Edgar Froese RIP

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dodgepot

Original Poster:

268 posts

139 months

Saturday 24th January 2015
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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

speedtwelve

3,510 posts

272 months

Saturday 24th January 2015
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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.


Laurel Green

30,770 posts

231 months

Sunday 25th January 2015
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frown RIP, Herr Froese.

qube_TA

8,402 posts

244 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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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.


spyder dryver

1,329 posts

215 months

Monday 26th January 2015
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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?

speedtwelve

3,510 posts

272 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
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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.

qube_TA

8,402 posts

244 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
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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.


rikardo

9 posts

118 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
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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.

Pothole

34,367 posts

281 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
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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!