The sequencer albums of Tangerine Dream all Highlighted above in sequential order.  

 

 

001. 1970: Electronic Meditation - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nQZZuCKIjf7hp20J1lL-ssUkr6_EanEZg" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nQZZuCKIjf7hp20J1lL-ssUkr6_EanEZg

002. 1971: Alpha Centauri - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_noEO6a7IY62GQ8JNxn4DacJln_u2AwF9k" rel="nofollow - 003. 1972: Zeit - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kTcPbNmo7mf3Zl3MLlOreONsZNNAEmqL8" rel="nofollow - 004. 1973: Atem - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n50tuZHBag4K8Gw2Qcs1yyxLbnbpV4DaI" rel="nofollow - 005. 1974: Phaedra -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIQ0dd7B_FU" rel="nofollow - 006. 1975: Rubycon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd6XL_IOS3I" rel="nofollow - 007. 1975: Ricochet (Live) -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM1Wc6ha_ic" rel="nofollow - 008. 1976: Stratosfear - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3hueHdzYSI" rel="nofollow - 009. 1977: Sorcerer (soundtrack) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvLFe3nsulY" rel="nofollow - 010. 1977: Encore (Live 1977) -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8is0eYVfxs" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8is0eYVfxs

I've posted this brief review of Tangerine Dream's first album separately from my original post above because "Unravelling the Tangram" puzzle of TD's HUGE discography, including studio, live & soundtrack albums, is going to take up a heck of a lot of space.  

Tangerine Dream's psychedelic debut is the only TD album to feature the trio of Edgar Froese, Klaus Schulze & Conrad Schnitzler (who plays cello, violin & addiator, whatever that is!). This album is a total psychedelic freak-out and nothing like their later sequencer-driven albums, so buckle up and get ready to take a Journey Through a Burning Brain because this album is a wild ride! 

Stratosfear was also how I in 1977 got acquainted with TD, and has remained to this day my fave TD album, or actually the only one I like so far enough to make a part of my exclusive collection. 

Psychedelic Paul wrote:  1970: Electronic Meditation -  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nQZZuCKIjf7hp20J1lL-ssUkr6_EanEZg" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nQZZuCKIjf7hp20J1lL-ssUkr6_EanEZg Tangerine Dream's psychedelic debut is the only TD album to feature the trio of Edgar Froese, Klaus Schulze & Conrad Schnitzler (who plays cello, violin & addiator, whatever that is!). This album is a total psychedelic freak-out and nothing like their later sequencer-driven albums, so buckle up and get ready to take a Journey Through a Burning Brain because this album is a wild ride!

Electronic Meditation is a transition point between two ages, where three wayfarers stumbled onto a new quest that would occupy their senses till the end of their days. It's a milestone. 

I also love Stratosfear to bits, but is it really the only TD album you own? Hopefully this thread will change that. 

 

 

 

Klaus Schulze departed Tangerine Dream after the first album to begin a long and successful solo career. This album features the beginning of the long-time pairing of Edgar Froese and Chris Franke with Peter Baumann joining Tangerine Dream for the next album "Zeit", completing the classic TD trio in the early years.

Could be, and I'll give at least Phaedra a new listen. I can also tell that another good friend of mine since 1977 has been Froese's Ypsilon.

Anyway, this is a very good thread, and Paul, it's incredible how productive you are on PA forums. They would surely be something else without you. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks David. Your cheque's in the post.

 

While my previous productivity has been less welcomed. 

Maybe you could start a Danish prog blog to highlight some of the prog artists from your home country, although you might quickly run out of albums to feature. 

If to be serious, and look at the ratings at RYM, it's not that bad, but it is with my motivation for it. 

At least listing all of The Savage Rose's many albums would keep you busy for awhile. 

what's going on there? 

I'm not sure what happened there either, but my quotation has been turned into computer gobbledegook for some unexplained reason. 

Thanks. I don't remember my intro being quite as long as that. 

thank you Captain Obvious! 

That quotation above is almost as long as Tangerine Dream's discography. 

 

Atem (Breath) is the third and final album in Tangerine Dream's dark, ambient trilogy and the second album to feature their classic line-up of Froese, Franke & Baumann. Tangerine Dream moved into much more familiar territory with the sequence-driven sound of their next album, Phaedra - the first TD album on the Virgin label. Interestingly, the picture of the baby on the cover of Atem is Edgar Froese's son, Jerome, who followed in his father's musical footsteps by becoming a full-time member of Tangerine Dream in 1990.

 

 

 

          My all time favorites are Phaedra and Rubycon..

I've always liked the Cyclone album, mainly because it's so different to any of Tangerine Dream's previous albums and I'll be crossing the Rubicon with the beginning of the classic Virgin era tomorrow. 

If I had a choice of which is the "best" or a top ten, then I doubt that TD would have 42 CD's in my collection. I'll be dead the day that I find one album I like more than the others, though there are some moments from several albums that are in my mind forever, the one that specially stands out, is "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares".

I do not find, the early stuff "dark" at all Paul ... it was experimenting with the equipment and seeing what they could bring to it which started coming alive in ATEM ... and then exploded in STRATOSFEAR with their use of sequencers on hand. And 40 years later, if you check the live albums, TD still was the very best a sequencers, and the only ones that knew how to use them properly (I guess you could say they defined the genre) ... and make them sound neat.

I don't think there is "dark" in TD at all, although the impression is given from the titles, which in the case of the KAFKA album would make it stranger for your imagination, but more often than not, what EF was about was INTERPRETATION, and from a literary point of view ... it's like going to school and having to read the book ... you learn and remember something (if you care to pay attention instead of dope and parties!!! of course!). 

It's weird to me, how we "decide" that something is dark, when it isn't and/or it's light when it might not be, and often elusive and just circumventing the subject by confusing you! I can imagine how life is so boring, when you consider these things "dark" and don't see it in front of you ... it's a very scary proposition!

Atem is their fourth album, and the last of the Pink Years albums...

Their third album is Zeit (a double disc affair) recorded the year before. 

That's correct. 

Paul is referring to Alpha Centauri, Zeit and Atem as its own (unofficial) trilogy.

I look at the first three as doing their own thing, and with Atem the "classic" sound begins to emerge.

Thanks for throwing some Underwater Sunlight on the subject of ambient music that sounds "dark" and foreboding to me, but doesn't necessarily sound dark to someone else's ears. 

Phaedra through Ricochet remains my TD sweet spot, but I enjoy the 2-3 albums in either direction on their timeline.

Those high school stoney evenings with the Stratosfear vinyl still warm my soul.

Yes, that's exactly right and thanks for explaining it better than I did. I think of the psychedelic freak-out of Electronic Meditation as being separate from the unofficial "dark ambient" trilogy of Alpha Centauri, Zeit & Atem. 

Stratosfear reached new heights for me too. 

I've began to give Rubycon new listenings, and that looks good.

And Paul, it suprises me a bit that you, being so fond of Stratosfear, don't seem to be that crazy about Rubycon. 

Although Rubycon didn't quite make it into my Tangerine Dream Top 7, it's still a very worthy 4-carat gem for me and it's coming up here next. 

Hi,

Paul ... you are talking about "conditioning", not listening. And this can be easily proved with a good actor given one line with 3 words, and he/she can say it in a hundred different ways stretching the realms of possibility in how it comes out.

The same for most music, but somehow, because it isn't "conventional" or "something we have heard before", it automatically becomes dark, and ... other definitions.

Most "ambient" music is not about "dark". Most is about illustrating feelings, some which we might consider dark, but we might as well consider the early navigators "dark" and "insane" because they were taking their ships into places that "didn't exist" and the earth was flat!!!!!!!

You hear a lot of music ... your horizons should not be comparing anything ... they should continue expanding, if I may say so.

 

 

 

Rubycon - Part Two - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qw_9Z_fzww&t=5s" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qw_9Z_fzww&t=5s

Anyway, I've got ideas for two new threads. 

It's always good to bounce ideas off one another, just like a Ricochet, which is coming up next, 

Yes, to keep one busy. 

But my next thread won't be exactly based on your ideas, or more exactly speaking, tastes. 

I guess we'll have to wait awhile longer for a Danish prog thread then. 

Something's amiss. The rating should reflect 6 out of 5 stars! It gets a 6th because it's simply that good. 

That makes a nice change because I'm more often criticised for overrating albums - especially in the case of YES albums. 

Have no fear though as I'm saving my first 5-star Tangerine Dream rating for the glorious heights of Stratosfear. 

I started listening to them back in the 80's and my introduction was via the superb Dream Sequence compilation of the Virgin years 1973-1983. I also love Poland, Le Parc and Underwater Sunlight from that decade. After that it got a bit sketchy and they lost their way a bit it seems until the beautifull Seven Letters From Tibet , based on love letters that Edgar Froese sent to his dear wife. The excellent Booster series plus some gems such as Views From A Red Train and Purgatorio followed. Most recently the theme tune to Stranger Things may be their most listened to track although it hasn't quite done the same for them as the show did for Kate Bush! 

Thanks Richard. I often wonder if anyone has the time to read my long intros.  I'm looking forward to hearing all of those Tangerine Dream albums you mentioned, including many I've never heard before. 

I always associate Pergamon with Robert Maxwell (which can't be a good thing) as his publishing empire was called Pergamon Press. Hopefully, when I've listened to the Pergamon album, I'll associate the name with Tangerine Dream instead. I recall the Pergamon album was subtitled "Quichotte" so I'll have to look that up and find out what it means.  

So true, Paul, and your rating (4.0) is still higher than the average of all the 6000 ratings on RYM and PA.

I've just had a quick look at the Tangerine Dream albums page here on PA and noticed Rubycon is the highest-rated studio album with a rating of 4.23, so it's good to know my 4-star rating is not too far out from the average. I'm currently listening to all of Peter Baumann's solo albums (the third member of Tangerine Dream) so he'll be coming up here next, even though his two 1980's New Wave albums leave a lot to be desired. His first album "Romance '76" is really good though, especially bearing in mind it was recorded the same year as the stratospheric Stratosfear album. 

Quichotte is an alternate spelling of "Don Quixote" a famous novel by Manuel de Cervantes about a knight who wants to "courageously" attack windmills, together with his rather smarter cohort Sancho Panza 

Thanks! You learn something new here every day, including learning about the exploits of Don Quixote, who I always used to pronounce as Don Kwik-sote, until I knew better. 

As close to as it can be, even I don't find that kind to be so important for one's own rating. 

I can tell that I get more fond of it for every new listening, not least Pt. 1 with it's strange mood. 

I would've rated the Rubycon album 4.23 too if I could've done. 

 

I featured the solo albums of Edgar Froese earlier in this thread, so it seems only fair I should include Peter Baumann's solo works too, and don't worry, I haven't forgotten Christopher Franke, as he's coming up here later in 1991 to coincide with the release of his first solo album: Pacific Coast Highway. I may even go for the whole enchilada by featuring all of Klaus Schulze's albums too - eventually - after I've finished listing and listening to all of Tangerine Dream's bazillion albums.  

 

Peter Baumann (born 1953) appeared on all of Tangerine Dream's albums from Zeit (1972) through to the live Encore album in 1977 before departing the band to concentrate on his budding solo career. He released eight albums in total, recorded over the span of forty years from "Romance '76" through to his second collaboration with Paul Haslinger in 2019 with "Neuland" (which roughly translated means "New Land"). "Thankyou Captain Obvious!" - as Cristi would probably say.  

 

By the way, you may be better off skipping Peter Baumann's two early 1980's albums, unless you're seriously into the sound of New Wave music, but don't say I didn't warn you if you choose to listen to them anyway.

 

 1976: Peter Baumann - Romance '76 - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nM8kZkOiU-4FKIJjJzML7niHQErjLP-9s" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nM8kZkOiU-4FKIJjJzML7niHQErjLP-9s

 1979: Peter Baumann - Trans Harmonic Nights - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n7qxqc53H8Ms6oXLgkN7MBfW-uZrJMibA" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n7qxqc53H8Ms6oXLgkN7MBfW-uZrJMibA

 1991: Peter Baumann & Paul Haslinger - Blue Room - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT6pAfB1AY4" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT6pAfB1AY4

 1996: Peter Baumann - Phase by Phase: A Retrospective '76-'81 - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k7oBUKoGX1o0oS-AOxOV1dfZw_4pLhXPA" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k7oBUKoGX1o0oS-AOxOV1dfZw_4pLhXPA

 2016: Peter Baumann - Machines of Desire - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lX8eRjlwRtaXwRsj-fuptpqEiVZCPFXH0" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lX8eRjlwRtaXwRsj-fuptpqEiVZCPFXH0

 2019: Peter Baumann & Paul Haslinger - Neuland - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJdP6kZNQvK1H1fTyKgUpi5csdNdIjLoP" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJdP6kZNQvK1H1fTyKgUpi5csdNdIjLoP

 

Peter Baumann - Strangers in the Night (with apologies to Frank Sinatra)

 

Maybe you missed this one? It's supposed to be a shelved 1973-album of theirs "remixed" in 1984 and released in 1986. Sound very late 1970's to me though. Anyway, beautiful album that would have been counted among their classics - if it actually had been released sometime in the 1970's. Well, I think so.

It's funny you should mention the Green Desert album as I read earlier that the album failed to bloom in 1973 because the band decided to begin work on the Phaedra album instead. Anyway, thanks for mentioning it and I'll be sure to include Green Desert later here on it's actual release date of 1986. Confused? I will be. 

The titular piece is one of their very best! 

Green Desert is entirely Edgar & Chris because Peter was off on one of his "jaunts." The album became a point of contention for many fans because it was the fifth LP in the box set ...In the Beginning. Relativity and Jive Electro stated the "bonus" album Green Desert would not get a separate release — which, of course, it did.

Personally, I love every square sonic inch of Green Desert and could care less how much was done in '73 or '84!

If you love Quichotte aka Pergamon, this is a must!

https://www.discogs.com/release/8057825-Tangerine-Dream-The-Official-Bootleg-Series-Volume-Two" rel="nofollow - Tangerine Dream – The Official Bootleg Series Volume Two (2016, Box Set) - Discogs

And after a couple of years with Rubycon, I might be ready for Phaedra. 

 

Sorcerer was the ninth Tangerine Dream album overall and their first of many soundtrack recordings. The William Friedkin movie "Sorcerer" starring Roy Scheider, may have sunk without trace, but the excellent soundtrack still lives on in the memory for Tangerine Dream fans.

 

 

Sorcerer (the movie - part 1) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk0zo2f4OG0" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk0zo2f4OG0

Sorcerer (the movie - part 2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIAB5sWbf7c" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIAB5sWbf7c

Paul, I hope that you'll see my game. 

I'm game if you are. Will there be an Encore?

 

Encore is Tangerine Dream's tenth album overall, their second Live album and also the second double album (after "Zeit"). Encore consists of all original material (in common with most of Tangerine Dream's Live albums) and was recorded at a number of venues during their successful North American tour. Encore is also notable for being the last album to feature Peter Baumann in the TD trio. He left the band to record two Tangerine Dream-style albums of his own before going off in a totally New Wave direction as Germany's answer to Gary Numan, including a very bizarre cover version of Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" (see above). Well, it was the 1980's.   

 

 

 

I don't know yet, but it might be quite a story. 

And now, you're already a part of it. 

I begin to feel like Rubycon can bring me to higher levels of....whatever they are. 

It's just like crossing the Rubicon - you'll know when you've reached those higher levels. 

Sorry, but I can't stop laughing of this one.

If I could be that precise, I'd rate each of Tangerine Dream's albums progressively higher from 1974 onwards, so for instance, 4.0 for Phaedra, 4.23 for Rubycon, 4.50 for Ricochet, and 4.90 for the dizzy heights of Stratosfear.

Two more stellar recordings!

Green Desert was definitely "finished" in 1984, the earliest instance of what would later be dubbed "tangentizing" (adding new sounds to an older recording).

Chris had long since ceased playing an actual drumkit, so the side-length title track certainly dates to 1973. The low-mixed pulse-loop sounds modern and so do the synths. The guitar line is up in the air.

The last two pieces, "Astral Voyager" and "Indian Summer," invite even more speculation. I think "Indian Summer" may even be a purely modern piece because it sounds like it would be right at home on Froese's solo album Pinnacles., which was released in '83.

 

Following the departure of long-time member Peter Baumann in 1977, a fresh wind of change was blowing through Tangerine Dream with the release of their 11th album: Cyclone. This album is notable for featuring the unique trio of Edgar Froese, Chris Franke & English musician Steve Jolliffe, and somewhat controversially, it was the first Tangerine Dream album to feature vocals (provided by Steve Jolliffe), which wouldn't be heard on a Tangerine Dream album again until "Tyger" in 1987. Tangerine Dream fans may have fallen out of their chairs in shock upon  hearing vocals for the first time on this album back in 1978, but Cyclone has now come to be regarded as a much-loved classic in the Tangerine Dream canon, and deservedly so too in my view.  

 

 

Track Listing:-

 

1. Bent Cold Sidewalk (13:05)

2. Rising Runner Missed by Endless Sender (5:00)

3. Madrigal Meridian (20:28)

 

It's not easy just to keep one busy.