Tangerine Dream's "Zeit" is...

Proghead
PROG REVIEWER

Unbelievable stuff. This is truly an album that divides the listeners big time. Some call it genius, others call it a big piece of crap. Giving the ratings I gave it, I'm obviously with the former. This was the album that premiered Peter Baumann to the fold, who would stick with the band until 1977. There is nothing rock about this album. What you get is lots of spacy electronic effects that spans over two discs, each piece lasting 17-22 minutes.

"Birth of Liquid Plejades" starts off with a cello quartet (I believe one of the cellists was a member of HOELDERLIN), which is extremely sinister sounding, helped further with strange electronic manipulation of the cellos. Eventually the cellos disappears, and a Moog kicks in (from Florian Fricke, of POPOL VUH, who was a guest here). This seems to be one of Fricke's last recording with the Moog, before he turned to religion and to the piano and away from the Moog. There is some organ in the background. Here previous member Steve Schroyder makes a guest (he would later join ASH RA TEMPEL for "Seven Up"). Then at the end is this very trippy, PINK FLOYD like organ. The next piece, "Nebulous Dawn" is strictly electronic effects. "Origin of Supernatural Probabilities" is mainly one long sinister- sounding drone with more electronic effects, while the title track basically sounds like the middle part of PINK FLOYD's "Echoes", but it's actually nothing but wind sounds.

There is no doubt that this album is one long LSD trip. It's strange how a record label like Ohr had the balls to put out such a record realizing it wouldn't sell. But I'm glad they did. Such a far cry from the stuff they did in the mid 1980s, it's not even funny. Yes, there's no such thing as a real tune here on "Zeit". Jerome Froese (Edgar Froese's son, the baby seen on several TD albums, including "Atem" and the gatefold of "Zeit", and a member of TANGERINE DREAM since the early '90s) hates this album, but that's not my problem. That's probably more the reason for me to like this album. A strange album indeed!

Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Prog-Folk Specialist

I started my discovery of TD with this album , but never do that. I knew nothing of the band and took that one mostly out of the beauty of the asounding artwork of the sleeve. Of course needless to say I was not ready for that! How can a 14 years old be ready for such insanities and loud rumblings , lugubre sounds , spacey whispers. Fortunately I could trade it of with another much easier TD album (Ricochet) . This must be one of the toughest album to get into in this space/electronic prog genre , but look at the extraordinary line-up - Bauman (long time TD member) and Fricke are also on this one. Still nowadays , I never can listen to this more than one "song" at a time. What makes this music really difficult is that there is absolutely nobeat/rythm tracks to hook you. This music is even tougher than the studio side of UmmaGumma. In the genre , there has been much better.

bob x

A dark a brooding piece of work that would seem more at home in a industrial or cold wave catagory. But,this is TANGERINE DREAM to be sure! This lp, along with ATEM (which follows)and ALPHA CENTAURI (which preceeds) helps to form the overall sound of TANGERINE DREAM in one of the bands most experimental periods. This lp is a double and each side is it's own movement. All work together to form one whole piece.The sound is mimimal,even ambient.And ambient before the now much overused and misused term was even coined.We just called this space music,back in the day.So,if you are a fan of slow,steady and sometimes pulse driven electronica,then this one is for you. Still one of my faves.

greenback
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Neo-Prog Specialist

What a shame! The music consists in 2-3 humming refrigerators at the same time, plus a portative fan that turns back and forth to make the anyway inexistent rhythm, and finally a coming cluster of threatening killer bees!

There are tons of albums better than this one to describe the desolation once you go alone on Mars! The album is even not minimalist!

Rating: 0.5 star

memowakeman
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Italian Prog Specialist

I am giving it 3 stars, because i like it, i think is a very good album, but at the same time i think is not comparable as many other Tangerine Dream albums, i mean TD has a huge discography which has been losing it`s essence of progressive electronic sound during the years, the 90`s or 00`s albums that i know are not so good as the 70`s jewels.

I also wrote a review of Ricochet , which i know is a live album, but actually my favorite TD album and what i love of it (and of the Electronic or ambiental albums in general) is that it catches my attention during all the album, that kind of albums which could be repetitive or even boring at some point, but you can separate of it, it is mantaining you expectant of what`s next or something, with this Zeit album is not the case.

The word made in this album is as usual great, and with the sign of TD, giving us and abiental experimentation with great guitars and all the synths which make it unique, but Zeit looks and sound a bit boring for me, i dont know how to explain but it simply dont click with me as the level of Ricochet, Encore or Logos for instance, i repeat, it`s a good album, i like it, but i could skip the songs or try another album and nothing bothers me , the fact is that i doesn`t catch my attention to nominate it as a 5 or 4 star album, so for that i think is a 3 star album, good but non essential.

infandous@exc

Well, as a contrast to reviewer Hugues Chantraine, this was my first album of TD and I loved it! Perhaps being a fan of the spacier side of Pink Floyd beforehand helped. That and being in my mid-20's with a good bit of prog and space rock discoveries under my belt. But certainly this is a difficult album for the newbie, and I would never recommend it to anyone as an introduction to TD (for that, I would go with Phaedra without a doubt). But there is something about this albums minimalism and lack of rythmic patterns that appeals to me in an esoteric, subconcious way. Even though I rate it highly, I don't listen to it very often. It does require a certain mood and mindset for sure. But I would say that anyone who has gained appreciation for a couple other 70's TD albums could certainly enjoy this one to some extent.

matti_sillanm

To give this album 0 stars is simply foolish. But to give it 5 stars might not be exaggeration after all. This album is up there with all the other ambient classics. Definitely more experimental than any other Tangerine Dream album, and more hard to get into as well. But after a few spins I realized that this is the album I've always been looking for! Quite minimalistic, spacey, ambient soundscapes. There really is no rhythm here. The sounds are mostly produced by synths, but by cellos and organs too, and it gives this album that extra something. Legendary Florian Fricke plays some Moog synth here as well. The opener "Birth of Liquid Pleyades" is probably my favourite track, as it has those whining cellos all over it. 5/5 stars.

Seyo
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR

I tried to listen to this 75 minutes collection of noisy sounds (it cannot be called "music") in one sitting for a few times but it was hell difficult. I admit total lack of comprehension of what TD tried here to achieve. It is obvious though that this was a pioneer attemp at creating the pure electronic "space music", basically made of layers of synth hums and nothing else. "Birth of Liquid Plejades" is sort of listenable thanks to a string quartet and Moog solo, but it is not sufficient for me to give it a "passing mark". This album is definitely for TD completists or electronic music scholars only.

philippe
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Content Development & Krautrock Team

A deep « abstract » universe offered by this electronic, semi-acoustic meditative Largo in four movements. The music is an « organic » & « orgasmic » evocation of the infinite beauty, illustrated by higher world. It touches the heart and the most hidden parts of our subconsious. The continuous sound forms largely used for each part suggests a "catharsis" process, a purification of the spirit. In popular music I've rarely heard a such intense and "cerebral " work. "Zeit" follows the schematic ideas of "Alpha Centauri" but here the instrumentation is entirely focused on "loops", and moving, floating keyboards lines. Only albums as Cluster II, Klaus Schulze's Irrlicht, Roedelius' Acon 2000/1 or more recently "Omit" project by Clinton Williams can equal this one in term of "introspective" achievement. Otherwise we need to look for masterworks in electro-acoustic and minimal art researches to have a similar experience throw time (Parmegiani, Philip Corner, Ramon Sender, Henry Jacobs.). The first "Birth of liquid Plejades" is a "dreamy" dominated Moog synth composition. This one is my favorite. It is a fantastic voyage throw the unknown. It includes first hypnotic "scary" manipulated sounds, repetitive organ patterns. The second part of the track features near, modular synth sounds in a plaintive tone, then comes a low cello bass line. It delivers instrumental sequences amplified by electric "drone" effects. "Nebulous Dawn" is a rather dark, creepy atmospheric tune with organ patterns, circular noises and a vibrant cello bass. "Origins of supernatural probabilities" starts with a rather melancholic organ melody, then during more that 10 minutes we hear mysterious soundscapes with diverse sorts of electronic superpositions. At the end of the tune we go back to the original melody. "Zeit" (part 4) is an "abstract" synth theme with long silences and dark musical textures. The best TD album with "Alpha Centauri" & "Atem". Nothing to do with their golden years. I've included this one in my top 10 favorite progressive albums. A physical dimension of sounds that demands to be lived as an experience.

[email protected]

The defining album of space music. Works as ambient music but if you focus on the music it can be very introspective and really haunting, beginning with the sinister cello quartet overture. Like most classical symphonic music, it needs your close attention to be fully appreciated. This is a real timeless landmark.

PhantomBannana

This is actually my first time listening to Tangerine Dream with any amount of attention and what I am hearing is: electronic hums, bubbling synth percolations, occaisional high pitched keening. I kind of like it. Very ambient, but then again that kind of comes with the whole German-Electro-Pulse thing anyway. I would play this while writing or reading a book. Or to scare the [&*!#] out of my friends. I kind of wish that more electronic music were like this, instead of the whole repeditive dance thud stuff that I hear often. The music here is immersive, and thoughts of a journey into space or some unseen, lightless, place in the ocean come to mind. Actually it reminds me of the middle part in Pink Floyd's Echoes, were it gets a low and uncertain and the guitar part that sounds like a whale call pierces comes in--except it never really ends.

Not that I would want it to.

Arsillus

Very difficult, avant-garde music to assess. With their third album, Tangerine Dream creates "Zeit," an album of epic proportions to launch the listener into the true realm of outer space. It's not romanticized outer space- but true space: vast, cold, dark, unforgiving and brutal. Not easily penetrable, many will be alienated by the long, droning cellos or oscillator hums. If you listen well enough, there's lots of stuff going on, but it's very gradual and laid-back- Tangerine Dream definitely wanted to take their time in the delivery of their suites.

I find it not so much music as it is "sonic art." Zeit is hard to "get" and even more so to "appreciate," but persistence and an open mind will give you a reward. Not for the faint of heart, though.

loserboy
COLLABORATOR
Honorary Reviewer

German synthesizer pioneers TANGERINE DREAM reached the height of their early experimentation with their third studio album on 1972's "Zeit" (the German word for "Time"). This album marked the debut of the band line-up consisting of founder Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann. Musically this was the darkest TD ever got in theri early years (although not the strangest) and all that fantstic goundbreaking glumness was captured over a double LP 75 Mins set ! "Zeit" is absolutely a wonderful headphone experience album with tons of dark synth and sound effect-augmented cracks and crevices.

Philo
PROG REVIEWER

I don't know how to listen to Zeit let alone try and review the damn thing. There is no rhythmic structure whatsoever, but it gets comparisons with what could be out there. Yet even in the outter reaches of space there has to be some kind of rhythmic movement, there just has to be, it has to be consistent in some shape or form, even is it is only pulsating too rapidly to comprehend. The moon revolves around the earth, the earth revolves around the sun and so forth. At the end of the day it just all revolves around something, keeping a bearing, revolving all the while. But this? This only revolves around the turntable. But maybe I'm just not seeing the bigger picture. Perhaps this is only part of a lengthy sequence, then it prompts the question of why didn't they just summarise the whole piece, then? Tangerine Dream don't summarize. Did they even think this up in its entirety before it's trascription to vinyl? Perhaps while Zooming through a light year of a slow and lethargic journey. The surprizing thing is that this never gets under the skin, it never lasts that long to do so. But it is somewhat spacey, but never really a space adventure, it gets too stagnant. I really don't know what it is. It's not the greatest anything, though, that's for sure. Some lovely sounds creep, emerge and compress, as if created by a retard high on some wonderful drug. It's Tangerine Dream's Zeit, lets leave it at that. It's a double album to boot, but I'd reckon they're having a laugh except for the fact that these geezers are Germans...

paolo.beenees

Here is the album which taught me that music is nothing you must understand by all means; it can be instead something to let your mind flow and float with. I've played "Birth of Liquid Plejades" dozens of times and each time it sounds to me more and more beautiful. I can travel light-years away on its phased cellos,rest and vibrate with the charming chords and guitar glissando of its central section (not to say the wonderful use of that single note of synthesizer, which here and there is shaken as ripples on a water surface); finally, my trip starts again at double the speed with the final section, opening to my eyes the abyss of cosmic void... Really thrilling. And I always get amazed at the title track, as static as time is, pure ambient music six or seven years before Brian Eno would try to regulate and define this kind of electronic genre. Unfortunately, some weak point comes with the other two compositions. "Nebulous Dawn" is just too long: its first ten minutes are incredible, that very slow moog (or VCS3? Is there a way to tell them apart?) cadence and the several noises and sounds that the band can create are really claustrophobic and intriguing, but then everything gets exasperating. "Origin of supernatural probabilities" has good tunes and is really a forerunner (if not the starting point) to all the ambient movement, but the "bubbling" section in the middle is really pointless. Nevertheless, how can I give an album with two and a half absolute masterpieces less than four stars?

Chris S
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator

I have to add even whilst I am a 70's annorac for progressive music I always thought that Zeit was borderline annoying. Even accepting that I was probably wrong I do feel that Zeit tried too hard and was maybe just too obscure to even care too much. Musically very moving but the spatial elements especially on ' Nebulous Dawn' and ' Origin Of Supernatural Probabilities' lack something I cannot quite put my finger on. Modern day composers may well get four stars for pure modernism but TD IMO only qualify for three stars at best for this musically very sound, but conceptually rather dull album. The timing was right but the output just below par, definitely an evoltutionary work at best. Give it plenty of time!

thellama73

This is a tricky album to review because it's something you have to be in the mood for, and it's certainly not to everyone's taste. What we have is four extended, droning, dark, minimalist soundscapes without any real evolution or development. That is to say, very little happens over the course of the double album. However, if you put aside your expectations of sequencer driven electronica a la Phaedra, you may well experience a magical pre-Eno ambient phantasmagoria, and it is for that reason that I love it. So lay back after a hard day at work, grab a cocktail, and let the spooky miasma of Zeit permeate all the little nooks and crannies in your imagination.

Eetu Pellonpää
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Psychedelic Prog Specialist Team

I'm really appreciating this album, as in my opinon here the elements which the band started to study in their previous albums mature to more independent and original direction, creating fine cosmic themed ambient music.

"Birth of Liquid Plejades" starts the epic album with a long process of string instruments waving atonally, creating a mysterious and beautiful sound wall little similar to BRIAN ENO's "Pachebell variations" from his "Discreet Music" album. Later a single synth drone emerges, changing the symphonic background saound carpet as quiet organ chords, which start to grow and paint very solemn chord progressions over shapeless suble howls creating a feling of large space, and the whole number making up a very celestial moment. "Nebulous Dawn" brings me an association of cruising trough space in a huge ship. Slow drones sound like pulsings of quasistellar objects, and quiet, long and very deep hummings and mechanical sounds create the feeling of the spacecraft. Later very alien sounding voices deepens the unearthly feeling of this track. There's similiar stuff like this on the sole album recorded by German GALACTIC EXPLORES.

"Origin of Supernatural Probabilities" is an extremelly slow and beautiful simple melody procession gathering some gaseous sound-clouds hovering around the infinite hallways of sounds. Then enter some haunting voices and whispers, like faint ghosts wandering to the scene. They are followed by pulsing drones and dark noises, returning to more concrete and existing cosmic landscape from the supernatural level, where these ghosts ghastly dissappear, creating calm and static humming soundscape. In the end of the composition the swirling supernatural theme re-emerge. "Zeit" (Time) is the most abstract of the four movements, summarizing many aural elements presented in the previous tracks, creating a surreal voyage trough a fundamental and realtive concept of our universe.

This is totally perfect record to be listened when meditating, driving long distances in night with a car, or studying the heavenly objects from pictures or with a telescope. In my opinion one of the essential albums of this group, being a real experience!

russellk
PROG REVIEWER

No tunes, not even a hint of one. No evidence of a beat. Instead, layers of drone. Droning cellos, droning synths, droning organs, droning guitars, with gradual droning crescendos and droning fade-outs. Droning noise experiments. No, this isn't the year 2000, and it's not a review of GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR (add exclamation mark in position of your choice). It's 1972, it's TANGERINE DREAM, and it's the sprawling double album 'Zeit'. Sorry, GODSPEED, it's all been done before.

If modern rock music can be compared to the drama of a thunderstorm or ocean waves crashing on the shore, this album is a still pond in winter with cold stars winking and the Northern Lights flickering overhead. 'Zeit' is uncompromising avant-garde ambience with a cold, German edge. The majority of proggers (let alone people) will hate this, a minority will respect it and a few hardy souls will love it - just like an extended holiday north of the Arctic Circle, perhaps. There's nothing to do but allow the unchanging beauty to seep in.

If you don't have the patience for that, stay at home.

Ambient music can often mistakenly be thought of as 'background' music, to have playing while thinking of something else. Nothing could be further from the truth, or more injurious to the listening experience. Ambient music should be listened to with one's full attention, the mind totally engaged in bringing imagination to the music. At the risk of sounding new agey, the mind alters the music, and the music alters the mind. 'Zeit' must be engaged with. Simply 'playing it in the background' - akin to never leaving your suite at Hotel Borg in Reykjavik - is not enough.

This is brave, this is genius, this is borderline comedy, this is insanity. It's either one star or five, so I'll split the difference.

Easy Livin
FORUM & SITE ADMIN GROUP
Site Admin & Moderator

From another time (and planet!)

The first album by the Froese, Franke, Baumann trio offers something of an ignominious and challenging introduction to what would become for many the classic Tangerine Dream line up. Consisting of 4 side long (LP) tracks or movements, "Zeit" (the German word for time) is what might simplistically be called inaccessible. For many, it represents a low point in the career of Tangerine Dream, while for others it is a holy grail.

The sound of the synthesiser, which was introduced by the band on the previous "Alpha Centauri", is starting to become the key part of the band's identity now, with both Baumann and Franke using it, along with guest musician Florian Fricke (Popol Vuh).

The album starts deceptively with a quartet of cellos opening "Birth of liquid pledjades". There's no actual melody, just a continuous drone of varying pitches. The cellos slip away after about 8 minutes, to be replaced by an organ drone accompanied by sundry synth effects. It is all very slow moving and ponderous, but strangely atmospheric. As it turns out, side one is probably the most accessible, or to be more accurate least inaccessible, of the four. The following "Nebulous dawn" appears to be designed to deliberately cause annoyance, the tuneless noises being of a type which would in normal circumstances lead to a call to the police.

Presumably the separating of the tracks was in reality an occupational inconvenience due to the limitations of the vinyl format. Certainly as "Nebulous dawn" slips into "Origin of supernatural probabilities", there is no apparent change, the two sounding very similar. Admittedly, the latter is a bit less grating than the former, but remains devoid of music as such.

The title track closes the album with no change of pace, substance or effect whatsoever. Apart from the cellos on track one, it would be all but impossible to identify any of these pieces individually. I certainly would not recommend trying to listen to the compelte album in one sitting.

In all, a totally impenetrable album which on the face of it, anyone with an organ and a synthesiser could come up with. If you enjoy listening to white noise and other sounds devoid of music of any sort, this could well be for you. One things for sure, "Zeit" does not get any easier to listen to with the passing of zeit.

Frippertron

I have most of the Tangerine Dream albums on CD, but I have a problem with Zeit. I just dont hear music just a lot of noodling with their keyboards to see how much they can make themselves sick.

It is not the type of album you could play more than once a year perhaps right through.

It is droning and if played too loud.. mainly vibrations from your speakers. It does hurt me to say this as Tangerine Dream are totally outstanding, I just wondered what planet they were on when they recorded this.

I would give this album a miss, unless your idea of fun is getting a migraine after 75 mins of wailing and droning.

Sorry.

Mellotron Storm
PROG REVIEWER

Peter Baumann is on board and so we have the first album with the classic lineup which would stay together for another five years.Organist Steve Schroyder was actually fired before this recording, he ends up joining ASH RA TEMPEL but came back as guest on this one.There is a guest cello quartet which includes Mr.Grumbcow from the band HOELDERLIN.The great Florian Fricke adds some moog as well. "Zeit" is German for "time" and Froese believed that time was motionless and only existed in our own minds.So it's no surprise that this double album is slow going.Funny but i much prefer it to the previous album "Alpha Centauri".TANGERINE DREAM offers up to us 4 side long tracks straight from cold,dark space. "Birth Of Liquid Plejades" is where our trip begins as sounds(cellos) build quickly until all we hear is spacey and vibrating sounds.Cellos before 3 minutes as other spacey sounds come in, they come and go.It settles 7 1/2 minutes in but the calm is interupted by the sound of space creatures outside the spaceship.They're checking us out.They leave as we continue to drift along in space.Organ comes in late with haunting winds (Florian) letting us know that it's time to get out of here. "Nebulous Dawn" greets us with deep pulsing sounds.The atmosphere is getting darker and thicker,it's hard to breathe.Something is coming but it passes by,another one arrives and lingers but eventually leaves too.They say there's nothing to fear but fear itself,but fear seems to be everywhere right now.It's so dark.It becomes FLOYD-like 7 1/2 minutes in as sounds pulse and vibrate.It's eerie 9 minutes in and the space creatures have returned.Panic is setting in but we drift out of trouble into "Orgin Of Supernatural Probability".Waves of space roll in gently and it's much more peaceful here.Still there's that dark undercurrent that reminds us that things can change at any second.It does at 4 1/2 minutes.My heart is racing at 6 minutes and we're on the run until 15 1/2 minutes in when it becomes tranquil again.A haunting presence moves in at 17 minutes,but thankfully it passes by 2 minutes later. "Zeit" opens with dark and haunting sounds that build.Someone is out there after 5 minutes,it's 8 minutes in now and they're still there.Those 3 minutes seem like an eternity.It's 10 minutes in now and i think they've gone,i feel like i've been holding my breath for the last 5 minutes.It's safe now so we start to drift back out in the cold darkness in our search for light.

ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER

I wouldn't be fair if I told you that I listen to this double album every day. Even not the whole bunch of the four sides one after the other.

Even if this record is a love/hate affair, I never found it so difficult to apprehend (not as early ''Kraftwerk'' efforts'' for instance). On the other hand, the magic of later albums is not fully present (but there are more than hints though) and lots of people might find this album pretty uninteresting or boring.

I would be more cautious about my comments. Of course, the supreme beauty of ''Rubycon'' is not matched, the great aspects of the following ''Phaedra'' are not yet there, but there are still some fine passages available.

In some sort, this album was the basement which led the band reaching the upper heights of electronic music. As such, this album deserves an attentive listening. While listening to ''Birth of Liquid Pleyades'', I just can say that it matches the quality of some later recordings; maybe less melodic but the whole picturesque of the band is to be felt.

Some part are more difficult to access than others; and ''Nebulous Dawn'' is quite ? nebulous but at times some of the later TD atmospheres can be distinguished though. Out of the four pieces, it is my least favourite because of its difficult approach.

I won't tell you that ''Zeit'' is an album that I frequently listen to (once a year or so), but every time that I do so, I mostly enjoy it. The title track for instance may lack those beautiful harmonies that the band will offer later on, but I am much more enthusiast about such a record than the first two ''Kraftwerk'' albums for instance. At least, there is a spirit behind these four tracks and it is really enjoyable when you want to relax.

The most traditional TD number is probably ''Origin?'': there are some deep roots with their later works that can be identified. I always have liked these tranquil spacey sounds that always lead me to the boundaries of the Universe.

This is of course not an album for every ears (prog or non-prog ones). It is harder to get into ''Zeit'' than ''Phaedra'' but TD fans (or anyone interested in electronic music) should take the time to discover this work. At the end of the record, it is a rewarding exercise (at least I feel so).

To release such an album in '72 was quite daring. Three stars.

Bonnek
PROG REVIEWER

Without doubt this is the most extreme of all TD albums. While both Atem and Alpha Centauri feature some sparse percussion to stir things up, here we are just left with droning organ, synth and sound effects that slowly weave arrhythmic and a-tonal patterns. It's the first Tangerine Dream album where they find their own voice and step beside the Pink Floyd Umma Gumma inheritance that is still very dominant on Atem and Alpha Centauri.

Even though many fans don't like this album, every album that follows it in the 70's contains echoes of the spooky cosmic sound that is created here. Not the kind of album you sit and relax to but worth the effort to try getting into it.

tdfloyd

This is a tough album or 2 to review. Devoid of any tradional music, sequencing, drumming, melodies or really anything pertaining to music as most people understand it. The double LP has four tracks each between 17 to 22 minutes. None of these ever get played thru the stereo speakers. This is strictly headphone music. Droning, wheezing cellos, and organs fade in and out of earshot. The wind comes and goes. Everything moves slowly. This is dark, spacey sound that requires total attention. The listener must be willing to let the music absorb in. Many will find it boring, some irritating. This is a couple times a year album when the headphones are on, the lights are out, nobody and no distractions are around that Zeit will be very rewarding. I have not heard anything else like it.

3 plus stars rounded to 4 because it is so original.

infandous

Well, as a contrast to reviewer Hugues Chantraine, this was my first album of TD and I loved it! Perhaps being a fan of the spacier side of Pink Floyd beforehand helped. That and being in my mid-20's with a good bit of prog and space rock discoveries under my belt. I suppose it's hard to imagine anyone unfamiliar with LSD actually getting much out of this album, but my friend who introduced me to it has never done any drugs, let alone that particularly mind bending one. For me though, this album is the aural equivalent of an acid trip, albeit far less eventful.

This is an album of spacey drones from organs and synthesizers (and a bit of strings at the beginning of the first track). And that pretty much sums it up. If you look less for atmosphere, and more for structure and technique in your music, you probably will not enjoy this very much. It's hard to even think of it as music, to tell the truth, more like standing on an icy, barren plane somewhere near the north pole and listening to the wind. This is not an album to look to for emotional connections, but for bleak and cold atmosphere.

Certainly this is a difficult album for the newbie, and I would never recommend it to anyone as an introduction to TD (for that, I would go with Phaedra without a doubt). But there is something about this albums minimalism and lack of rhythmic patterns that appeals to me in an esoteric, subconscious way. Even though I rate it highly, I don't listen to it very often. It does require a certain mood and mindset for sure. But I would say that anyone who has gained appreciation for a couple other 70's TD albums should certainly give this one a try. Just be ready for something very different.

Guldbamsen

I am a big Tangerine Dream fan, and I´ve been ever since I encountered "Cloudburst Flight" lying on the ground in my friends´ parent´s flowerbed, spewing large doses of booze-infused penne with chili all over the tulips... (- Chili is much more enjoyable on the way down ;-) I struck electric gold with the "Force Majeur" album, and I thought I´d explore more from this band and maybe start digging in the past. I found "Zeit" in a used recordstore, where it practically jumped down from the shelf and into my hands with its rather stunning artwork and a ludicrous price attached to it. It was either "Zeit" or a big bag of onions, and I allready bought the onions the day before...

I can´t say that it was the mindblowing experience that I was hoping and cheering for, but more in the realm of: Are you [%*!#]ing kidding me?? Where is the drummer? Where is the guitar? And why does this album sound like the perfect romance music for people in coma trying to get it on? Is it dance music for humpback whales? OR am I listening to this in the right manner?

The music is so minimalistic that you are struggling to see the minuscule changes that actually DO happen. The trick is not to listen. Yep, that´s what I said! I had it in my cd-changer for a while, and sometimes it would be playing when I wasn´t aware of it. It eventually struck me as a good record, whilst listening to this after a 10 hour long workday as a sub in the local kinder garden, where I strut my stuff from time to time. I was tired like Santa turning 350 - put the album on, and suddenly I got it! It was music of giant immoveable mountains and planets spinning on their own axes to the slow droning of TD. The music moves extremely slow - like a caterpillar with untied shoelaces, but when you finally calm yourself down to the point of 4 heartbeats a minute, the droning of the caterpillar suddenly transforms into this galactic butterfly, and you are left with an absurd mental image of Time.

The problem with this album then is its inaccessibility. It´s a masterpiece in its own right, but I am so seldom in the mood for it, that it looses the attraction. It truly is a mental voyage to listen to this album, but more so a never ending hunt for the right mindset, which is a shame.

SaltyJon
COLLABORATOR
Zeuhl RIO/Avant Team

So here it is...THE Tangerine Dream album. The big one (75+ minutes!), the minimalist droning beauty that seems to be one of those "love it/hate it" deals. One of those albums that I really don't know how well I'll manage to review, because even after many listens I'm still sure there will always be something new to discover/understand about the album. It's an album which I would say is a haunting masterpiece.

This was my third Tangerine Dream album (following Phaedra and Rubycon) and initially I was pulled in by the album's length. Odd thing to draw me to an album, I know, but I have a habit of finding an artist's longer albums and checking them out. Sometimes I get gems, sometimes I get duds. This (along with Can's Tago Mago) is one of the most exquisite gems I've found so far this way. From the second it gets rolling with the first track, with those eerie cello lines slowly building and building, I knew I had made a good choice. This album is true deep space music...some artists excel at making albums in the near-space realm, generally staying within the Milky Way, but Tangerine Dream had bigger aspirations than that - they decided that they'd go for the far edge of the universe, right there on the edge of nothingness. This album is definitely sparse, abstract, etc, really showing off that feeling of nothingness colliding with everything. That's a big part of its beauty, though. Based on my (admittedly) limited experience with some of the progressive electronic masters, I'd say that there are few or no other albums that sound like this one. The uniqueness was another big draw for me. As many of the others have said, this album doesn't have any percussion - just the electronics (and the cellos in the first track) and it's got a great, dreamy/spacey atmosphere.

This one is one of the greatest Prog Electronic albums ever to be recorded. It shows just how far out some of the pioneers were willing to go, and that distance might as well be infinity since the universe is always expanding and this one is right at the edge. Definitely an essential masterpiece of progressive rock (even though the "rock" element is missing in this and many of the best Electronic albums).

octopus-4

Sometimes I believe to synchronicity. I have just commented about a one-star rating of this album into a post, I saw a 5-stars review on the home page and I was thinking to this album just yesterday, so I have to write my review.

This album is hard to describe as all the four tracks flow without a tempo, so instead of telling what happens at minute x of track y, let me speak about my feelings over it.

When I bought it in the 70s I was told they were similar to Pink Floyd, so I was very disappointed of those 4 tracks about 15-20 minutes long, mainly made of keyboards and without any drum. I simply was not ready for this kind of music and I gave the double LP to a friend. The olny thing of which I regret actually was the sleeve design.

After years I became familiar with electronic and psychedelic music and I also went into some classic contemporary so I can now really appreciate what was an experimental album in 1972.

Zeit means Time in German, and the four tracks are a journey into the deep space. The first, "Birth of liquid Pleiades" can be defined "liquid", in the sense of something that flows constantly and continuously like the water on a big river in a flat land.

"Nebulous Dawn" is very different from the first track. I didn't appreciate the difference at the first listen. It's made of sounds, more than of music. The chaotic part on Atom Heart Mother can be a reference, even if there's no rhythm here. This is really psychedelic and effectively the most floydian of the 4 tracks.

"Original of Supernatural Probabilities" Is halfway as it contains both the "liquid" melodic part and electronic noises. It's probably the easiest to listen as it contains spare parts of what can be called "melody".

"Zeit" is not much different, but it gives me the idea of the end of the space journey, a sort of homecoming.

To enjoy this album (as well as most of the space-psychedelia), you have to forget the usual concept of music. Get your headphones, close your eyes and travel into deep space or any other amazing place your mind can disclose.

This album is a milestone in his genre.

Dobermensch

This is the very first cd I ever bought. It was 1988 and it cost me 14 quid from Virgin! Therefore, I was under some serious pressure to enjoy this because that was a lot of money for a student back then. My initial reaction was shock. Shock and bewilderment at the bloody awful sleeve that it came in. Looking like a scene from 'Tron' - it was an artistic blunder in every sense of the word. Not only that but their first 4 albums all had the same basic design - but with a different colour washed through it. Mercifully, this problem was rectified on subsequent editions. I however, am left with the original 'ugly' version. Pass me the sick bag... However, as far as the music contained within went, I needn't have worried. After the first listen I was hooked. What were all those creepy sounds and strange filters that they used? It was all a big mystery to me back then and I couldn't get enough of it. The first track is the 'tuneful' one (ahem!)... which has lots of cellos put through strange delays and flangers - almost 'Kluster' like, before calming down into prototype 'Lustmord' or 'Lull' territory for the remainder of the double LP. By the time you reach the 4th and last track you'll either be fast asleep or wondering how a record label would take such a risk on such a such a sprawling, mostly tuneless, certain commercial failure. It beats me, but I love that kind of stuff. Tangerine Dream fans who like this and their first 2 albums should give the 'Taj Mahal Travellers' a go. Now there was one 'whacked out' band from the same time... A triumph, but the best was yet to come.