Tangerine Dream – Phaedra (1974)

The group has had many personnel changes but founder member Edgar Froese had been a constant until his death in 2015; the group continues.   Formed in 1967 they were largely unknown outside their native Germany until signing with Virgin; this was their breakthrough record.  Influenced by Terry Riley ‘A Rainbow in C’ and possibly Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells Tangerien Dream were leaders and innovators in what became known as Electronic Music and was mostly entirely instrumental. They have released over 100 albums (rivalling even Frank Zappa) many are film soundtracks, the most famous maybe being ‘Sorcerer’ and ‘Force Majeure’.  But Phaedra and it’s follow up ‘Rubycon’ remain their most successful.  I saw them, or rather I saw banks of electronic cabinets and a couple of heads appearing occasionally from the stacked keyboards, once at North London Polytechnic.  The sound was amazing, complex and slowly weaving in and out strange slow melodies.  Hard to pick out even phrases and the music drifts by while your mind wanders onto other things.  Still, a remarkable record, and quite hard to conceive that this sort of thing would even get a release today, or be successful.