Phaedra
song by Tangerine Dream
Humankind has always looked at the sky, still asking questions about space, black holes, planets, and galaxies. Today more than ever.
In the mid-60s, the incredible excitement for the beginning of space travel changed our perspective. We could approach outer space both physically and psychologically because of the new tools we were inventing. We could fly up there and have a better look around. American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts started getting closer and closer with their first journeys to the Moon and spacewalks in orbit.
“But, instead of traveling with space ships and lunar modules, they used their keyboards and the new synthesizers to explore.”
Especially German musicians, perhaps influenced by both the US and Soviet Union, for the lack of political and financial means, found this alternative way to explore space too, creating the perfect soundtracks for those times.
Edgar Froese founded Tangerine Dream in 1967, right in the middle of the space run. It's no surprise he is considered one of the founders of the so-called kosmische German music scene.
The band has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese as the only continuous member until his death in January 2015. Fascinated by technology, he built custom-made instruments and, wherever he went, collected sounds with tape recorders, becoming a precursor to the emerging technology of the sequencer. The early discography of Tangerine Dream is considered to have profoundly influenced electronic music styles such as new-age and electronic dance music.
The band's critical moment was releasing their fifth album Phaedra, the first Tangerine Dream album published by Virgin Records in 1974 (Ohr Records released the band's first four albums).
During this period, the group's lineup was a trio composed of Froese, Christopher Franke (in the band from 1970 until 1987), and Peter Baumann (1971-1977), probably the best-known lineup the many Tangerine Dream ever had.
“The album unexpectedly reached number 15 in the UK charts making it one of the first commercial albums to feature sequencers.”
People were ready to listen to this instrumental music more than ever, maybe because of the enormous commercial success of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon, released only one year before, in 1973.
The track I chose to talk about is the title and opening track Phaedra, a 17-minute "space travel soundtrack" almost composed accidentally: Franke was experimenting in the studio with a Moog synthesizer, and the tape was rolling at the same time by happenstance. Its Arpeggiators and Oscillators were so sensitive to changes in temperature that they would drift badly in tuning as the equipment warmed up.
If you listen to it carefully, you will notice minor pitch changes during the track. Other instruments used in the album's making were the Mellotron, another instrument the band heavily experimented with and played by Froese, and the VCS 3 synthesizer alternatively played by all the three band members.
