Edgar Froese RIP
Discussion
Just seen on the BBC website, Edgar Froese one of the founding members of Tangerine Dream, one of the most influential bands in electronic music, died yesterday aged 70.
T Dream are probably my favourite band and have a fantastic discography including film scores that people wouldn't realise was TD
RIP
T Dream are probably my favourite band and have a fantastic discography including film scores that people wouldn't realise was TD
RIP
Was a bit taken aback when I saw this on BBC news site too.
I started listening to Jarre, Kraftwerk, Mike Oldfield etc from the age of 11 or so, but had never heard of Tangerine Dream until 'Choronzon' was released as a single. Liked it, bought 'Exit' and have been a fan ever since. Met Froese, Franke, Schmoelling backstage after a gig in Edinburgh in the 80s, my favourite period of the band. Edgar's live guitar solos were always epic.
I started listening to Jarre, Kraftwerk, Mike Oldfield etc from the age of 11 or so, but had never heard of Tangerine Dream until 'Choronzon' was released as a single. Liked it, bought 'Exit' and have been a fan ever since. Met Froese, Franke, Schmoelling backstage after a gig in Edinburgh in the 80s, my favourite period of the band. Edgar's live guitar solos were always epic.
It's sad he's gone, he'd been in decline for some time, last year he played a gig in Melbourne and didn't seem to know where he was, looked all confused.
He'd had a fall the other year that broke his jaw, was in a coma for a month, really looked quite frail afterwards.
I saw him in 2011 and he had to lean on the equipment to walk on and off stage, was a bit upsetting really as he appeared to be constantly wheeled out doing gig after gig yet for the most part didn't seem to be actually playing anything, just sitting there with his band of session musicians taking up the slack. It seemed wrong and upsetting so decided it was my last gig
Still all a bit upsetting, I was a huge fan of Tangerine Dream right up until Edgar parted with Christoph, the music he did afterwards was increasingly average, towards the end he was knocking out endless albums, several per year, he must have lived in the studio, seemed to be milking the brand for every last drop, I wondered what the motivation was.
But it's done now, RIP.
He'd had a fall the other year that broke his jaw, was in a coma for a month, really looked quite frail afterwards.
I saw him in 2011 and he had to lean on the equipment to walk on and off stage, was a bit upsetting really as he appeared to be constantly wheeled out doing gig after gig yet for the most part didn't seem to be actually playing anything, just sitting there with his band of session musicians taking up the slack. It seemed wrong and upsetting so decided it was my last gig
Still all a bit upsetting, I was a huge fan of Tangerine Dream right up until Edgar parted with Christoph, the music he did afterwards was increasingly average, towards the end he was knocking out endless albums, several per year, he must have lived in the studio, seemed to be milking the brand for every last drop, I wondered what the motivation was.
But it's done now, RIP.
I'm quite partial to Logos Live. Exit, White Eagle, Poland, Underwater Sunlight, Livemiles, 'The Keep' & 'The Soldier' soundtracks are my favourites. Schmoelling/Haslinger era with Froese and Franke. I agree that from late '90s onwards TD lost the plot and fired out blandomatic identikit electro-yawn every 3 months.
I loved most of the stuff with Franke, particularly the Schmoelling era (Tangram, Exit, Le Parc, Logos, Poland etc), however I like Live Miles the best as it was a sort of swansong moment with it being the last thing Franke recorded with Froese.
Froese always played down what Franke contributed but it was obvious given how weak the music became without him that there was a key partnership lost.
Froese always played down what Franke contributed but it was obvious given how weak the music became without him that there was a key partnership lost.
With such a variety of musical styles spread over a large time, it's not surprising we've all got different favourite eras. Mine is the "Virgin years" of phaedra, rubycon, ricochet, etc. with Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann and Chris Franke. Almost totally electronic (this was the era of Moog Modular and EMS VCS3 synthesizers) and anything not was heavily "treated" in the studio. One of the most influential gigs I went to in my musical up-bringing, was seeing TD (Peter Baumann replaced by Michael Hoenig) in 1975 at the Royal Albert Hall with a quadraphonic sound system. I had I seat in the "promenaders" section, where it was simply stunning! As has been said elsewhere, electronic dance music is heavily indebted to Tangerine Dream. RIP Edgar.
spyder dryver said:
I saw TD in the early 80's at the Manchester Apollo. The show featured a spectacular laser display, quite a novelty at the time.
My favourite TD album is Tangram. What's yours?
84/85 ish? I saw them at the Hammy Odeon around that time. Great show, although I'd pulled a double shift so done 24 hours before going...I nodded off a couple of times!My favourite TD album is Tangram. What's yours?
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