Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar … Read Full Bio ↴Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only continuous member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-'70s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann. In 1979, Johannes Schmoelling replaced Baumann. Since Froese's death in 2015, the group has been under the leadership of Thorsten Quaeschning (Froese's chosen successor and the current longest-serving band member, having joined in 2005). He is joined by violinist Hoshiko Yamane who joined in 2011, Ulrich Schnauss who joined in 2014 and Paul Frick who joined 9 June 2020.

Tangerine Dream are considered a pioneering act in electronica. Their work with the electronic music Ohr label produced albums that had a pivotal role in the development of the German musical scene known as kosmische ("cosmic"). Their "Virgin Years", so called because of their association with Virgin Records, produced albums that further explored synthesizers and sequencers, including the UK top 20 albums Phaedra (1974) and Rubycon (1975). The group also had a successful career composing film soundtracks, creating over 60 scores, which include those for the films Sorcerer, Thief, The Soldier, Risky Business, Flashpoint, The Keep, Firestarter, Legend, Three O'Clock High, Near Dark, Shy People, and Miracle Mile.

From the late 1990s into the 2000s, Tangerine Dream continued to explore other styles of instrumental music as well as electronica. Their recorded output has been prolific, including over one hundred albums. Among other scoring projects, they helped create the soundtrack for the video game Grand Theft Auto V. Their mid-1970s work has been profoundly influential in the development of electronic music styles such as new age (although the band themselves disliked the term) and electronic dance music.

Their most recent album of all-new music, Quantum Gate, was released on 29 September 2017. In December 2019, the band released Recurring Dreams, a compilation of new recordings of some of the band's classic compositions.

The group is currently working on a new album as a four-piece to be released in 2021 via Kscope.

Tangerine Dream began as a surreal rock band, with each of the members contributing different musical influences and styles. Edgar Froese's guitar style was inspired by Jimi Hendrix, while Christopher Franke contributed the more avant garde elements of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Terry Riley. Yes-like progressive rock influence was brought in by Steve Jolliffe on Cyclone. The sample-based sound collages of Johannes Schmoelling drew their inspiration from a number of sources; one instance is Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians on parts of Logos Live, and the track "Love on a Real Train" from the Risky Business soundtrack.

Classical music has had an influence on the sound of Tangerine Dream over the years. György Ligeti, Johann Sebastian Bach, Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis, Maurice Ravel, and Arcangelo Corelli are clearly visible as dominant influences in the early albums. A Baroque sensibility sometimes informs the more coordinated sequencer patterns, which has its most direct expression in the La Folia section that comes at the very end of the title track of Force Majeure. In live performances, the piano solos often directly quoted from Romantic classical works for piano, such as the Beethoven and Mozart snippets in much of the late 1970s – early 1980s stage shows. In the bootleg recording of the Mannheim Mozartsaal concert of 1976 (Tangerine Tree volume 13), the first part of the first piece also clearly quotes from Franz Liszt's Totentanz. The first phrase is played on a harpsichord synthesizer patch and is answered by the second half of the phrase in a flute voicing on a Mellotron. During the 1990s, many releases included recordings of classical compositions: Pictures at an Exhibition (on Turn of the Tides), Largo (from Xerxes) (on Tyranny of Beauty), Symphony in A Minor (by J. S. Bach), and Concerto in A Major / Adagio (by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) (both on Ambient Monkeys).

Since the 1990s, Tangerine Dream have also recorded cover versions of Jimi Hendrix' "Purple Haze" (first on 220 Volt Live) and The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", "Back in the U.S.S.R.", "Tomorrow Never Knows", and "Norwegian Wood".

An infrequently recurring non-musical influence on Tangerine Dream, and Edgar Froese in particular, have been 12th–19th-century poets. This was first evident on the 1981 album Exit, the track title "Pilots of the Purple Twilight" being a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Locksley Hall. Six years later, the album Tyger featured poems from William Blake set to music; and around the turn of the millennium, Edgar Froese started working on a musical trilogy based on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, completed in 2006. Most recently, the 2007 album Madcap's Flaming Duty features more poems set to music, some again from Blake but also e.g. Walt Whitman.

Pink Floyd were also an influence on Edgar Froese and Tangerine Dream, the band in its very early psychedelic rock band phase playing improvisations based on Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive". Madcap's Flaming Duty is dedicated to the memory of the late Syd Barrett. The title refers to Barrett's solo release "The Madcap Laughs".

The band's influence can be felt in ambient artists such as Deepspace, The Future Sound of London, David Kristian, and Global Communication, as well as rock, pop, and dance artists such as Porcupine Tree, M83, DJ Shadow, Ulrich Schnauss, Cut Copy, and Kasabian. The band also clearly influenced 1990s and 2000s trance music, where lush soundscapes and synth pads are used along with repetitive synth sequences, much like in their 1975 releases Rubycon and Ricochet, as well as some of their music from the early 1980s. The group have also been sampled countless times, more recently by Recoil on the album SubHuman, by Sasha on Involver, and on several Houzan Suzuki albums. Michael Jackson also cited Tangerine Dream as one of his favourite bands, especially their 1977 soundtrack for Sorcerer.

Astrophel And Stella
Tangerine Dream Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

What if we new beauties see,
Will they not stir new affection?
I will thinke they pictures be,
(Image-like, of saints perfection)
Poorely counterfeting thee.

But your reasons purest light
Bids you leaue such minds to be

Who is it that this darke night

Well, in absence this will dy;
Leaue to see, and leaue to wonder.
Absence sure will helpe, if I
Can learne how my selfe to sunder

But time will these thoughts remoue;
Time doth work what no man know.

Time doth as the subiect proue;
With time still the affection groweth
In the faithful turtle-doue.

Why, alas, and are you he?
Be not yet those fancies changed?
Deare, when you find change in me,

Well, in absence this will dy;
Leaue to see, and leaue to wonder.
Absence sure will helpe, if I
Can learne how my selfe to sunder

Well, in absence this will dy;
Leaue to see, and leaue to wonder.
Absence sure will helpe, if I
Can learne how my selfe to sunder

Well, in absence this will dy;
Leaue to see, and leaue to wonder.
Absence sure will helpe, if I
Can learne how my selfe to sunder

Well, in absence this will dy;
Leaue to see, and leaue to wonder.

Absence sure will helpe, if I
Can learne how my selfe to sunder

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Tangerine Dream's "Astrophel And Stella" is a song about missing someone deeply and hoping that absence can help alleviate the pain. The opening lines of the song suggest that seeing new beauties may spark new feelings of affection, but the singer knows that no one else can compare to the one they are missing. The singer considers these new faces as "poorly counterfeiting" the person they long for. The purest light of reason also urges the singer to move on from these futile feelings, but they cannot help but be hopelessly devoted.

The singer hopes that time and absence will help them learn to let go of their old feelings. They believe that being away from the subject of their affection will help them to forget and get over the longing. The singer admits that they cannot control their emotions when it comes to this person and hopes that if the roles were reversed, the individual would feel the same way. The song is a melancholic but relatable portrayal of the pain of longing for someone far away.

Line by Line Meaning

What if we new beauties see,
What if we were to see new forms of beauty, would it not awaken new passion within us?

Will they not stir new affection?
Would they not stir a new and deeper form of love within us, as a result of their beauty?

I will thinke they pictures be,
I would think that they are mere images or representations of perfection, akin to those of saints.

(Image-like, of saints perfection)
(perfect in form and appearance, akin to depictions of revered religious figures)

Poorely counterfeting thee.
Inadequately imitating your qualities and beauty.

But your reasons purest light
But your purest reason and logic

Bids you leaue such minds to be
Instructs you to abandon such thoughts

Who is it that this darke night
Who is it that, during this dark and uncertain time,

Well, in absence this will dy;
Well, this feeling will dissipate in your absence

Leaue to see, and leaue to wonder.
I must learn to stop looking and stop wondering

Absence sure will helpe, if I
If I can find a way to detach myself from you in your absence,

Can learne how my selfe to sunder
I may learn how to separate myself from this emotion and remain distant

But time will these thoughts remoue;
However, over time these thoughts and feelings will disappear

Time doth work what no man know.
Time has a way of resolving and changing things without any clear reason

Time doth as the subiect proue;
Time behaves as the situation dictates

With time still the affection groweth
Despite the passage of time, the strength of the affection continues to grow

In the faithful turtle-doue.
In a way that is strong and enduring, much like that of a devoted turtle-dove in love

Why, alas, and are you he?
Why, oh why, have you changed, my love?

Be not yet those fancies changed?
Have not your feelings or desires changed from what they once were?

Deare, when you find change in me,
My dear, if you find that I have changed, too,