Let's be honest: the 8th album of Tangerine Dream brand, with its ease of listening, the German trio obvious desire to broaden its audience, which has nothing to be ashamed of. The group had already simplified her music in 1974, at the exit of the legendary Phaedra which represented at that time an attempt to get away from TD experimental work from its beginnings (the dark and austere Alpha Centauri, Zeit and Atem). As was also the case with Phaedra, Stratosfear avoids all the pitfalls inherent in this desire for simplification. This is the procedure that simplifies composition and it is never at the expense of musical quality. This is why it would be unfair to ignore the enormous qualities Stratosfear pretext that marks a standardization of music in common taste. It may be preferred pre Group Phaedra period (it's a bit my case) without denigrating Stratosfear remains a fantastic album. It is true that the opening track, at the same time the same name, displays colors that are reminiscent of the most pop atmospheres of JM Jarre's Oxygene. But the question "who was inspired by the other?" does not arise since the two discs were published the same year. If other securities Stratosfear had moved in that direction, the album could be compared to Oxygene Jarre. Now it is not so. Oxygene, otherwise excellent record, never goes beyond a soothing illustrative music. Stratosfear also shows soothing than its French counterpart to the German group but also injects a heavy dose of spatial poetry that borders on the most captivating fantasy. Tangerine Dream had no equivalent at that time to create abstract sound spaces totally immersive. What I admire in Stratosfear, the journey to which the work takes us. As with any journey, not the destination that matters most but the journey itself, the convolutions misty in which changes each title. Taken in isolation, the songs are not as convincing as any for previous albums. However, the astronomical cathedral they help develop, touch by touch, is one of the greatest achievements of Tangerine Dream. The 1st title Stratosfear opens the album in its most commercial basis (that word is relative, it has nothing to do with the synthetic variety). very rhythmic, and very structured, it convinces without the need to force his talent. The 2nd title, The Big Sleep In Search Of Hades, introduced a first shift because of its strangeness and its ambiguity. Is it a serious title or ironic farce? The 3rd title 3am At the Border of the Marsh from Okefenokee, surprises with its ethereal atmosphere evoking the immensity of a lonely landscape while a languid harmonica infuses all the anachronism of its incongruous presence. Stratosfear just one step up the ladder of an immersive fantasy. The latest title, the longest, Invisible Limits, managed the feat, despite the very gilmourienne guitar, driving the listener to the edge of the universe, and even beyond. And this impression of eternity is rendered by the progressive reduction of the instrumentation to close after an inhabited silence, by a sonata of simple but soothing piano: the top of the disc. Few discs that also lead me further into the beyond.
