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Review Summary: A departure from the debut. The starting point of the cosmic music. “Alpha Centauri” is the second studio album of Tangerine Dream that was released in 1971. The line up on the album is Edgar Froese, Steve Schroyder and Christopher Franke. The album also had the participation of Udo Dennenberg, Peter Baumann and Roland Paulick.
Tangerine Dream is a progressive electronic rock band that was founded in Berlin, Germany in 1967 by Edgar Froese, Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler. The band was among the earlier explorers of a new musical universe opened by electronic instruments. Tangerine Dream’s music was born as a psychedelic journey in the heavens, and, aided by the new electronic keyboards, the band transformed into a contemplative survey of the universe. By borrowing from the impressionistic painting, (notably of Salvador Dali), the ecclesiastic music, the minimalist avant-garde, and the Eastern transcendental philosophy, Tangerine Dream invented “kosmische music”, one of the most influential musical genres.
Tangerine Dream released their debut studio work “Electronic Meditation” in 1970 with Froese, Schulze and Schnitzler. Still, “Electronic Meditation” isn’t properly an electronic album. It consists mainly of experimental noises performed with classic rock instruments. So, it’s more a rock album made with rock instruments. Actually it’s a krautrock album, the musical style invented by the German musicians in the late 60’s and in the early 70’s. It was only on their second album “Alpha Centauri” that the synthesizers came into play. After the release of “Electronic Meditation”, each member went his own way. The only member that remained in Tangerine Dream was Edgar Froese. With Froese, Christopher Franke and Steve Schroyder on the line up, the band released their second studio work “Alpha Centauri”.
As I mentioned above, “Alpha Centauri” is the first really electronic progressive rock album released by the band and where we can see for the first time the use of synthesizers by Tangerine Dream. The line up on the album consisted of a guitarist, a percussionist, a flutist and three keyboardists recording the three improvised jams of “Alpha Centauri” that defined the genre. Here, we can also see the presence, for the first time, of what is considered the best line up of the band, Froese, Franke and Baumann, despite the latter only appearing as guest. As happened with their debut work, “Alpha Centauri” became the only album with this official line up, Froese, Franke and Schroyder. And it became also tremendously closer to what Tangerine Dream would be all about than what their debut had been. Sure, it still sounded rather primitive and low-budget, but Tangerine Dream had now clearly discovered that spacey, atmospheric and dreamy experimental electronic music was the way to go for them. It would be completely proven with their next album “Zeit”.
“Alpha Centauri” has three tracks. “Sunrise In The Third System” contains some slow spacey sounds and effects. It’s a stealthy and hypnotic piece, with a dense organ and a ghostly flute. It has a clear nod to Pink Floyd thanks to the sound of the organ. It forms a perfect introduction to the main cosmic journey, a kind of decompression chamber that helps the listener get acclimated to the alien landscape of Tangerine Dream’s musical world. “Fly And Collision Of Comas Sola” slowly builds a heroic theme that eventually crashes into chaos. The track starts with a synthesizer and an organ in the background. The organ makes its appearance to establish the mattress on which flutes and synths build enveloping and disturbing sounds. As the song progresses, the drums appear closing with an abrupt ending. It allows us to envision great things in the future band’s history. The title track is the centre piece of the album. It’s an interesting improvisation based around spacey electronic sounds, organs and Froese’s guitar. At the end goes into a poem spoken in German and climaxes into one of the few cases of human vocal-harmonies on a band’s album. The flute makes a fine atmospheric contrast. It’s an incredible spacey and timeless experience. You got the impression of leaving this world. It paves way for everything on their next album “Zeit” to all their famous lengthy epics like the title track on “Phaedra”.
Conclusion: As I mentioned above, “Alpha Centauri” is considered as the first electronic space album. It marks the transition from the krautrock to the electronic bubbling sound of their albums “Zeit” and “Atem” in their Pink phase. If “Electronic Meditation” had seemed better suited to a horror film, “Alpha Centauri” is firmly in the science fiction camp. The structure of the album would prove to be very representative for the several albums to come from the band, with one side long title track and a couple of “shorter” tracks on the other side. So, despite some technical shortcomings, “Alpha Centauri” was an important release in the musical evolution of Tangerine Dream. The mysterious cover painting and art design, by Edgar Froese and his wife at the time, Monique Froese, contribute directly to the album’s character. As products of the psych era, “Alpha Centauri”, “Zeit” and “Atem”, are fine nuggets, even if the best was yet to come.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
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aok (4)
40 years later, Tangerine Dream’s sound holds up...
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Album Rating: 4.0
Let’s return to Tangerine Dream. “Alpha Centauri” is the first TD album that can be considered entirely an electronic prog work. It's much more impressive than its predecessor, one of the most profound electronic albums ever. It makes the transition of the rock'ish sound found on "Electronic Meditation" towards the interstellar deep space of the darkest voyages into other worlds. This is their first work into their cosmic world, a world of experimentation and spacey soundscapes.
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Yo, man, don't miss on last year's Bioscope album! It's a project led by Tangerine Dream and Marillion musicians. I wrote a review a couple of weeks back, but screw the review, just go straight to the music
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Ok, Lou. Actually, I never heard anything about that project. I'm very curious about it. A project of Rothery of Marillion and Quaeschning of TD seems to me a very curious and interesting thing that deserves to be checked. I'm going to put it in my priority list.
Thanks for the info, pal, and thanks.
Anyway, I'll read your review later too, when I listen to the album.
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I actually haven't really got into TD yet, only listened to them sporadically and didn't really feel the music. Maybe this review is the tipping point that will convince me to finally do a proper discography run. That Bioscope thing is all Quaeschning though, Rothery seems to be intentionally taking the backseat and his playing is very reserved. Then again, Marillion never were exactly flashy, and when they tried to be they normally sucked
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah, I can see the point. Apparently, it would be a very peculiar and strange mix between the music of both bands. After your second comment. I can understand things better. That clarification even further whetted my appetite to listen to Bioscope.
In relation to TD, I advise you to begin listening to Ricochet, which despite being technically a live album is an original work from the band. After that, you may check Phaedra, Rubycon, Stratosfear and Force Majeure. They’re all a bit different. With these, you can probably achieve a good picture from the great music of the band.
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Point taken, I'll follow your suggestions, probably will start tomorrow. I am, however, a completionist, so I normally check out the whole discography once I start (unless I am thoroughly bored with the music, which shouldn't be the case here). So, I'll proceed through their whole body of work, but the albums you suggested will be the priority. It's a big chunk of music, but I did the whole Peter Hammill discography back in the day, so I think I'll manage to eat this elephant
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
But in this case, it's almost impossible to check all. The guys have almost 100 studio works including the soundtracks. It would be a Herculean task.
I myself only know well less than 30 and all over many years. But I must confess that listening to Hammill's discography was also a Herculean task. I never managed to do that. Lol.
Nice trip, bro.
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To be honest, listening to all of their soundtracks was never the plan. Can you list the most essential, perhaps?
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Ok. The only ones I know very well are Sorcerer, Thief, Wavelength and Firestart. Sorcerer is clearly the best and must be checked. The others are ok but probably not essential stuff. But I can admit that there are others that deserve to be checked too. Take a look at Progarchives and you can have better and more complete information.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Glad to see you take this one on, e. This is my favorite of the early three, before they became what they are with Phaedra. But “Fly And Collision Of Comas Sola” has to be singled out, because THOSE DRUMS are sublime. Just this oceanic syncopated roll of percussion, emerging slowly then totally taking over, until they sink back down and the track just stops. I play this track for non-Tangeriners and they all shake their heads with wonder, WTH was that?! Nothing sounds like it.
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I just read recently that Phaedra is considered a prog rock album, which I found very puzzling. Def consider it far more ambient/electronic.
I gotta dig deeper into their discog. I’ve loved everything I’ve heard so far.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Great comment, trickert, and I completely agree with it, despite the fact that I also like very much of Zeit.
Thanks, pal.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah, Gyromania. Phedra is a true prog work, in the electronic side of the genre.
I'm very glad that you liked what you've heard so far. What I advise Lou in one of my comments above applies to you too. You must check before Ricochet, Phaedra, Rubycon, Stratosfear and Force Majeure, if you haven't checked them previously. I can also add the soundtrack Sorcerer to the list.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I like Zeit, too--but in a way, I consider it a whole different animal. There's really nothing quite like it.
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