Tangerine Dream: Electronic Music, Albums, Legend, Film Soundtracks And Compilations

With over 100 albums under its belt, the German band Tangerine Dream has cemented its place in music history. Edgar Froese, founder and the sole original member of Tangerine Dream, believes their history, "is the history of modern electronic equipment."

The roots of Tangerine Dream scale far beyond their Beatles inspired name (it was plucked from a line on the Sergeant Pepper album) and their psychedelic musical performances of the 60s. Froese names Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix as his musical influences. Froese and the ever changing roster of Tangerine Dream revolutionized the use of electronic equipment in music during their 40 year musical tenure as new age musicians and ironically enough film musical composers.

The 1980s wave of electronic musical film scores were trendy backdrops to large budget films. Tangerine Dream's eclectic, highly innovative use of synthesizers transitioned them from musical halls to film scorers. Their musical compilations include such films as Sorcerer, The Keep, Firestarter, Legend and Risky Business. In addition to scoring films, they have also collaborated on successful soundtracks of the aforementioned movies in their signature electronic musical style.

One of Tangerine Dreams most successful ventures as a film scorer came with the release of the 80s film Legend. The film's original score was created by an American musician Jerry Goldsmith. His version of Legend featured a highly romantic musical score of instrumental harmonies. In order to make Legend a more contemporary movie that would attract teenage audiences, film producers replaced Goldsmith with Tangerine Dream. In effect, the Dream's version of the film's score was far more electronic, using elements of eastern music with rock and roll rhythms, as well as samples of guitars to round out the contemporary feel that producers felt Goldsmith's score lacked. Tangerine Dream has produced over 60 film soundtracks. A large portion of their film soundtracks and compilations are merely reconstructed versions of some of their albums.

Connollyco.com states that as pioneers to the electronic music movement, "Tangerine Dream used analog and, later, digital synthesizers to create rich musical soundscapes." Their early forays into music that Froese calls the Pink Years was a blending of artistic movements, such as literature and Froese's interest in experimenting with instrumental drum, guitar and bass sounds. Tangerine Dream deems their rise in influence the Virgin Years. This period of musical recording predominately featured the band's use of synthesizers and unusual creation of musical sounds with self-made instruments. The sound they utilized during the Virgin Years is the now the music genre of modern electronic music. Their legacy of electronic music is the forging of old and current musical generations, with Edgar Froese's son Jerome as a current member of the Tangerine Dream lineup. Their musical compilations have a decidedly contemporary sound that blends current club and techno beats with 19th century poetical lyrics.

There are no signs of this group slowing down, as early as April of 2007 Tangerine Dream gave a concert in the U.K. performing music from one of their older, successful albums. Though their film score compilations and film soundtracks have slowed considerably, they can claim a history of musical influence in those genres as well.


Sources:
Prendergast, Mark. "Tangerine Dream." Sound on Sound. Dec 1994. 12 Oct 2007. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/dec9 4/tangerinedream.html.

"Tangerine Dream Discography." Rockography. 2007. 12 Oct 2007. http://www.connollyco.com/discography/tangerine_dr eam/.

Maclena, Paul Maclean. "The music of LEGEND." Figment Fly. 1987. 12 Oct 2007. http://www.figmentfly.com/legend/music10a.h tml.