Farewell Edgar Froese

I was thinking I might blog about my experience with the new Mixcraft 7 digital audio workstation this morning, when I saw the news about the death of electronic music pioneer Edgar Froese. Mixcraft can wait.

I saw a link to the report from BBC online of Froese's death and checked it out. He was one of the founders of Tangerine Dream, an electronic "band" who were major innovators in the 1960s and 1970s, and the mainstay of the group through its decades-long career. I sort of lump Tangerine Dream in with Weather Report: artists who influenced everybody who came after in their respective genres, almost none of whom knew they were under the influence.

Tangerine Dream's early work sounded at turns like symphonic music, or an electronic version of Arnold Schoenberg's klangfarbenmelodie, or an otherworldy clash of sounds. Often it sounded like all three at once. Their breakthrough album, 1974's Phaedra, cracked the Top 20 in the UK. Some of the music on that album now sounds dated, as one might expect after 40 years. On the other hand, parts of the music sound as fresh today as then. The music generally developed slowly (sometimes glacially so), which tried the patience of less disciplined listeners (as I once was). It isn't necessary to listen to the entirety of Phaedra to get a feel for what I'm describing. Just the first five minutes or so of the title track will do.

For me personally, Tangerine Dream was one of those "legendary" artists that I knew about, but didn't pay close attention to. By the time I decided to pay attention around 1990, the band had begun to incorporate computer sequencing in a big way. While electronic and sampled sounds still dominated the music, the slowly evolving soundscapes had given way to more structured forms and the addition of beats that made the music more accessible to a larger audience. The first TD album I actually bought was 1988's Optical Race. No matter what was going on in my life, I have never listened to the title track and not felt better afterward.

As a musician and recording enthusiast, one of the things that attracts me to this music is the attention to detail in the production, such as at the beginning of the track "Optical Race," where crash cymbal samples on the second and fourth beats of the measure alternate between the right and left side of the listening field. This shows how the use of production has become part of the composition, and the blurring of the distinction between creative and performing art in music, that computers, samples, and synthesis has allowed.

Over time, TD continued to record and tour, and their music has consistently incorporated elements of both their early and late styles, with the addition of other instrumentalists and even vocalists. Below is a track from their final studio album with Froese, Chandra - The Phantom Ferry, Part II (2014).

As a constant member of Tangerine Dream and in his solo work, Edgar Froese leaves behind dozens of solo albums and even more dozens of film scores. He left his mark on countless composers and musicians, myself included. Froese was once quoted as saying that no one really dies, they just change their cosmic address. He has moved on from this one. I will not say "rest in peace" but simply Abschied. Farewell.