Tangerine Dream Phaedra CD

Tangerine Dream: Edgar Froese (guitar, organ, Mellotron, synthesizer, bass instrument); Peter Baumann (flute, electric piano, organ); Chris Franke (keyboards, Moog synthesizer).
Phaedra is one of the most important, artistic, and exciting works in the history of electronic music, a brilliant and compelling summation of Tangerine Dream's early avant-space direction balanced with the synthesizer/sequencer technology just beginning to gain a foothold in nonacademic circles. The result is best heard on the 15-minute title track, unparalleled before or since for its depth of sound and vision. Given focus by the arpeggiated trance that drifts in and out of the mix, the track progresses through several passages including a few surprisingly melodic keyboard lines and an assortment of eerie Moog and Mellotron effects, gaseous explosions, and windy sirens. Despite the impending chaos, the track sounds more like a carefully composed classical work than an unrestrained piece of noise. While the title track takes the cake, there are three other excellent tracks on Phaedra. "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares" is a solo Edgar Froese song that uses some surprisingly emotive and affecting synthesizer washes, and "Movements of a Visionary" is a more experimental piece, using treated voices and whispers to drive its hypnotic arpeggios. Perhaps even more powerful as a musical landmark now than when it was first recorded, Phaedra has proven the test of time. ~ John Bush
Widely considered one of Tangerine Dream's masterworks, fallout from the sonic phenomenon that is PHAEDRA can still be found lingering in the ambient movement of the early '90s and in much of contemporary electronica. The aural architecture that the band built from scratch remains unparalleled. Tangerine Dream was truly ahead of its time--the four epic-length tracks on PHAEDRA revealed a band that fully understood--and loved to manipulate--the complex array of knobs, dials, and switches that protruded from their synthesizer facades.
The title track is an almost spooky exercise in synth/sequencer tension and dynamics: while eerie atmospheres of Mellotron go head to head with spiraling Moogs, dense, humming sequencer webs percolate along the surface, motile and mobile. The album's closer, "Sequent C," leaves the listener breathless, as black electronic clouds form and dissipate and the surrounding space becomes corporeal sound. PHAEDRA remains one of the seminal recordings of the electronic movement, and stands up--even years later--as an original, stunning piece of music.Q (5/95, p.134) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...[a] remarkable achievement, given the then fledgling nature of synthesizer technology and the leading role therefore thrust upon the unwieldy and limited Mellotron..."
Q (Magazine) (p.141) - "There are few more inspire albums of German cosmic music than Berlin instrumental pioneers Tangerine Dream's breakthrough."