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Tangerine Dream

Cyclone

- Studio, released February 1978 -

Covers


CD release Europe 1995
Painting: Edgar Froese

CD release UK 1984
Painting: Edgar Froese

CD release USA 1995

CD release Japan 2009
Painting: Edgar Froese


Tracks

[a][b]
1.Bent Cold Sidewalk 13:0013:10
2.Rising Runner Missed By Endless Sender 4:555:06
3.Madrigal Meridian 20:3220:36
4.Haunted Heights -6:13
5.Baryll Blue -7:19
Total running time38:2752:24


Details

Recording dateJanuary 1978
Recording site(s)Audio Studios (Berlin)
Recording engineer(s)Ottmar Bergler
Composer(s)Edgar Froese, Chris Franke, Steve Jolliffe
Musician(s)Edgar Froese, Chris Franke, Steve Jolliffe, Klaus Krüger
Producer(s)Edgar Froese, Chris Franke, Steve Jolliffe


Notes

After Peter Baumann had left Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese and Chris Franke were joined by Steve Jolliffe and Klaus Krüger, two musicians Edgar Froese knew since the sixties.

 


In an interview with Wouter Bessels, Steve Jolliffe remembers: "It all came about rather suddenly. I had written to Edgar out of the blue to congratulate him on the work he had been doing, particularly on Rubycon. He immediately wrote back asking me if I would like to rejoin". In fact, Steve Jolliffe had already been a member of the band for a short time in 1969. "He later came over to London with Christoph and we exchanged some ideas and then arranged to meet later with Richard Branson. I went with Edgar to chat with Richard -- I really liked him. He seemed just like somebody you'd meet at the bus stop. We joked around comparing the length of our beards."

 


The quartet of Froese, Franke, Jolliffe and Krüger recorded TD's most controversial album Cyclone, as Steve Jolliffe's vocals broke from the otherwise pure instrumental music of TD. Although Jolliffe was also a skilled wind instrumentalist, most TD fans disliked this kind of music -- as did Edgar Froese himself.

 


Edgar Froese: "After Phaedra we took off. We only had one record which was more or less unsuccessful, although not sales-wise -- just what we put on record. I couldn't identify myself with that record. [...] We booked the studio for January two years ago [...] and met up with an English guy, Steve Jolliffe, and a German drummer, Klaus Krüger. But then we ran into a tremendous trouble because everybody in the band wanted to do different melodies and things. And when we got a good track down, everybody wanted to do different things over the top of it. At last we decided Steve could sing -- the last way out. So he sang, and it was so terrible! [...] A few parts I like, but since the end of March '78 I haven't listened to that record anymore, and I never will." (Interview with Neumusik, January 1980)

 


After the album release and the following European tour Steve Jolliffe again left the group, and Tangerine Dream did not again use vocals on their records until 1987 (with the only exception of the spoken Russian words on Kiew Mission in 1981).

 


In an interview with Jeff Filbert in 1994 Steve Jolliffe remembers about Cyclone: "It was conceived totally from scratch in a 48-track recording studio that was booked 24 hours a day for a month. We all went in together at first, trying lots of ideas and improvising, but we had some difficulty focusing our musical vision collectively. At that point I went in and did Rising Runner Missed By Endless Sender. I did most of the tracks on it except for the bass and drum parts, which were performed by Chris and Klaus. After that, things seemed to go much smoother and our ideas jelled better. On the other two pieces [...] everyone contributed equally. For Madrigal Meridian, Chris worked out some nice bass and sequencer patterns, and we just sort of began jamming over the top of that. The drums were put on last, and I remember that Klaus had some minor problems trying to maintain that exact drum pattern repeatedly. But he did some great playing, with some really nice things in the quieter sections of the piece. I wrote all the lyrics on the album, although some of them were improvised, especially on Bent Cold Sidewalk. 'I die to fight!' just kind of came out, as did the titles of the pieces themselves. However, the spoken vocoder part the the beginning was not written by me, but was something we found and thought would be appropriate to the album."

 


Steve Jolliffe about Bent Cold Sidewalk: "What I was trying to say [...] was how the music was going to take you on a journey and guide you into parts of your mind that you wouldn't necessarily be able to get to. The music was to be your transport, as in 'a rush of sound is heard inside, creating dreams that pass you by.' That whole section, 'Bent cold sidewalk, open the gate, I may be late but I can no longer wait,' had to do with my re-involvement with Tangerine Dream, and with Edgar especially. 'Playing the god to fix your gaze, I'm holding you firm on another day,' has to do with that creative power -- wherever it comes from -- and the power that it has on people to hold their attention."

 


And about Rising Runner Missed By Endless Sender: "The opening is about the spirit's individual search or quest -- running, searching, never looking back. Whereas Bent Cold Sidewalk has a line about standing still ('You're walking forward as you look behind'), the message [...] is the freedom of the human spirit running headlong into whatever adventure awaits it, and the exhilaration and vitality that one feels as a result -- life on the edge, so to speak. 'Treading lightly colored stones, often losing sight of goals', these are the stumbling blocks that could distract or stop the runner from moving on, to embrace patterns or ruts and never move forward. The patterns are old and dead -- you've got to leave them and move on, keep running."

 


Finally, about the album: "We all had a go at the mixing. We used two 24-track recording machines synced together to make the needed 48 tracks. I remember at one point we all became ill, one after another, being stuck in the studio all the time without proper ventilation. Edgar would be mixing and get sick, and while he was laid up I'd try mixing. Then I would be laid up, and Chris would try mixing. This process went on for some time. We filled up all of those 48 tracks. There were things going on in all of them, so everytime we would mix, it would be like a new album. Cyclone was the result of several different mixes, or at least the best part of them. We could have made three albums out of those sessions. I'd love to go back and remix it with some of the tracks that we didn't use. There were flute quartets on some sections, and some other things as well -- all that was lost."

 


From 30 Years Of Dreaming

At the end of the seventies, a lot of electronic music had already hit the charts. More and more bands had recieved recognition -- both in Germany and in the rest of the world. Kraftwerk was gaining the status of a cult-band, Klaus Schulze had his breakthrough as a solo-artist, Jean Michel Jarre had a gigantic hit with his Oxygene, and David Bowie had left the business for a short while and was moving to Berlin...

Bowie was very attracted to this special kind of electronic music, which first and foremost came from and had its origins in Germany, and he had made a lot of contacts with the musicians, and one of them was Edgar Froese. Bowie, who had been educated at art schools and had been studying art like Froese, was very fascinated by Froese's original concept of "pictures of sound" and "timeless music". They often met while David Bowie lived in Berlin and had long discussions about literature, art and not at least music. They even talked about making some music together.

Froese: "He got a flat in Berlin and every day or every second day we went out and had long conversations about art -- techniques and the styles of painting. But the problem was that my time plan was different from his time plan..." (NME, July 1977)

It never got down to any musical cooperation between Froese and Bowie. Instead, David Bowie teamed up with Brian Eno in a studio in Berlin, where they made the great album Low. This is Bowie's most electronic album and the sources of inspiration are quite obvious!

Well, Froese and Franke were looking for a replacement for Peter Baumann and they ended up with two old friends from Berlin.

Johannes Schmoelling: "Franke and Froese decided to get two musicians in to replace Baumann. One was the flautist Steve Jolliffe who was briefly in the group in 1969. He had been working with film music and animation in London and was happy to rejoin old friend Froese. The other was the drummer Klaus Krieger who had known Froese since 1962. He was a member of Berlin's art and design circle and was always on intimate terms with the Dream. He had even played on one of Froese's many solo projects Ages in 1978". (NME, May 1978) [editors note: This source reference, citing Johannes Schmoelling from 1978, that is, before his membership with TD, cannot be correct; Kent must have made a mistake here.]

This new Tangerine Dream crew went into the studio at the beginning of 1978 to record the next album. It was the Audio Studio in Berlin that had to make room for a vast arsenal of old and new instruments. Among these were a new guitar-synthesizer from Roland -- a GR 500 -- and a wind-synthesizer -- a Lyricon.

Shortly after the recording sessions, the album was released and it was called Cyclone. Edgar Froese had used the paintbrush himself and created a very beautiful cover -- maybe a landscape after a violent storm? Cyclone was an album very different from the earlier, more cosmic releases. With drums, guitars and vocals it was much more like a rock album and to many people it was an unexpected release. The critics did not hold themselves back; a lot of the music press found Cyclone a terrible and redundant album, which betrayed the original idea of Tangerine Dream while others regarded the new style as some of the best the band had released to this date.

Well, the album seems to have regained some in recent years to most people, but I have always found it an excellent album. I still think that the light grandiosity and especially the strange woodwind improvisations by Steve Jolliffe in the middle of Bent Cold Sidewalk still have much weight, and it is one of my favourite albums.

Froese: "I understood the criticism at that time, but it wasn't anything new to us. As far back as I can recall some people have thought we're geniuses and others have dismissed as a bunch of dumb knob-twiddlers. So what? I think it's fair to respect all opinions." (Melody Maker, 8 October 1994)

Maybe Tangerine Dream, or at least Edgar Froese, paid close attention to the critics, and since its release none of the material has ever been present on their compilations! Edgar Froese seems to distance himself from this particular album. Anyhow, it was obvious that in no circumstances did Tangerine Dream want to be caught up in a certain style.

Cyclone was immediately followed up by a large tour around Europe -- 32 concerts in one and a half months in England, France, Germany and Spain! This time, they also toured with the Laserium and a very well equipped light show. It turned out to be a very successful tour, the concerts were almost sold out, and Tangerine Dream were well received -- also in Germany where they have always had difficulties with obtaining any recognition.

The tour went well, but inside the band things were not at all that happy and the chemistry between the four musicians was not too good during the tour, so Edgar and Chris decided to try something else on the next album.

© 1999 by Kent Eskildsen

 


Re-Releases

 


In 1984 the album was released on CD for the first time as part of a series by Virgin. With the exception of Exit, all releases of this series had a similar cover design, using only part of the original artwork in a monochrome border that featured the band and album title.

 


In 1995 Virgin re-released the album on CD in the so-called "Definitive Edition" series, featuring the original front cover artwork, but like most of the other releases of this series, it contains some little errors: The first track is misspelled Bent Cold Side Walk on the CD body, and drummer Klaus Krüger's name does not appear in the booklet credits and on the backside insert at all.

 


In the same year, like Force Majeure, the album was re-released in the USA on CD with a completely different artwork.

 


In 2009 the album was re-released in Japan with a cardboard sleeve featuring the exact replica of the original LP sleeve.

 


In 2011 the original album was re-released as part of the compilation box The Virgin Years 1974-1978.

 


In 2019 the album was re-released with two bonus tracks. In fact, this version is identical to disc fifteen of the In Search Of Hades box set, featuring the original album, newly remastered by Ben Wiseman from the original tapes. The bonus tracks are solo compositions by Peter Baumann and Edgar Froese, respectively, and had originally been released on the '70-'80 (1980) box set on vinyl only. This is the very first official release of these tracks on CD. (The third solo track from that box, Chimes And Chains by Chris Franke, was released on the 2019 reissue of Force Majeure.)


Releases

Australia
1978: Virgin/Festival
LP [a]: L 36555; red labels, foc
Benelux
1978: Virgin/Ariola
LP [a]: 25 843; green labels, foc
LP [a]: 25 843; red/green labels, foc
LP [a]: 25 843; red/green labels
Brazil
1978: Virgin/Polygram
LP [a]: 9124 137; red/green labels
Canada
1978: Virgin/Polydor
LP [a]: V 2097; multi-coloured labels
LP [a]: V 2097; red/green labels
1984: Virgin
LP [a]: V 2097; red labels with white stripes
Europe
1995: Virgin
CD [a]: 840 251-2; identical to UK version from 1995
2019: Virgin/Universal
CD [b]: 774 788-3; multi-coloured disc; sticker
France
1978: Virgin/Polydor
LP [a]: 2473 744; green labels, foc
LP [a]: 2473 744; black/silver labels, foc
1983: Virgin
LP [a]: 70 042
1984: Virgin
CD [a]: CDV 2097; identical to UK version from 1984
Germany
1978: Virgin/Ariola
LP [a]: 25 843; green labels, foc
LP [a]: 25 843; red/green labels, foc
LP [a]: 25 843; red/green labels
LP [a]: 25 843; white/gray labels
LP [a]: 343 483; green labels; this is a club edition
LP [a]: 343 483; red/green labels; this is a club edition
1984: Virgin/Ariola
CD [a]: 610 379; identical to UK version from 1984 with the German order number on a sticker fixed on the jewel case
1993: Virgin
CD [a]: 786 093-2
Greece
1978: Virgin/Phonogram
LP [a]: 2473 744; green labels
1978: Virgin
LP [a]: 062-VG 50013; red/green labels
Italy
1978: Virgin/Dischi
LP [a]: VIL 12097; red labels, foc
LP [a]: VIL 12097; red/green labels, foc
1984: Virgin
LP [a]: OVED 71; red/green labels, foc
Japan
1978: Virgin/Victor
Promo-LP [a]: VIP-6912; white promo labels, foc
LP [a]: VIP-6912; green labels, foc
1990: Virgin
CD [a]: VJCP-2517
2009: EMI
CD [a]: VJCP-68918; cardboard sleeve, obi
Promo-CD [a]: VJCP-68918; same as regular release, but with additional numbered sticker on rear
Mexico
1978: Virgin/Disco Libro
LP [a]: LA-121; multi-coloured labels, foc
LP [a]: LA-121; multi-coloured labels
1978: Virgin/Bertelsmann
LP [a]: LA-121; multi-coloured labels
New Zealand
1978: Virgin/RTC
LP [a]: V 2097; red labels
LP [a]: V 2097; red/green labels
Russia
1997: CD Media
Counterfeit-CD [a]: 051497; white/black/blue disc
Spain
1978: Virgin/Ariola
LP [a]: 25 843 I; green labels, foc
LP [a]: 25 843 I; red/green labels, foc
1980: Virgin/Ariola
LP [a]: 25 843 I; red/green labels, foc
1982: Virgin/Ariola
LP [a]: 25 843 I; red/green labels, foc
UK
1978: Virgin
LP [a]: V 2097; green labels, foc
LP [a]: V 2097; red/green labels, foc
1984: Virgin
LP [a]: OVED 71; red/green labels, foc
LP [a]: OVED 71; white/gray labels, foc
CD [a]: CDV 2097
1995: Virgin
CD [a]: TAND 9
USA
1981: Virgin/JEM
LP [a]: VI 2097; skin-coloured labels
1988: Virgin
Promo-LP [a]: 791 011-1; black labels with blue triangle, gsc
LP [a]: 791 011-1; black labels with blue triangle
CD [a]: 791 011-2
1993: Virgin
CD [a]: V21Y 86 093-2
1995: Virgin/CEMA/Griffin
CD [a]: GCD-246-2
Cyclone was also released as part of the set (3).

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