Tangerine Dream

The first thing that comes in to my head is that it would be great to include interviews with as many past members of Tangerine Dream as possible. I think this would provide a varied overview and provide different perspectives on the various albums, tours, soundtracks, developments in music technology down the years and all the many stylistic changes that TD went through.

For me a proper warts and all documentary charting the history of the band is long, long overdue.
To do it properly though would be expensive, I like the documentaries BBC4 do on music, where they find everyone who was involved at key moments and interview them (the ones they've done with Mike Oldfield, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac etc are an ideal model to emulate).
Therefore I'd want as many former members as possible to be interviewed and tell their sides of the story, what happened, how they met, what they did, how they did it. So Schulze, Franke, Baumann, Schmoelling, Haslinger, J Froese & TQ would ideally be there. Plus the likes of Richard Branson, he signed them, had them record those classic albums, the engineers, the producers, people that worked on those albums, what happened? What's the story? Their contemporaries, how did they get on, were they influenced by others, the ones they influenced.
Given the length of time TD and the epic span from those Bath Tub gigs to GTA there's an awful lot of ground to cover, you'd need a 3 hour programme!

Good luck.

Yes, I agree. To get as many of the former TD Members to interview in depth would be good. I would imagine that there may be a couple who would not wish to take part though. Also, some interviews with the film directors they worked with, like Michael Mann, William Friedkin, Bobby Roth etc. It would also be good to hear all the thoughts behind the changes in musical styles/instruments over the years and how all these various styles influenced other electronic musicians. Some interviews with them would be good too, especially the likes of J M Jarre. Another nice aspect would be to see how audiences in different parts of the world reacted to the sound and vision of TD be it live or from the albums and also to see which countries they were most popular in, in order, and maybe to analyse why they were more appreciated in one country than they were in another. Anyway, whatever goes into the documentary I look forward to it and hope that it will be available to buy and keep as a wonderful memory of a truly great band, with lots more to come I hope in the Quantum Years.

In terms of artistic achievement, leading role in music technology, influence on the music scene, IMHO TD enjoyed its leading status in the electronic music scene the most in the 1970s, so the 1970s should occupy a big share of the program. I attempted a rough outline of the themes and the people that the documentary may ideally cover, if time / resource / material / copyright and other factors allow:

Early Life of Edgar
Influence: Dali, Bach (+ any other)
Zodiak Free Arts Lab as a venue of frequent performance (may interview Roedelius, Guenther Schickert, Klaus Schulze)
Rolf Ulrich Kaiser & Ohr Period
Appreciation of John Peel
Virgin Signing TD, Richard Branson
Moog synth at Hansa Studio, Robert Moog
Role in the evolution of music technology (e.g. artificial head system, sound experiment as in the video was ist Performance (Stuntman helmet)
David Bowie
Nick Mason & other Pink Floyd guys
*Past colleagues
Musicians influenced / critics comment on TD music

Never or rarely seen footage of Classic concerts (if exist):
1974 Reims Cathedral
1976 Berlin Philharmonic
1977 NA Tour Footage
1980 East Berlin

* Note: among the many past members, in the most ideal situation, hopefully Chris Franke can be interviewed in the documentary, after all he was in TD for 17 years of the most influential period, his involvement would make the programme a more balanced presentation.

Yes movie directors should also be interviewed to comment on the soundtrack works & the contribution of TD's music to the movie, whether the band was great to work with etc.

For me (and hopefully others) it would be interesting to see and learn more about TDs work in the studio. How albums are made, how the process is when composing. Not so much with the earlier improvised or experimental material, but more with the later years' more structural and melodic albums.

tangram80 wrote:TD enjoyed its leading status in the electronic music scene the most in the 1970s, so the 1970s should occupy a big share of the program.

I don't agree with this. The program should take all decades similarly serious.

Just one thing: Please focus on the band members and their personalities and not so much on the machines used and their blinkenlights, because this has already been covered over and over again. But for example, what do we really know about Edgar Froese, the man and what motivated him during all those years? Not so much.

Jon wrote:

tangram80 wrote:TD enjoyed its leading status in the electronic music scene the most in the 1970s, so the 1970s should occupy a big share of the program.

I don't agree with this. The program should take all decades similarly serious.

Ideally, yes it is the best to feature all decades. I am not sure about the running time of the documentary, but i believe it is less than 1 hour long after deducting TV commercials. Seriously, do you think in such a situation, you can include everything in the program?

If it is only going to be about 45 to 50 mins then it will only be enough to touch very briefly on certain aspects of the band. It will certainly not be 'In Depth'. I was hoping it would be at least 2 hours - even then there would still be a lot missed out. It probably needs to be a series of about six parts at an hour each, at least. Still, I suppose something is better than nothing, but there is absolutely no way that you could cover a band that has been in the business for 48 years in a 1hr episode.

ant wrote: If it is only going to be about 45 to 50 mins then it will only be enough to touch very briefly on certain aspects of the band. It will certainly not be 'In Depth'. I was hoping it would be at least 2 hours - even then there would still be a lot missed out. It probably needs to be a series of about six parts at an hour each, at least. Still, I suppose something is better than nothing, but there is absolutely no way that you could cover a band that has been in the business for 48 years in a 1hr episode.

Indeed ! Just one example : Scorsese's movie about Bob Dylan (No Direction Home) is about 3 hours long and covers only a few years of Dylan's life...
So I think that an "in depth" movie about TD should be at least 3 hours long. Maybe in two episodes ?

ant wrote: If it is only going to be about 45 to 50 mins then it will only be enough to touch very briefly on certain aspects of the band. It will certainly not be 'In Depth'. I was hoping it would be at least 2 hours - even then there would still be a lot missed out. It probably needs to be a series of about six parts at an hour each, at least. Still, I suppose something is better than nothing, but there is absolutely no way that you could cover a band that has been in the business for 48 years in a 1hr episode.

Exactly my thought.

I am not really against the 'decades' approach at all - it is a very natural way of presenting the whole career of TD covering all the eras. It should be the most ideal and reasonable approach too - if you have enough time to present it all.

Assume each decade is given 10-15 minutes of air time. How much insight can be transported to the audience, with so many line-ups, ex-members, directors and so many albums that the program may touch on? That means choice (with sacrifice) is inevitable.

The producer needs to be very familiar with TD's output over the years and be able to present the material with very skillful selection. Extremely challenging task.

And needless to say it is a natural wish to see some vintage never seen footage or material rather than the more recent stuff. You don't get many opportunities to have vintage stuff included, they may not see the light of day if the chance is not taken.

Michael66 wrote:Just one thing: Please focus on the band members and their personalities and not so much on the machines used and their blinkenlights, because this has already been covered over and over again. But for example, what do we really know about Edgar Froese, the man and what motivated him during all those years? Not so much.

Agreed! The people are always more interesting than the tools.

Recording and production techniques with Dieter Dierks.
Edgar's use of the Mellotron.
The development of the Projekt Elektronik Modular System as well as all the other custom-built electronic devices.
Wolfgang Palm, the PPG Wave Computer, and Tangerine Dream.