Electronic Meditation by Tangerine Dream is a classic for many reasons. First, there is even the iconic cast: Edgar Froese (guitar, organ, piano, broken glass), Claus Schultze (percussion, whip, metal rods, burning parchment) and Conny Schnitzler (cello, violin, Addiator, 2nd guitar). Secondly, it is the first truly totally free experimental album of pop music. Before Electronic Meditation in Germany there were only folk music and pop plates. The only shortcoming is the Tangerine Dream have still improvise a lot and the compositions have not been worked out properly.
The LP is a totally instrumental, concept album about a man's life among billions. From birth (Genesis), the journey through a burning brain (Journey Through A Burning Brain), cold smoke (Cold Smoke), Ashes to Ashes (Ashes to Ashes) and the Resurrection (Resurrection) traveling with Tangerine Dream on their debut , Here one notices still the very strong influence of early Pink Floyd from A Saucerful Of Secrets phase. The only difference is the Tangerine Dream a little crazy and wacky (see instrumentalization). Broken glass and things like that were recorded with a microphone and distorted and added echo. The album was recorded in an old abandoned factory building in Berlin. Also noteworthy is the totally free, sometimes reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix guitar by Edgar Froese. Genesis of the opener of the album starts quite behavior, but even at Journey Through A Burning Brain you are surrounded by a swirl of sound. In Cold Smoke comes into the organ with a slow chord theme and about strange (really weird) effects are produced. The song then breaks into a kind of beat and developed ghostly trains. In the finals of this longtracks a long wild hendrixartiges electric guitars solo happens.
This LP is a concept album in the purest sense, as closed and as can not an album from one piece to be more than Electronic Meditation by Tangerine Dream. However, the album, like all early Tangerine Dream works in phases very very stressful and unzugäglich.
Playing tips: Journey Through A Burning Brain, Cold Smoke
To continue playback: time; Alpha Centauri; Breath
Related genres: Ummagumma (Pink Floyd); A Saucerful Of Secrets (Pink Floyd)
