This is the third entry in my album review series. So far, I’ve reviewed two of the most important albums released by one of my favorite groups, Tangerine Dream. I’m still reviewing albums by them, because so many have exerted an outsized influence on music in general, despite many people still not knowing who they are. Quite simply, these are seminal albums created during a seminal decade of music, the 1970s.
In August 1976, Tangerine Dream returned to the studio. They had wrapped up several tours over the preceding year and a half, and their goal now was to release a proper response to their prior three releases: Phaedra, Rubycon, and Ricochet (a live album). The problem is similar to the vexing issue they faced when recording Rubycon: how do you follow two five-star albums and still maintain quality and interest without simply aping the formula that got you where you are?
It seemed obvious to Edgar Froese and his bandmates that they needed to take things in a different direction. But which direction? You can’t go too far without alienating your fanbase. Tangerine Dream had carved out a niche for themselves that seemed to reject any and every attempt at the commercialization of their music. They were fortunate that they label allowed them the freedom and space to do this. But what to do now?
One thing that TD excelled at: creating audio soundscapes. And then they took it a step further: they combined their soundscape with melody for the first time.
From 30 Years of Dreaming by Kent Eskildsen:
In August 1976, Tangerine Dream went to the Audio studio in Berlin to record what would become the album Stratosfear. It was released in October, and at the same time the band went on a big tour throughout Europe to promote the album. More than 30 concerts in Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, England and Scotland were accomplished.
Stratosfear is much more ordinary in its sound and expression than the earlier albums. The tracks are shorter than before and they are much more melodic. The music has a higher degree of tonality and a lot of acoustic instruments like the grand piano, the chembalo and the mouth organ (!). Edgar Froese made frequent use of his abilities on both the acoustic and the electric guitar. His very characteristic and melodic way of playing has later on become one of the trademarks of the band.
As so many times before, in these very early days of electronics, they had a lot of problems with their equipment while recording: Peter Baumann had a new sequencer, which it had taken a German company a year to build, but it was not completely ready and in the studio it did not work properly. When it was finally made to work, the multi-track recorders broke down and at one point, smoke was pouring out of the studio's Dolby units and they could not record without them.
The three members of the band were very frustrated and besides the technical problems they where arguing about what music they should play and have on the album:
Froese: "When I appeared in the studio one day with a harmonica, the absurdity of the situation was revealed. It was supposed to be a joke, retort to the unpredictability of the technology, but after playing it during the beginning of 3 a.m. At The Border Of The Marsh From Okefenokee, everybody decided to leave it on. So much had happened during these sessions -- master tapes at times disappeared from the studio, finished tracks were mysteriously erased and the mixing console finally went up in smoke. The events which occurred during the making of Stratosfear alone would fill an entire book!". (Interview with Mark Pendergast, January 1994, Tangents)
If you could feel the same mood on the earlier albums as in the movie, 2001 -- A Space Odyssey, then the cover of Stratosfear might be a clear reference to this movie; big monolith-like objects floating in formation over a deserted and strange landscape! Once again a spectacular cover from the hands of Monique Froese.
Stratosfear is a classic, and in my opinion, also one of the absolutely best albums by Tangerine Dream.
Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke describe some of the process:
Edgar Froese: "Somebody said Stratosfear has a sort of atmospheric circle round the music. It's hard to explain with words. Every music can do this, but that record has a particularly strange, mysterious atmosphere. Here again, some of the titles relate to Greek philosophy."
Chris Franke: "Normally, when we go into the studio, there's no music written and we work by a system of trial and error. We work like Salvador Dali, so we're more like developers than composers. We don't write music, then memorise it, then play it. No, we play little bits, record them on tape or in the computer, decide immediately if we want to keep them or change them. It's a kind of composition that could not have happened before, because you would need an orchestra to be playing all the parts."
(Interview with Johnny Black, thisBEAT, issue 17, April 1986)
The result is a consistent fan favorite over the last nearly 50 years: Stratosfear.
Here is a 2018 rendition (by the then-current lineup) of the title track, Stratosfear:
Track listing
Side one
1."Stratosfear"10:04
2."The Big Sleep in Search of Hades"4:45
Side two
1."3 AM at the Border of the Marsh from Okefenokee"8:10
2."Invisible Limits"11:40
Personnel
Christopher Franke – Moog synthesizer, organ, percussion, loop mellotron, harpsichord
Edgar Froese – mellotron, Moog synthesizer, twelve and six-string guitar, grand piano, bass guitar, mouth organ
Peter Baumann – Moog synthesizer, Projekt Elektronik rhythm computer, Fender Rhodes, mellotron