Edgar Froese and his Tangerine Dream bandmates looked into the avant-garde and found krautrock rhythms and smooth textures. 1974's Phaedra was a groundbreaking ambient LP, released before Brian Eno had even coined the term.
Tangerine Dream released their first album Electronic Meditation in 1970, but they were unable to buy instruments that had the sound they wanted - so the album was played partly on instruments they had built themselves.
Their breakthrough in the UK came with 1973's Atem which was named by influential British DJ John Peel as his Album of the Year. Their classic follow-up, Phaedra, reached No.15 in the UK charts and provided their record label Virgin with one of their first big hits.
Their output has more or less stuck to the original formula, with Edgar Froese at the centre of a changing line-up. Unsurprisingly, the cinematic quality of their music appealed to film-makers, and director William Friedkin, who famously utilised Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells for The Exorcist, used the band's music for his 1977 film Sorceror. This was the first of many films to use Tangerine Dream's music, including Risky Business, Thief and Miracle Mile.
The band celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2007 with a concert in London. In 40 years the band has brought over 70 albums to a devoted fanbase which includes many other musicians. Indeed, the band's influence can be heard today on albums by artists from the Aphex Twin to Ulrich Schnauss and Global Communication.
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| Editor | Edits |
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| Cornelius | 4 |
| andrew lyman | 3 |
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