The End Of A Cycle In Style

(Dream Collector #11, July 1995)

Edgar Froese Explains Why TD Will Not Return To Old Structures

After 25 years and some 75 albums, Tangerine Dream have reached a point which marks the end of something like a cycle, Edgar Froese states. "We started with Electronic Meditation, a record of total improvisation, and we have come up to Tyranny Of Beauty which is our mostly structured album". he said to Dream Collector during the band's stay in Italy. "For the first time, every single tone on an album from the beginning to the end was composed. There was absolutely nothing left to chance."

Thus, the band has ended up with one of their traditions: "Improvisation is no longer our means of expression", Froese explains. Their musical idea is now something different: the perfect composition. Anyway, Tangerine Dream will continue their way along the cycle, the band head describes his view of the future style in music: "Going on does not at all mean to break up structures and to return where we had started from." Froese compares the development of the band to the way throuh a parking garage: "You drive up the access ramp and you will find yourself at the same point again, but you are one floor higher now. There, you may continue with new possibilities or you may return to the starting point." With Tyranny Of Beauty, he says, TD exactly did one loop since Electronic Meditation -- and this is the point where they will go on from. So there will be no revival of something like the Electronic Meditation or Phaedra era; TD will definitely not return to their ancient style. "This may be hard to some fans, but their preferences to certain music cannot set a standard for our work because there are too much different ideas of people what TD should sound like or what TD should not sound like. On the other hand, we even do not want to take such things as a standard because our music is always the result of our personal development. This is what listeners have to accept or not."

After the stylistic trilogy of Rockoon, Turn Of The Tides and Tyranny Of Beauty, it is still uncertain whether TD's next album will bring such a fundamental change in style and technical equipment like listeners and also the band had expected some time ago, Froese implies cautiously. For Heat Robinson -- this is the working title of the CD planned to be released at the end of this year -- not all of the new sound devices the band had hoped for will already be available. One of the reasons may be that the computer and keyboard companies cannot put all their efforts into developing new units only but they also have to produce and sell regular equipment.

However, Froese is quite confident that there will be a lot of change and new creations in music in future by the help of technical means: "From all sounds you can imagine, so far only five percont have turned into music..."