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.
In The Room Of Percussion
Tangerine Dream Lyrics
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And the joss stick smoke of sense dissolves, forever in its place
The shadowy friends that line the walls all dream while laying down
While the window tapping silhouette in rain begins to drown
In the room of percussion
The discussion slides as you enter through the door
And the one armed bandit
Foolish thoughts of ecstasy are dead but without too much concern
In the heart, my hopes by millions lay twisted as they burn
The crooked faces of clocks appear and die in nightmare dreams
While juggling music surrounds us both and turns our thoughts to screams
In the room of percussion
The discussion slides as you enter through the door
And the one armed bandit
Laughs aloud and disappears once more
My God, the spiders are everywhere!
With ruby wine and our tangled nerves, our mouths flap in despair
And with tumbled words of poetry, we try and prove we care
But the glow-worm light of creativeness moves out into the rain
And the joss stick dies and disappears, its scent alone remains
In the room of percussion
The discussion slides as you enter through the door
And the one armed bandit
Laughs aloud and disappears once more
In the room of percussion
The discussion slides as you enter through the door
And the one armed bandit
Laughs aloud and disappears once more
My God, the spiders are everywhere!
The song "In The Room Of Percussion" by Tangerine Dream explores the surreal and strange world of a seemingly psychedelic experience. The opening lines describe the singer's face as having images of colorful scenes projected onto it as if he is tripping on some sort of drug. The joss stick smoke of sense dissolves forever in its place, indicating that the singer is drifting further into a fantasy world. The walls of the room are lined with shadowy friends who dream while laying down, and a window tapping silhouette in rain begins to drown. These descriptions give off a sense of detachment from reality and the feeling of being lost in one's own mind.
The chorus repeats the phrase "In the room of percussion" to further emphasize the presence of music and sound stimuli contributing to the singer's experience. As the discussion slides, the one-armed bandit appears and disappears once more, indicating that the surreal experience is unpredictable and the singer is unable to control it. The spiders that appear towards the end of the song may symbolize fear or anxiety that comes with this type of experience.
Overall, the song explores the strange and sometimes frightening world of an individual experiencing a psychedelic journey. The lyrics describe the vivid imagery and the uncontrollable nature of the trip, highlighting the various sensory stimuli that contribute to the singer's disrupted sense of reality.
Line by Line Meaning
Mountainous pictures of coloured scenes appear upon my face
My mind is full of vibrant, colorful landscapes that play out across my face like a movie.
And the joss stick smoke of sense dissolves, forever in its place
The incense smoke fills the room, bringing a sense of calm and clarity to our surroundings.
The shadowy friends that line the walls all dream while laying down
The dimly lit room is filled with objects and shapes that appear to be alive and dreaming.
While the window tapping silhouette in rain begins to drown
Outside, the silhouette of a window is barely visible in the pouring rain.
In the room of percussion
We are in a space full of musical instruments and equipment.
The discussion slides as you enter through the door
As soon as you enter the room, the conversation shifts and takes on a different tone.
And the one armed bandit
A slot machine with only one arm to pull is present in the room.
Laughs aloud and disappears once more
The slot machine makes a noise and then stops working.
Foolish thoughts of ecstasy are dead but without too much concern
Any wild or reckless ideas we had about attaining ecstasy have died down without any real worry or sadness.
In the heart, my hopes by millions lay twisted as they burn
In my heart, countless hopes are tangled together and slowly burning away.
The crooked faces of clocks appear and die in nightmare dreams
Distorted clock faces float by, disappearing into dreams that feel like nightmares.
While juggling music surrounds us both and turns our thoughts to screams
The music being played in the room is chaotic and overwhelming, causing us to feel panicked and overwhelmed.
My God, the spiders are everywhere!
There are spiders crawling all over the place, causing alarm and fear.
With ruby wine and our tangled nerves, our mouths flap in despair
We drink red wine and our nerves are frazzled, causing us to speak incoherently and with a sense of hopelessness.
And with tumbled words of poetry, we try and prove we care
We attempt to express our feelings through poetry, even though our words are jumbled and confused.
But the glow-worm light of creativeness moves out into the rain
Our creative spark slowly fades away into obscurity and is lost in the rain.
And the joss stick dies and disappears, its scent alone remains
The incense stick exhausts itself and disappears, leaving only its lingering fragrance behind.
Contributed by Bentley F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.