Tangerine Dream

I don't agree with a lot of what Donofrio_TD says but I do like to hear his views and his posts liven up this Forum. Keep writing, my friend !

Donofrio_TD wrote:

redziller wrote:But where I strongly disagree with your post is your giving career advice to EF. I wouldn't presume to tell my window cleaner when to retire, that's completely a matter for them, but to tell an artist to stop producing music because you're tiring of it is utterly absurd!

Hahaha!! Calm down. It's just an opinion, dude. A very solid one, too, given the fact I'm one of the reasons he's selling his art. Me and millions of people like me (fans) are spending their hard earned money every time they can so his art can even happen, in the first place. I don't want him to go, either, but let's face it: You said it yourself. Almost everything looks the same these days in the TD Universe. Why? Because Edgar is tired, and I'm sorry to say this, but he pretty much looks it. If you're tired and you have everything you could ever want, then maybe it's time for you to take a very well deserved break. Let's not even say a complete retirement, if you don't want to, but perhaps, and many will hate me for saying this (many already do, though), a little hiatus to reflect, to take a deep breath and come up with some good inspiration for the next thing, like what Chris Franke was proposing many decades ago when he left (let's not forget that was one of the main reasons he left TD, Edgar's obsession with a trademark and less and less quality in the music; Johannes did, too, and I don't doubt all the others had the same reason for leaving as well). But if you're going to continue with this somewhat weird obsession about producing more than The Beatles ever produced and having your trademark attached to everything that moves, like on that GTA V game (and compromising your very beliefs for that) then you're bound to get boring and the people who love you and that care about you (if I didn't I wouldn't be here, in the first place) are not going to be quiet about it. And most important, you're being too hard on yourself.

It's not much of a "career advice", my friend, but an opinion and a concern of mine and many of us. And do you really believe Mr. Froese comes to this web forum to read us? Even if he did, do you think he would take ME seriously? Haha! If anything, he'd continue to produce music another 50 years just to shut me up. So take it as what it is, words thrown to the air, nothing more. That's the way it is when it comes to Internet messageboards, especially when they are on official websites created and built especifically for the fans.

I can assure you I am PERFECTLY CALM! Just disagreeing. Better we have polite disagreement than tumbleweed, here of all places. Sorry if I came across aggressively.

So it appears some like the new release and some don't - I guess that's life. I personally never want Edgar to retire but we all know that is not living in the real world. I am just looking forward to the next 2 or 3 years under the Quantum period where I am sure we will all have something to enjoy. Let's just take pleasure in what is round the corner as this is, after all, the final chapter of the legend known as Tangerine Dream!!

ant wrote: So it appears some like the new release and some don't - I guess that's life. I personally never want Edgar to retire but we all know that is not living in the real world. I am just looking forward to the next 2 or 3 years under the Quantum period where I am sure we will all have something to enjoy. Let's just take pleasure in what is round the corner as this is, after all, the final chapter of the legend known as Tangerine Dream!!

Plus ca change, plus ca va, ca marche, ca ira

It would seem that opinions are polarized on Mala Kunia. Here's my two cents worth:

For me, personally, it seems that I weed through each release to find the "gold nuggets"; the tracks that move me and are powerfully evocative. It may be just one track. Sometimes two. Sometimes NONE.

I still purchase each new release, even if I don't find every song to be a complete, 100% masterpiece. I don't know of ANY artists who's every single composition is pure gold. TD is no different. No one is forcing us to buy or even listen to TD's music. We CHOOSE to give our adoration to Edgar & company. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Don't listen.

The same holds true for any work by any artist. What's good and what's bad is completely subjective to the listener. I've seen films that I loved but were torn apart by critics and I've seen films that I hated but were lauded by the "experts". There are no right or wrong opinions when it comes to art.

TD's music is a PERSONAL journey for each and every one of us and each of us takes away what we want/need/like based on who we are and our emotional makeup and experiences in life.

For me, PERSONALLY, the tracks "Shadow and Sun" and "Power of the Rainbow Serpent" are very good examples of those "gold nuggets". On "Power of the Rainbow Serpent", right at the 2:17 mark, the mood of the song shifts to a melody and "feeling" that tore at my heartstrings and I, quite literally, wept. It was cathartic for me to hear this song. I began to remember things and people from my past and reflect on who I am. THAT, my friends, is an amazing gift that TD has given to me for many, many years. THAT is the amazing power of music. THAT is the amazing power of TD.

As for the rest of the songs, they were just OK for me. I doesn't mean I don't like them or will never listen to them again. But each time I revisit "Mala Kunia", I will naturally gravitate to those two songs that moved me so profoundly.

As for Edgar's retirement, it will be a truly sad day for me. The music of Tangerine Dream has been the soundtrack to my heart and the soundtrack to my life since I was a teenager. But, Edgar deserves his retirement. He's been at it for almost 50 years. It's time for him to sit back and relax and enjoy his golden years without having to keep a hectic schedule and tour from country to country and continent to continent.

Remember, it's not the destination that counts. It's the JOURNEY.

I have been journeying with TD for many years now and I don't want it to end. But, when that time comes, I can still revisit the magic any time I choose. The "history book" of my journey with TD is right there on my iPad or on CD.

Dream on.

How boring would it be if we all kept our TD opinions to ourselves and didn't air them on here......?
Like a previous poster said we are all fans, which is why we continue to come on here.
There is always going to be difference of opinions....
May it never end

What a superb post Rayman.

I can see where people are coming from on both sides of this discussion.

For me since The Atomic Series ended there have been some outstanding tracks within all the TD music I have purchased. Life has been enriched with many. I agree some tracks have not been outstanding but the journey of discovery with Tangerine Dream has continued and I am so very grateful for that.

I have to mention, at the very least, The Island of the Fay (although all others in the sonic series are strong also) , Sorcerer 2014, and also taken as a whole work - Chandra II , as being particularly outstanding......for me.

I am enjoying Mala Kunia and particularly track 3 - Madagasmala. This music augurs very well for the music to follow from the Dream. I am looking forward to continuing this journey.






Edit - and what about the live release Phaedra Farewell Tour 2014, what a superb live recording from our band, still out on tour playing all this wonderful music after all this time. It really is quite amazing actually.

Beautifully put RAYMAN. I agree 100%. TD will come to end, like everything does, but what a brilliant journey all us fans have been on for 47 years and counting. And when that sad day does come, boy what an amazing canon of works we will have to enrich our lives until it is time for us to say goodbye. Thank you so much Edgar. But, it's not over until the fat lady sings, as they say. There are still more 'gems' to come I am sure.

Sorcerer,

"Island of the Fay" gave us the track "Breath Kissing Matter's Mouth". PURE GOLD. The song starts off dark and mysterious and then builds in pace and rhythm and climaxes in an incredible blend of sounds. It makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck every time I hear it.

Sorcerer 2014 is AMAZING. The updated sounds have refreshed and revitalized this classic soundtrack. Of particular note for me is "Journey". It is more or less the same as the original version, but the new instrumentation gives the song a new "feel" or new atmosphere. It was like rediscovering this track and exploring avenues of it that I never knew existed before.

"Chandra II" was a pleasant surprise for me. "Chandra I" was just OK (IMO), but part II was a tremendous improvement over its predecessor. I enjoy part II very much.

Friends, these are just my subjective opinions of these tracks/albums. I love to hear what interests the rest of you. Sometimes YOUR opinions make me go back and revisit tracks/albums through a new set of ears. Like many of TDs recordings throughout the years, some of them GROW on you and get better with repeated listenings. There have been many tracks/albums that were just OK (and some I didn't care for at all) that I have changed my opinion about after a subsequent listening.

Just take a moment to realize how AMAZING that is.

TD's musical output has truly been a gift to me for most of my life. And that is something I will never take for granted.

Thank you all for your attention and kind words.

Dream on.

Great post, Rayman.
I think that most of us on the forum have an awful lot to thank Edgar and TD for over the many, many years of innovative, beautiful and profound music. Personally, I do not find the current output to my liking as much as the 70's and 80's and I know that I'll be shot down by those who accuse some of us of living in the past. Nevertheless, TD have truly been a soundtrack to my life since the mid 70's.
What an interesting thread this has been !

Indeed, great post RAYMAN1970!! The music of Tangerine Dream so often uplifted my life,
especially when I had to stay in hospital for a certain time TD was my everyday medicine - thank you so much Edgar & band!

I have to agree with you, Steve C. I find that TD's output from the 70s and 80s to be superior to anything else done after that. I still find those "gold nuggets" in releases from the 90s and beyond, but they don't seem to be as plentiful as in the earlier years (IMO).

For example, from The Hollywood Years - Volume 1", which was released in 1998; I can never get enough of "The Principle Source". For some reason, in reminds me of my late teens, my first love, and my final days of high school. I don't know why, since this album was released many years AFTER that time, but that is the beauty of TD's work; it can transport you to another time and place. All you have to do is listen.....

Dream on.....

Actually I prolly ought not have weighed in here - on some new meds at the moment and I find tunes really irritating. I can listen to zeit and koyaanisqatsi and not much else.

But yes, obvs we all pick out our own. Music is human construct so it can only be understood by another human in their particular and unique frame of reference. I think the biggest mystery is that any two people can like the same music - or perhaps the point is many can like, or love, the same music but for their own particular reasons.

And we change - I recall hating White Eagle. What's with all these bleeding drum machines? But the majesty dawned.

But we ought to recognise that a composer has a more intimate relationship with their own music (again - obvs) so we will not hear the intention.

I have listened only to the 1st track properly on MK and at first I was ready to dismiss it as more of the percussive sequencing we've been hearing for a while. But after ~6 goes the structure became clear and it's more clinical than I had supposed - or at least more than just setting up the progression and dakka-dakka and noodling, but something more considered.

That aside JOURNEY IS DA BOMB old and new style. was le Park - Gaudi Park a middle version? Never made my mind up on that.

Pax. Imus.

Just wanted to share my two cents as well. I purchased Mala Kunia (and was lucky enough to receive one of the signed postcards ) and I think overall its a strong effort. Like many of you mentioned, I think the sheer amount of output from TD might have somewhat diluted their brand name a bit. Almost like the signal to noise ratio has progressively lowered throughout the years, with less "gems" and more filler. That being said, I think Mala Kunia is definitely a step in the right direction. I was very excited with the announcement of the Quantum Years period. Ulrich Schnauss grew up listening to Tangerine Dream and has established himself as a pioneer in electronic music in his own right. That's why I thought it was a brilliant move to bring him into TD. I feel like Madagasmala really showed that Ulrich has been able to bring his own unique sound into TD. It's a breath of fresh air. Shadow and Sun and Power of the Rainbow Serpent are also strong tracks which stand out. Overall, I think there was enough good about Mala Kunia that makes me look forward to the full album that will be released next year. It takes time for a new lineup to gel and learn how to work effectively together. It certainly feels like a special period in TD history and not just more of the same.

One comparison I think provides some perspective is between Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk were also a hugely influential electronic act but their approach was a lot different. They have a very small discography (around 8 albums I believe) with all of their releases being carefully crafted and thought out. They are perfectionists in that sense. I respect that Tangerine Dream is so open in their approach to music. The large output that they have gives the fans more to appreciate. I personally think part of TD's appeal is their large discography and the fun of having to "catch them all". Its been very fun starting a TD record collection because there is almost always more that you can find as a fan. The sheer depth of their discography and their near 50 year history have helped them establish a timeless vibe.

Good to see new posters and new opinions