Edgar Froese's fourth solo project Ages was recorded after TD's US tour of 1977 and after the internal differences with Peter Baumann had reached a point of no return. According to Edgar Froese, Ages was recorded at a very emotional time in his career. Peter Baumann had been asked to leave Tangerine Dream, and the group had to cancel a lot of dates and could not take on any new obligations. So Edgar Froese recorded Ages during this time, a few months before he started work on Cyclone with a new Tangerine Dream line-up. The inspiration of Ages was the Park Guell built by the Spanish architect Gaudi in Barcelona. Seven years later, TD recorded another track inspired by this garden: Gaudi Park (Guell Garden Barcelona) on their 1985 album Le Parc.
There was so much material that Ages became an double album. The track Metropolis was inspired by the Fritz Lang movie of the same name; while the longest track of the album, the 21-minute Tropic Of Capricorn was inspired by Henry Miller's book of the same title. According to Edgar Froese, for many years he read everything by the two American authors Henry Miller and Walt Whitman. As far as music can reflect words, he just tried subjectively to transfer his feeling about Miller's book into music.
Re-Releases
While most of Edgar Froese's solo productions had been released on CD in the eighties, fans had to wait nearly 20 years for a CD release of Ages, and due to the limited capacity of a single CD, Virgin decided to leave out the closing title Golgatha And The Circle Closes instead of making this a double CD release.
In 2012 the original album was re-released as part of the compilation box Solo (1974-1983) - The Virgin Years (now including the track Golgatha And The Circle Closes), which was carefully remastered and provides an excellent sound quality (probably much better than the original release).
The 2005 Re-Recording
In January 2005 a reworked version of Ages has been released by Edgar Froese. This version again features only eight of the original nine compositions (two of them slightly misspelled in the track listing), but opposed to the 1997 CD release which omitted the last track, Golgatha And The Circle Closes, this re-release leaves out the track Children's Deeper Study. Unfortunately, Edgar Froese did not use the opportunity to include this track on one of the other re-releases (like Stuntman, e.g.). Compared to the original version, the track order has been changed, and all tracks have been 'tangentized', that is, remixed and partially re-recorded in a similar way like on Beyond The Storm and the Ambient Highway series. This results in an overall warmer and fuller sound. Anyway, like with similar reworkings Edgar Froese has done before, it is left to the subjective opinion of the listener whether he prefers the original or the new versions. Though the inner page of the 2-page insert clearly states that the material is re-recorded and remixed, this fact is not recognizable from the outside. Furthermore, the information on Edgar Froese's home page and the cover credits wrongly state 1979 (instead of 1977) as recording year of the original version.
Like on all releases between 2003 and 2005, the artist's name now includes his middle initial W. on the cover and in the credits. The cover artwork is completely new, using an excerpt of an photo that was used for the back of the original release. The order number is neither printed on the package nor the CD, but the number given below is the order number the Eastgate Music Shop lists this release. Copies sold in the UK have been found with an additional barcode sticker showing the TDP number listed below.
The above official information by Eastgate is inaccurrate in several ways: Not only is Ages his fourth (not third) solo album (after Aqua, Epsilon In Malaysian Pale and Macula Transfer), it was released just before the European tour took place. And it was recorded in 1977 after the second US tour.
In January 2007 this release became available as MP3 download at the Tangerine Dream Download Shop.
In June 2009 the 2005 re-recording of Ages was re-released in Japan as part of a series of HiQualityCDs with mini LP paper sleeves featuring a slightly changed cover artwork, leaving out Edgar Froese's middle initial again.
April 2023 saw a re-release of the album on vinyl as a limited Record Store Day release. It does not feature the original album from 1978 but the 2005 re-recording, though Eastgate made the questionable choice to re-use a re-coloured variant of the original artwork from 1978 instead of the 2005 one for the front cover. Hence the difference becomes apparent only when reading the credits on the backside. Unlike the 2005 CD release, the track order conforms to the original one, with the exception of the missing track Children's Deeper Study (see above).
Once more, the official information is questionable in several ways. Many TD fans will rate Ages as a rather mediocre album in Froese's solo discography. If asked about his greatest album, most people would probably respond with either Epsilon In Malaysian Pale or Stuntman (or both). The re-recording has been available on CD and as download since 2005, so "out of print and unavailable" is a valid statement only when applied to the original album in vinyl format. And it is a somewhat creative choice of words to call a completely re-recorded album that is almost seven minutes shorter than the original one a "rare extended music version"...
Leaving these weak points aside, the vinyl release is nicely packaged and might please any vinyl collector who is accepting the fact that he will not get the original album.
Releases
Australia
1978: Virgin
Promo-2LP [a]: L 45803/4; red labels with sticker, foc