New Tangerine Dream stuff
Crossposted (with slight variation) in ambientmp3share
When Christoph Franke quit Tangerine Dream on August 2 1987, many fans decided this was the end. The music TD released over the next decade did nothing to prove these people wrong. A tangherine Dream album released between 1988 and 1997 would typically contain one decent track (usually the first track) and the rest would be...bleh. The one exception to this rule is 1989's "Lily On The Beach" which had three decent pieces.
From 1992 until last year, Tangerine Dream consisted of founder Edgar Froese and his son Jerome. Of all the TD lineups, this was the least popular, and not without reason. Until 1997, their music sounded like your average, run of the mill, mass produced, radio friendly pop rubbish, except without words. For those of us who had fallen in love with the truly unique, experimental music of the 1970s, this was nothing short of tragic, and many, myself included, wondered why they even bothered.
"Timesquare", released in 1997, showed some promise, and 1999's "Mars Polaris" showed that the Froeses still had something after all. That album was really good.
In 2002, "Inferno", the first album of the "Divine Comedy" trilogy was released. This is a truly ballsy project indeed. For one thing, there are vocals in this trilogy, and TD are under no illusions as to how their listeners feel about them using vocals. But you can't do an opera without them, and the aim of this project was to set Dante Aligheri's "Divine Comedy" to music.
"Inferno" is lovely. The second part of the trilogy, "Purgatorio" is brilliant, and the third part, "Paradiso" is also really good, featuring TD's first collaboration with an orchestra.
Just before "Paradiso", a gentleman by the name of Thorsten Quaeschning joined the band, and the new trio released "Jeanne D'Arc" which was seen by many fans as a very welcome to the old school TD format - although the album had nine tracks, the effect was of a single long instrumental piece. I personally love long instrumental pieces, hence my love for the likes of TD, Klaus Schulze, Mike Oldfield, etc.
Jerome Froese quit Tangerine Dream after "Jeanne D'Arc", leaving his father to handle the composition of "Paradiso" alone. The band is now a duo once again.
So, let me tell you about the very latest stuff by the Froese/Quaeschning duo. I'm wickedly excited about it.
Last year they released an EP called "Metaphor" which is a single piece of music divided into four parts, the last being a song with vocals by Quaeschning's mate Christian Hausl. It was limited to 1000 copies, and it's great. It really is.
But it gets better. The new album, released a couple of weeks ago, is called "Madcap's Flaming Duty", and is dedicated to the memory of Syd Barrett. There are no collaborative songs on this album, each track was composed either by Edgar Froese or Thorsten Quaeschning. And, for the first time ever, there are no instrumentals on this album. Every song is a setting of an old poem - William Blake, Walt Whitman (Edgar Froese's favourite poet), Sir Philip Sidney, Percy Bysshe* Shelley and several others are represented. Oh, and - get this - they've also done an Irish folk song! And they've done it really well!
Froese and Quaeschning are joined by vocalist Christian Hausl, Linda Spa on flute, saxophone, modified bagpipe and didgeridoo, guitarist Bernard Beibl, who also plays a bit of violin, and the extraordinarily sexy Iris Camaa on percussion.
"Madcap's Flaming Duty" is the not only best vocal album Tangerine Dream have ever done, but I think it's fair to say that it's the best album they've done since "Poland" in 1983. It is fantastic!
It is true that when Franke left in 1987, Tangerine Dream lost something wonderful. But with the addition of Thorsten Quaeschning, they've found something just as good.
Here's some music for your delight and edification:
"Astrophel & Stella"
From "Madcap's Flaming Duty"
Music by Edgar Froese, words by Sir Philip Sidney
"The Lakes Of Ponchartrain"
From "Madcap's Flaming Duty"
Words and music traditional, arranged by Edgar Froese and Thorsten Quaeschning
"Prison and Paradise"
From "Purgatorio"
Music by Edgar and/or Jerome Froese (it sounds to me like one of Jerome's, but I'm not too sure)
Vocals by Jayney Kilmek
"Chasing The Bad Seed"
as above, but this one sounds to me more like one of Edgar's.
"Earthling's Reality"
From "Metaphor"
Music by Edgar Froese and Thorsten Quaeschning
Not sure who wrote the words, but I'm guessing it was Froese's wife, Bianca Acquaye
Vocals by Christian Hausl
So, there we are then. Five VOCAL pieces by Tangerine Dream, just to show that they can actually do it! Enjoy the music, my delights, and I shall banter unto thee again with all soon-ness!
*What the fuck kind of a name is "Bysshe", for the love of Christ?!
When Christoph Franke quit Tangerine Dream on August 2 1987, many fans decided this was the end. The music TD released over the next decade did nothing to prove these people wrong. A tangherine Dream album released between 1988 and 1997 would typically contain one decent track (usually the first track) and the rest would be...bleh. The one exception to this rule is 1989's "Lily On The Beach" which had three decent pieces.
From 1992 until last year, Tangerine Dream consisted of founder Edgar Froese and his son Jerome. Of all the TD lineups, this was the least popular, and not without reason. Until 1997, their music sounded like your average, run of the mill, mass produced, radio friendly pop rubbish, except without words. For those of us who had fallen in love with the truly unique, experimental music of the 1970s, this was nothing short of tragic, and many, myself included, wondered why they even bothered.
"Timesquare", released in 1997, showed some promise, and 1999's "Mars Polaris" showed that the Froeses still had something after all. That album was really good.
In 2002, "Inferno", the first album of the "Divine Comedy" trilogy was released. This is a truly ballsy project indeed. For one thing, there are vocals in this trilogy, and TD are under no illusions as to how their listeners feel about them using vocals. But you can't do an opera without them, and the aim of this project was to set Dante Aligheri's "Divine Comedy" to music.
"Inferno" is lovely. The second part of the trilogy, "Purgatorio" is brilliant, and the third part, "Paradiso" is also really good, featuring TD's first collaboration with an orchestra.
Just before "Paradiso", a gentleman by the name of Thorsten Quaeschning joined the band, and the new trio released "Jeanne D'Arc" which was seen by many fans as a very welcome to the old school TD format - although the album had nine tracks, the effect was of a single long instrumental piece. I personally love long instrumental pieces, hence my love for the likes of TD, Klaus Schulze, Mike Oldfield, etc.
Jerome Froese quit Tangerine Dream after "Jeanne D'Arc", leaving his father to handle the composition of "Paradiso" alone. The band is now a duo once again.
So, let me tell you about the very latest stuff by the Froese/Quaeschning duo. I'm wickedly excited about it.
Last year they released an EP called "Metaphor" which is a single piece of music divided into four parts, the last being a song with vocals by Quaeschning's mate Christian Hausl. It was limited to 1000 copies, and it's great. It really is.
But it gets better. The new album, released a couple of weeks ago, is called "Madcap's Flaming Duty", and is dedicated to the memory of Syd Barrett. There are no collaborative songs on this album, each track was composed either by Edgar Froese or Thorsten Quaeschning. And, for the first time ever, there are no instrumentals on this album. Every song is a setting of an old poem - William Blake, Walt Whitman (Edgar Froese's favourite poet), Sir Philip Sidney, Percy Bysshe* Shelley and several others are represented. Oh, and - get this - they've also done an Irish folk song! And they've done it really well!
Froese and Quaeschning are joined by vocalist Christian Hausl, Linda Spa on flute, saxophone, modified bagpipe and didgeridoo, guitarist Bernard Beibl, who also plays a bit of violin, and the extraordinarily sexy Iris Camaa on percussion.
"Madcap's Flaming Duty" is the not only best vocal album Tangerine Dream have ever done, but I think it's fair to say that it's the best album they've done since "Poland" in 1983. It is fantastic!
It is true that when Franke left in 1987, Tangerine Dream lost something wonderful. But with the addition of Thorsten Quaeschning, they've found something just as good.
Here's some music for your delight and edification:
"Astrophel & Stella"
From "Madcap's Flaming Duty"
Music by Edgar Froese, words by Sir Philip Sidney
"The Lakes Of Ponchartrain"
From "Madcap's Flaming Duty"
Words and music traditional, arranged by Edgar Froese and Thorsten Quaeschning
"Prison and Paradise"
From "Purgatorio"
Music by Edgar and/or Jerome Froese (it sounds to me like one of Jerome's, but I'm not too sure)
Vocals by Jayney Kilmek
"Chasing The Bad Seed"
as above, but this one sounds to me more like one of Edgar's.
"Earthling's Reality"
From "Metaphor"
Music by Edgar Froese and Thorsten Quaeschning
Not sure who wrote the words, but I'm guessing it was Froese's wife, Bianca Acquaye
Vocals by Christian Hausl
So, there we are then. Five VOCAL pieces by Tangerine Dream, just to show that they can actually do it! Enjoy the music, my delights, and I shall banter unto thee again with all soon-ness!
*What the fuck kind of a name is "Bysshe", for the love of Christ?!