Esoteric / Reative (label)
29 August 2011 (released)
22 August 2011
The history of Tangerine Dream is generally reckoned in phases – the ‘Space’ phase,, their ‘Pink’ phase, the ‘Blue’ period etc. and this masterpiece sits at the end of their ‘Space’ period – the last recording they did for the German OHR label.
The opening track, ‘Atem’ (Breath) feels like the rush of rising up through the waters until your head breaks the surface and you take that first breath and it is a real glimpse of their mastery that they seem to tell you a story of your own existence with utterly alien sounds. The need to breath is the most primal thing there is and they describe it brilliantly with primal and frenzied drumming before moving to the serenity of existence. Add a heartbeat and you could almost call it Birth (Geburt) but that would have been trite – this album is all adult and you need a fully developed cortex to fully appreciate it.
Which doesn’t say that it will not appeal to others: Tangerine Dream were/are stalwarts of the Ambient and symphonic/electronic movements and there are inevitably elements of both here but at this point in their career they were still striving to put their torrent of ideas down and so you have music that is deeper than almost any of their contemporaries.
They use holes in the soundscape better than anyone and there is a palpable front to back as well as side to side so they create a truly three dimensional feel to their music. Someone else described their music of this period as ‘blurring the edges of electronic music and avant-garde classical music’ and I think that ‘Atem’ is the perfect example of that.
If the original album, remastered from TD’s own master tapes, wasn’t good enough, this is packaged with a recording live from the Deutschehalle in 1973 that has never been released before. A tad more Hawkwind than the original album but the interplay between Froese, Fracke & Baumann proves that electronic music can be invigorating live as well as in the studio.
