tender piano, culminating in a beautiful conclusion with dreamy synthesizer flights and piano.

Side 3 - Coldwater Canyon (18.06) This track is recorded during USA 1977 tour soundchecks, and also features short parts recorded during the final two concerts in Juli 1977.

It starts with a repetetive synthesizer chord, then sequencing and a heavy distorted electric guitar joins (by Edgar Froese), soon blended with synthesizer runs, what an unique interplay. In the second part soaring strings, beeps and bleeps, and that fiery and distorted guitar. Finally dreamy synthesizer flights and a spacey end.

Side 4 - Desert Dream (17.30) : This track contains different recordings, some parts from 1974 (the Oedipus Tyrannus suite, Chichester Festival in July 1974), and some parts from studio recordings, the applause is fake. So this composition has nothing to do with the 1977 USA tour.

The intro features dreamy Mellotrons (flute and violin section) and a scary Theremin sound. Then the beeps and bleeps. Next a low sequencing sound and sultry synthesizer flights and dreamy Mellotrons (evoking a 'Sahara atmoshpere', looking at the title), wonderful, hypnotizing, this is excellent electronic music. Again beeps and bleeps, and different sounds. The second part contains a melancholical climate with dreamy synthesizer flights, tender electric piano and soaring Mellotron violins, simply beautiful. Finally catchy sequencing and slow synthesizer runs, when the music stops the crowd erupts, what a stunning electronic music concert!

TO ME THESE 4 COMPOSITIONS SOUND AS A HIGHLIGHT IN THE HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC!

My recommendations if you like this Tangerine Dream music: Gert Emmens (Mysteries Of Dawn), Node (live), Free System Project (Procyon), Pollard/Daniel/Booth (Eight), Free System Project & Terje Winther (Spoon Forest), Ruud Heij & Gert Emmens (Return To The Origin) and Rudy Adrian (Concerts In The USA).

And finally thanks to my Dutch friend Wouter Bessels, an acclaimed 'Tangerine Dream connaisseur' who has contributed to several Tangerine Dream CD reissues/boxes. At my request he delivered me additional information about the tracks, very interesting for the Tangerine Dream fans.