Rating:  -
Phaedra was the first Tangerine Dream album I bought. The first track is a labyrinth of beautiful analog textures and motifs, layered upon a rhythmic drone which pitches and yaws, varying in excitement and desire as it ascends to its zenith, then falls to earth, and is again reborn. By varying rhythm, volume, and texture, Phaedra creates a three-dimensional soundscape for the mind. One has the feeling of being physically transported across an alien terrain.
Phaedra is unlike any other musical experience I know of, and on the strength of this album alone I would rank TD as among my favorite musical groups. The only negative comment I can make about this album is that it does not last longer!
Rating: -
If I could pick one of the over 60 Tangerine Dream albums, "Phaedra" would be it. Recorded in 1974, it was released during a time that was gloriously free of heavy drum beats or anything that detracted from the harmonious flow of the music. Track one starts out as a crescendo of electronic arpeggios that climax into a glorious, colorful burst, producing waves of major chords and sonic waveforms that seem to be in tune with the surreal portions of the mind. Although less than 40 minutes long, this wonderful composition marks the gem of the three best TD albums, the others being "Ricochet," (1975) and "Stratosfear" (1979). Unique, timeless and inimitable, music like Tangerine Dream is what the people of the future will be calling classical.
Aw, how the uneducated and those with no musical talent mark this album as something like "knob twiddling". If only there was a requirement to keep the uneducated from diluting the quality reviews that "Phaedra" deserves. No supporting premises, no argument, no respect. No matter though, we'll see right through it.
Most electronic artists like Edgar Froese and Chris Franke (the two geniuses of TD at the time) have a love for their work that is evident in their recordings and disdain mislabeling. Call "Phaedra" electronic or ambient, but don't call it "new age." I listen to it to escape the petty cares of this world and take off into space. Must have a good pair of headphones for "Phaedra," my transport into a blissful, meditative state. Not to be misunderstood for the tragic drama of Greek Mythology, Phaedra, daughter of Minos, 'Phaedra' from Tangerine dream will never get old. If I ever need to get to the year 3000 right now and forget about everything else, the headphones go on with bass boost and repeat all--then I'm gone, floating out there somewhere in space. Up here in my mind, I'm already gone. Not even Steve Roach, although quite masterful with his sequencers and home-made instruments and binural, innovative synthesizations, took me beyond the limits of my imagination for such a small, infinitesimal fare.
Rating:  -
I bought PHAEDRA on LP when it came out, but was a little disappointed: for me, it just didn't contain enough rhythmic pieces. But it was utterly different to anything else that was commercially available.
PHAEDRA was the Tang's first LP for Virgin. Up to this point, all their albums had been improvised. But the complexity of the synthesizers they used for PHAEDRA forced them to compose and arrange the music much more carefully. They spent a couple of hours at the start of every day just tuning the synths. After eight days, they had just over six minutes of music in the can. Somehow they finished the rest in a further breathless week.
Frankly, there wasn't enough going on in PHAEDRA to sustain my interest. I was a teenager, and felt life was too short to spend any more of my money (in very short supply) on this sort of stuff. So I missed out on RUBYCON, and would have avoided RICOCHET too. But a real buzz went around our school about RICOCHET. Ostensibly recorded live in various cathedrals and then remixed in the studio, it was essentially a condensation of PHAEDRA and RUBYCON down to one disk, with the addition of electronic percussion.
After RICOCHET, I never revisited Phaedra. Until yesterday, when I repurchased it on CD. Suddenly I am listening to it with new ears. I am now noticing things on PHAEDRA that I never think about when I hypnotically listen to the corresponding parts of RICOCHET. On PHAEDRA, you can hear that one sound is a plucked piano string, for instance. But by the time it reappears on RICOCHET, it's been too distorted for my addled senses to recognise its origins. The link between PHAEDRA and RICOCHET is somewhat akin to the connection between SOURCES and Peter Gabriel's PASSION, if you're familiar with that excellent pair of albums.
New listeners may find the Tang's debut for the Virgin label a bit plodding at times. RICOCHET is the essential Tangs purchase for any collection. Treat PHAEDRA either as chill-out music in its own right, or as a piece of detective work for those interested in how RICOCHET was conceived.
Rating: -
I was introduced to Tangerine Dream by my Father back in the early eighties. He had this vinyl album, along with Rubycon and Zeit. This is definitely the best of those three, and stands as one of the best of all of the releases during their years on the Virgin label.
The title track is a brilliant in the way that it uses musical progressions and soundscapes to create an effect of movement, as if we were descending into a storm on a planet in another galaxy. Like the best pieces of classical music, Phaedra makes you think about what you are listening to at the moment you hear it. On one level, you admire the technical brilliance of the performers, and the literate nature of the music, while on another level you find yourself being moved in a way that you cannot describe.
Mysterious Semblance and Movements of a Visionary are also very well done. Since they follow Phaedra, however, its difficult not to think of them as the minor pieces of the composition.
The last track, Sequent C' initially seems out of place here. No synthesizers are used, and the only instrument used is a flute. However, it follows the same template TD used for the other songs, in that moods and feelings are evoked through the use of repetitions and slight variations on those repetitions. With this track, TD seems to be saying, "We don't need to use high-end synthesizers to accomplish everything. We only need to use one organic instrument to evoke the feelings we want to evoke."
Overall, this album sounds just as modern today as when I first heard it some fifteen years ago. (Comparatively, the work from a majority of artists based in synthesizers sounds dated within years after it was released.) Tangerine Dream's music may be uncategorizable, but that's why it always sounds fresh, interesting and moving years after it was released. The same cannot be said for anything in the Jungle, Drum & Bass, Techno, Rave, House Acid categories, which go out of favor as quickly as last year's fashions.
For more info on Tangerine Dream, be sure to check out their official web site.
Rating: -
So many words have been said about this album that my marginal contribution can be only, well, marginal. Therefore I will not try to paint any landscapes, nor write essays. Phaedra was the first album that was discovered by masses and made Tangerine Dream enter into the hall of fame. That is not surprising, having considered the impact it had on artists within the genre and outside of it. Well, the genre itself was clearly created and defined by Tangerine Dream and for a long time they were the only real players in that field.
Phaedra stands out in one respect. Usually, their compositions were the product of cooperative work, with more or less input from each member. Here it is not the case. One track is composed and performed solely by Edgar Froese, much in the style of his following solo albums, yet another finale theme is exclusively Baumann's child. All three contributed to the remaining two tracks, but the monumental title track sequenced Moog arpeggio spawned from Chris Franke's skilled fingers. He is the father of the trademark sound we know Tangerine Dream for. Phaedra was the album where it makes the first real entry, overwhelming you right off the bat, from the very first minutes.
Their records at that time were extremely short, sometimes the length did not exceed 35 minutes, like on Rubycon. It is a good enough reason to be mortally offended, but what we are in fact awarded with, are their concerts. From 1974 on, they performed live quite often and most of their concerts were recorded by fans, and later issued in small editions known as unofficial bootlegs. Once you complete the legal recordings, this is the place where you should start to reward yourself with, and compensate the relative shortness of Phaedra and other classic titles. It's especially easy these times, as the CDR technology enables large volume distribution of cheap music. I am sure you will be hungry. In fact, so am I.
One word about the closing "Sequent C" by Baumann. This is the most sad and gravely recording in the whole electronic music I have ever heard. It sneaks straight into your heart and steals it. Flute. So, beware :)
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