Edgar Froese

184

5 Stars

Edgar Froese was born on D-Day 1944 in Prussia; an apt date, as for many, this signified a time of new beginnings.

Growing up in Berlin, he was soon learning piano and guitar and attending the Academy of Arts. In 1964, he formed a band called ‘The Ones’ playing psychedelic music. On tour in Spain, Froese encountered Salvador Dali, a meeting that would prove very fateful for the young German lad as Dali encouraged him to be more experimental in his musical visions. By 1967, Froese had disbanded ‘The Ones’ and formed the nucleus of the idea that became Tangerine Dream. So-called after mishearing the lyrics to the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds; Tangerine Trees and Marmalade Skies.”

Tangerine Dream was the first band to be credited with the term “Electronica,” although their music stretched to many fields, including Ambient, Rock, Psychedelia, and Cinemascope, being influenced by Terry Riley and John Cage and, in turn, becoming far more influential than anybody dared think at the time. The music, in the beginning, was tagged as Kosmische, literally translated to cosmic!

Although Tangerine Dream had a very fluid lineup, Edgar Froese led the band from the beginning until his death in 2015. To say that he was prolific would be a master of understatement. He appeared on over two hundred official studio releases by Tangerine Dream and as a solo artist. He was also much in demand as a soundtrack composer in the Hollywood and television markets, creating music for such films as ‘Catch Me If You Can,’ ‘Fire Starter’ and ‘Risky Business.’ He collaborated with many people, including Brian May of Queen, David Bowie, and Eno, and he had a fascination with opera and classical music. If you count live recordings, greatest hits, compilations, re-releases, etc., Froese probably appears on over four hundred discs, never mind the myriad of bootlegs.

***Master Musician Edgar Froese’s influence will be felt for centuries.***

After only five Tangerine Dream albums, they released their breakthrough album Phaedra on Richard Branson’s new Virgin Records, reaching number 15 on the UK charts. Edgar Froese then needed to spread his wings by releasing his first solo album.

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‘Aqua’ arrived in the record racks in the summer of 1974. The perfect accompaniment to sunny times, the album contains four pieces of music to blow your mind. The album has been re-mastered and re-recorded several times in different versions, but we are talking about the 2005 UK release here.

The title track opens with water trickling down a brook working its way downstream. Froese use of natural sound, keyboards, synthesizers, mellotrons and computers enhance your journey. The water continues its journey down rivers, rapids, waterfalls and oceans before turning into a rainbow, coming full circle back to a trickle as the music finishes. Aqua was one of the first albums to be recorded using artificial headphone technology, and although a little outdated now, the effects are still staggering. The music rattles around the speakers with a beautiful flow. As it says on the album cover, “To appreciate fully the revolutionary sound on this album please listen on headphones.”

The second suite, Panorphelia, is more of a rocket journey through the stratosphere, colliding with many different universes, leaving you dangling in space, breathless. This is followed by Ngc 891 (A flight number?) for a plane journey on our own planet Earth. Starting off with the sound of a jet airliner taking off before taking you on a journey, presumably over our oceans, before finishing quite naturally with the sounds of the plane landing. The final piece takes us back to the water.

Froese is a master of telling stories with four different ones here for your edification, without one spoken word so you can let the journey take you wherever you wish.

Master Musician Edgar Froese’s influence will be felt for centuries.