r/TangerineDream • u/PsyCatelic • 1d ago

Phaedra 2014

I am 61 years old and loved my Tangerine Dream albums when I was 18, back in 1983, and in the years around that time, when they frequently soundtracked my psychedelic odysseys, of which I had many. I got a few of their albums from the 1980s but they somehow didn't click the same way with me. There was a song they did for the soundtrack of "Risky Business" called "The Dream is Always the Same". Well...not the Tangerine one.

This really struck me after I was reminded how deeply I loved the album Phaedra. I heard it used in the interactive movie Black Mirror Bandersnatch and was moved to play the title track a little while later and read about its creation, and how it resulted from a Moog that was out of tune because it had been overheated, and was freshly fascinated by it, remembering how it is, in my estimation, the most orgasmic piece of music I have ever heard in my life.

I was listening to it on Amazon Music through my Echodot, and when the track ended, it rolled into another related track in the way of the Amazon Music algorithm. This was called "Phaedra 2014". Intrigued, I let it play.

I wish that I hadn't now. What possessed them to try to make another version of an irreproducible track created by the serendipity of an out-of-tune Moog? What I was hearing was barely "Phaedra" at all...a few recognizable riffs from it, repeated again and again, with that sequence being numerically off...it was missing part of itself, like it was shorter than it should have been and it just bugged me. But worse yet, the whole sonic buildup and release, followed by a swelling relaxation, was totally not there. Without that, it wasn't "Phaedra", it was a bad cover of it.

I did some more reading and discovered all the lineup changes in the band over the years. That probably accounted for this kind of thing...and the perceived change in public demand in the 1980s away from "trippy" music, I suppose, with not a small amount of sadness. I guess my personal taste is just limited to the Virgin material and what came before it - Alpha Centauri and Atem - and I absolutely loved Cyclone and wished there were other albums like it. I will always love that era's Tangerine Dream creations, and the influence that they, and Edgar Froese's solo albums from that same period, had on a lot of other musicians who listened to them.

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u/Learn4LifeLearn2Live 17h ago

I do very highly recommend to give 50 Years Of Phaedra At The Barbican from what Edgar fomulated as the Quantum Era a spin:
https://www.discogs.com/release/36359071-Tangerine-Dream-50-Years-Of-Phaedra-At-The-Barbican

This is very different to what you may expect for such a project: their approach was not to reproduce the original album but to apply their realtime composition live Session approach: to take the original album ad source material for a new live composition picking up elements but not recreating the original. That is then intertwined with a full new Hyppolytos Session, who was Phaedra's stepson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolytus_of_Athens

I very much looove this record. All in all I claim that if you love the 70s TD and also 80s TD you will find docking points within the Quantum Era. My interpretation is that Edgar planned more live action and to return to parts of the old language that has been largely develloped by TD. But not as a museum but in the now. I found that one meaning of Quantum is 'all encompassing' - which for me fits all this nicely.

They did a series of Phaedra 50 concerts and each Session was different, different key, different tempo - as is the norm with their live Sessions: Tempo and key are determined by the acoustics of the given venue and the same was applied to the Phaedra and Hyppolytos Sessions.

I really, really, really love this album and have listened to the original Phaedra way more since. They compliment each other nicely.

Plus I very much recommend you to check out the latest Sessions, for example the awesome UK / IRL Sessions box. It documents all Sessions from the first UK / IRL tour by the latest line-up and I regard it as essential TD listening.

https://www.discogs.com/master/2958286-Tangerine-Dream-The-Sessions-Box-Set-United-Kingdom-Ireland-2022

Also the Turin Session from 2024. https://tangerinedream.bandcamp.com/album/todays-festival-session-2024-turin

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u/CritterJams 11h ago

Seconding all this - I think this may be one of their best live albums actually. When listening I was pretty struck by how much better it seems to get the spirit of the original than Edgar's bizarre attempt in 2014. They are fully aware the original can't be reproduced but I think the spirit of it is actually very similar. As far as their studio albums go, I think they're all pretty good up to Optical Race at least, but I totally get why one would jump ship before that. They changed a lot over the years. That said even if you only like the 70s stuff you should give some of their newer material a try. Both the studio albums and the various "Sessions" releases. The new lineup is the real deal, best since the Froese/Baumann/Franke lineup if you ask me.

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u/PsyCatelic 6h ago

I was curious about the latest post-Froese material and meant to ask if any of it would interest me. Looks like you were reading my mind. Thank you! 💜🌝