This double vinyl album was released as a limited edition on occasion of the Record Store Day 2022. Apparently it was designed to be the successor of previous year's Live At Reims Cathedral 1974, featuring similar artwork and design. And obviously this is the reason why from all live concerts of the seventies this very concert, performed nine months later in the same city, was chosen for release.
From a listener's view this might have not been the best choice: The 1974 recording had been sourced from a radio broadcast and featured (for a bootleg) an exceptional sound quality. Such an excellent source was not available for the 1975 concert, so an audience recording had to be used. According to the sleeve notes it had been recorded by some Jean-Claude Glee, seemingly a TD fan from Reims. The recording has been remastered and provides decent sound quality -- for a bootleg, that is. But neither the cover nor the obi provide any information to the potential buyer that he will have to cope with bootleg quality.
Compared to the fan release of this concert, Tangerine Leaves Volume 67: Reims 1975 (2006), that was sourced from a different audience recording, the sound quality has definetely improved. To fit on four vinyl sides, the first set of the concert has been split in two and fills both sides of the first LP, now titled Cinema Opera Set One. The second set, which already had been considerably shorter than the first one, has been further shortened by a few minutes in the beginning and then split as well, resulting in two sections. The first one is now aptly titled Cinema Opera Set Two and fills the first side of the second LP. The second section of about six minutes then seemlessly segues into the original encore, given the title Cinema Opera Set Three and fills side two of the second LP.
The quote above, of course, is pure nonsense. In 1975, Tangerine Dream performances were purely improvised and untitled. At that time Ricochet was never performed live at all. It's just the other way round: some parts of concerts from 1975 (but not of this one!) were used for the album. Nevertheless, though being released as 'live' album, the majority of Ricochet is pure studio creation.
The album was made available as download as well.
Releases
Europe
2022: Culture Factory/Eastgate
2LP: 783 494; clear/orange and clear/blue vinyl; obi; limited edition
Germany
2022: Eastgate
Download: complete album or individual tracks as MP3 or FLAC
