Cyclone

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.