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.
Episode 1: Wisdom and Tragedy
Tangerine Dream Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Iro aseta mama no kono sekai de
Ano hi kara zutto ore wa zutto shinjiteta
Mata deau koto wo yakusoku no hi wo
Yume ni ruuru nante nai!
Migatte na koto wa dekinai!
Futari ga egaku mirai wa majiwaru
Dare yori mo soba ni ita yasashisa no kioku wo tadoreba
Otagai ga mezasu yume wa kitto onaji bashou na noni
Oi kakete miokutta ne unmei no kaze ni samayou tte
Bokutachi wa oretachi wa mata senaka o muketa mama de hanareta
In Tangerine Dream's song Episode 1: Wisdom and Tragedy, the lyrics provide a sense of longing, nostalgia, and regret. The first verse speaks of waiting and believing in the promise of meeting again in a world that seems to have lost its vibrancy. The second verse reveals a sense of frustration with not being able to control everything and that the future is uncertain. Despite this, the chorus serves as a reminder that their dreams should not be restricted by rules or limitations because they are the only ones creating their future.
The song conveys emotion and introspection in a deeply personal and relatable way. The lyrics suggest a journey of accepting the past, cherishing memories, and treasuring the connections one has made in life. The energy of the music combined with the lyrics conveys both regret and hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Line by Line Meaning
Ano hi kara zutto boku wa zutto matte ita
Since that day, I have been waiting and waiting
Iro aseta mama no kono sekai de
In this world where the colors have faded away
Ano hi kara zutto ore wa zutto shinjiteta
Since that day, I have always believed
Mata deau koto wo yakusoku no hi wo
The promised day when we will meet again
Yume ni ruuru nante nai!
There are no rules in dreams!
Migatte na koto wa dekinai!
We cannot be selfish!
Futari ga egaku mirai wa majiwaru
The future we envision will intertwine
Koto naki one way road
A one-way road with no way to turn back
Dare yori mo soba ni ita yasashisa no kioku wo tadoreba
If we follow the memories of kindness from those closest to us
Otagai ga mezasu yume wa kitto onaji bashou na noni
Our dreams, which we strive for, surely lead to the same place
Oi kakete miokutta ne unmei no kaze ni samayou tte
While chasing after each other, we left behind the wind of fate
Bokutachi wa oretachi wa mata senaka o muketa mama de hanareta
We were separated again, still facing each other, as we always have
Writer(s): Christoph Franke
Contributed by Chase T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
TheSynthZone
Even though this performance of Tangram has less, shall we say, precision, it does add to the feel of the original. I do prefer the studio recording from the 1980's more, it is simply magical in it's perfection. Sequencing music tends to be more firmly structural in composition and in a studio setting every detail is honed to an exact form. That can be bad but in this style of electronic art, it is not at all!
wm brunton
Always enjoyed this one...
a
What a loss that Edgar died,going back to the roots with these versions is wonderful, no bongos,no flutes just pure electronic I hope the rumors are true that Peter Baumann is going to carry on the great TD sound.