Review Summary: A heavenly great atmospheric album. It’s a lot rockier than one would expect.
“Ricochet” is the debut live album of Tangerine Dream and was released in 1975. The line up on the album is Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann and Christopher Franke.
Tangerine Dream was founded in 1967 by the pioneer German musician Edgar Froese who was born in Berlin. So, he was one of the first electronic music pioneers. Over the years, the band went through many personnel changes with Froese being the only stable factor all over the years until his death in 2015. Even the drummer and composer electronic pioneer Klaus Schulze had once been a band’s member shortly, participating only on the debut studio work of Tangerine Dream, “Electronic Meditation” of 1970. He continued his musical career as a solo artist making the same kind of electronic music. Schulze and Tangerine Dream are often described as being part of the so-called Berlin School.
“Ricochet” is the debut live album of Tangerine Dream and was released in 1975. It consists of two long compositions “Ricochet Part 1” and “Ricochet Part 2” mixed from taped recordings of the concerts they gave in England and France during their European live tour in 1975. The sound of the album is similar to the other group’s studio releases, namely “Phaedra” and “Rubycon”, and is heavily based upon synthesizers and sequencers producing some dense and ambient soundscapes. On the other hand “Ricochet” contains a bit more percussion and electronic guitar than the previous Virgin releases. As a curiosity and information for those who may be are interested, some of the music of “Ricochet” was used for the soundtrack that was shot for their DVD “Live At Coventry Cathedral” released in 1975.
So, for “Ricochet”, Tangerine Dream embraces their equipment and takes their audience on an actual journey through that two part showcase recorded live. Featuring the early and memorable lineup of Chris Franke, Edgar Froese, and Peter Baumann, “Ricochet” continuously evolves to the next plateau of pulsing experimentation without getting lost or over indulgent like other bands of the genre. This album finds the three at a time when they knew exactly what they were doing, rocking without the drums, and looking to make sure that the audience was enjoying their live concert.
The two pieces on the album, each of which had a record side on the original vinyl edition, are very different in their atmosphere despite a similar musical structure. It’s perhaps hard to imagine, but even the electronic music of Tangerine Dream sounds rougher and less polished live than what they did in studio. The band didn’t use a mixing-desk live, so the volume pretty much lived a life of its own during the concerts. This can clearly be heard on the sequenced part of the first side that occasionally sounds extremely loud. It’s characterized by somber sounds with dark electronic melody arches build up, driven by wild electronic drums and Edgar Froese’s electric guitar gives it a certain space feeling. A short freeform passage with strange scraps of voice in the middle part of the piece once again points to the “cosmic music” of previous albums. Here you also can hear Froese use the guitar to play an actual melody for the first time, and not just as an atmospheric effect. It also introduced the use of electronic percussions and not at least the Mellotron-brass, a sound that would be used quite a lot on several of their albums from the second half of the 70’s.
Side 2 has a lighter mood, is calmer and more relaxed, more melancholic than dark. It opens surprisingly with some gentle grand piano passage that introduces the piece that gets surrounded and finally overtaken by the ethereal Mellotron’s flute. The sequenced rhythms that appear right afterward are soft and dreamy, leading into a great theme played on Mellotron-brass that is being improvised around for the rest of the track. In the further course, the same ingredients are used as in the first part with sequence-generated sound patterns form the rhythmic basis of the piece, melodic synth passages, electronic percussion, but somewhat more reserved than in the first part. Nevertheless, not just an infusion is supplied here. We could consider the two pieces as variations of a theme. There are some weird voice effects toward the end, but all returns to the main idea for the finale. The cover fits well with the music’s mood.
Conclusion: “Ricochet” could just easily have been an excellent studio album. I find it remarkable how well Tangerine Dream was able to implement their studio compatible concepts’ live. “Ricochet” is one of the definitive Tangerine Dream’s albums and is indispensable for lovers of the electronic music. If you want to experience the beginnings of electronic music, you cannot avoid this album. “Ricochet”, “Phaedra” and “Rubycon”, are the three classic albums of Tangerine Dream that no prog music fan can avoid. Considering the fact that “Rubycon” Froese’s “Ypsilon In Malaysian Pale” and Klaus Schulze’s “Timewind” were also released in the same year, “Ricochet” was the final jewel in the crown that turned 1975 into the very best year in Tangerine Dream’s related history and in the prog electronic music as well.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
