Open Letter to Peter Baumann

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Hipgnosis
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Open Letter to Peter Baumann

Post by Hipgnosis »

Hi,

An open letter to Peter Baumann

Thanks for having taken the time to check things ... and in some ways inject some idealistic hope of what you would be able to do and add, to some of the fragments of what was left of Edgar's music in his many hundreds of hard drives and what not.

I have always looked at you, as a member of a group that helped bring about a revolution in music, by taking a machine ... really, a machine ... think about it ... and turn it into an instrument. And those days went on and on, and you already know that legacy and where it went and how far it defined a lot of music and instrumentation today.

That said, I came to Tangerine Dream, and other musical groups, to get away from the song format that had become the rut of most radio. Tangerine Dream was very good for that, as became Klaus Schulze and other folks, specially in the early days of FM radio in California, where so much of this material got a lot of ears and air play, despite the usual insults about washing machine music, that you are well familiar with.

My view of those days, is that its music was very alive, totally different, and felt like ... the classical music of my generation ... the valuable landmark of my generation ... we left a strong imprint, and it was not just a guitar playing an anthem. And, above all no one cares, and all you see is garbage. Not the ending I would lvoe to see with our music and work, let alone ... life!

Speed the clock 40 years, and hearing your name was ... different.

My first thought was that you might be wanted to yapp with TD, in order to help create some more "free form" and experimental sounds, that help define "experience" in our lives. Alas ... after hearing the little bits and pieces, all I could think of, was how fast some of these wanted to become a "song" and played and defined in a style, that was "recognizeable" ... as opposed to such a free form sounding thing like the early work of TD, that you were a part of. For this comment, I have already been trashed and it was an honest evaluation since so much of the later material is almost all within a song format, with a beginning, middle and an end ... but they forgot the Goddard'ism ... not necessarily in that order, which would make it surrealistic and more interesting and help define/create a new vision and "story", instead of just another song where the theme comes up, and then eventually finishes the song.

Sure enough, I got trashed for thinking that today, bacause Peter Baumann could not help define a new Bach or Mozart ... he had to be on line with all those other song writers of this year, and write the same 4 bar sequences, with another effect of course, to make that song, more "original".

While I still love to listen to TD, in the past 5 to 10 years, its design and creativity got ... lazy ... in my book. I started to feel that these folks imagined that their ability to do this and that with a synthesizer and add an effect and twist and shout it into another effect, made them a master musician and above all, a creative force ... and tomorrow their next song is the same, with a different knob or twist on a brand spanking new synthesizer.

None of us, know, or understood, your coming over to help ... and your leaving. I made an effort based on this history here shown ... and it got trashed by folks on this board ... I'm not sure ... I don't want to be mean here at all ... but they weren't there and saw the things we did ... when Edgar even says in that "krautrock" special ... there was no past no family ... no nothing ... just us ... it was valuable to me ... on an artistic ideal and concept ... we do things differently ... and now ... it was like you are not allowed to be different! And saying, or conceiving it, is even worse to folks that can't see such a large history and get "beyond" the "song" idea.

The words have lost their meaning. Even Edgar's on that show. And I can't help thinking that your words and views got turned away at the wrong time and place by people ... who could not possibly understand ... what you saw, knew, and understood.

I'm out of words, and I wish nothing but the bestest for you and hopefully we can see you again involved in music. Right now, specially, we are in dire need of something more vital, expressive, and different, than the same thing ... just another sound, turned into an opening and closing for a song ... how original! Why can't the "sound" continue and develop itself, instead of it disappearing into a song?

I, for one, would love to hear you say something ... I think there is more in there than meets the eye and mind, but I'm not sure that silence is the way to go. We need more and fresher ideas, and a simple new song on the same machine is not enough anymore, by folks that do not understand the concepts of "sound", "noise", "music" and "song".

Wishing you the best for the holidays, with much love and care for all and the family.

And the same for the Froese family, by the way. I soooooo wanted a book for Christmas!

Pedro
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Insvims
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Re: Open Letter to Peter Baumann

Post by Insvims »

You say it yourself:
Hipgnosis wrote:I, for one, would love to hear you say something ... I think there is more in there than meets the eye and mind...
So why not wait and hear, rather than fuss about something we can't possibly know?
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T4N63R1N3 DR34M
Posts: 2279
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:28 pm

Re: Open Letter to Peter Baumann

Post by T4N63R1N3 DR34M »

I'm out of words
...if only that were true....

:wink:
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projekt-elektronik
Posts: 98
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:52 am

Re: Open Letter to Peter Baumann

Post by projekt-elektronik »

Gosh, I can't say how much I'm looking forward to my own retirement.

So much time, so little to do.
"Den Brüdern trau ich nicht. Den Brüdern trau ich nicht! Kommt alles vom Tonband." (Edgar Froese -- Signale aus der Schwäbischen Straße)
Steve C
Posts: 178
Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: Open Letter to Peter Baumann

Post by Steve C »

:lol:
projekt-elektronik wrote:Gosh, I can't say how much I'm looking forward to my own retirement.

So much time, so little to do.
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