Before Moroder, Jarre and Kraftwerk, there was Tangerine Dream. Started in 1967 as an experimental rock band by German Edgar Froese, Tangerine Dream became the first big electronic music group, and a cult name for amateurs of psychedelic music - leading the renowned rock critic Lester Bangs to say “I saw God and/or Tangerine Dream” in a legendary article detailing one of their concerts in 1977 New York. Signed by Virgin in 1974 when the New Age was in full swing, TD introduced synths and sequencers on successful albums such as Phaedra and Stratosfear.
But since 2015, the group has been without its creator, who recorded his last song, Zero Gravity, with Jean-Michel Jarre for the album Electronica 1: The Time Machine. The remaining trio, Thorsten Quaeschning (keyboards, drums, vocals, guitar), Hoshiko Yamane (violin, cello) and Ulrich Schnauss (keyboards, piano) decided to pursue Froese’s vision, who’s final idea consisted of combining quantum physics and music, resulting in the 2017 album Quantum Gate, partly based on his last recordings. For Recurring Dreams, the concept is the same, but is applied to older recordings from the band, from every era and with “every generation of synthesiser and sequencer” along with some new arrangements. The album has tracks from the 70s (Sequent C, Phaedra), the 80s (Tangram, Horizon, Yellowstone Park) and the 90s (The Claymore Mine / Stalking), a compilation of cosmic classics which should delight even the most sceptical of fans. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz