Phaedra

How do you even begin to rate an album like this? It is so abstract that it almost doesn't even qualify as music and yet it offers an experience so extraordinary that most music wishes it could accomplish even half of the impact that it creates. Phaedra is beyond description. Unless you hear it, are surrounded by it, take the time to lose yourself in it, there is no way to convey what it is like. For that reason I think it is worthy of a 5-star rating. There is a reason this is one of the most acclaimed albums from an era full of great music. Are you experienced? You should be.

This 1974 release is a remarkable album that finds Tangerine Dream on a new label (Virgin Records) and beginning to forge the soundscapes-from-outer-space that would make them famous. Along with Rubycon (1975), this album also finds Tangerine Dream at a creative peak and features the exhilarating combination of gothic, brooding atmospheres and some of the creepy experimentation that was a carry-over from their earlier albums, particularly Atem (1973).The lineup on Phaedra is classic Tangerine Dream and includes Edgar Froese (mellotron, guitar; bass guitar; VCS3 synthesizer; and Hammond organ); Christopher Franke (Moog synthesizer; keyboards, VCS3 synthesizer); and Peter Baumann (Hammond organ; E-Piano; VCS3 synthesizer; and flute).The four pieces on the album range in length from 2:20 to the lengthy progressive electronica epic title track (17:35). As can be imagined, this album is loaded with pulsating, throbbing, and whooshing sounds on the VCS3, particularly on the lengthy title track. The mellotron (with string setting) also has a strong presence here, and is featured on the "mellotron saturated", cosmic, and minor key workout entitled Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares (9:43) (this is one of my favorite pieces on the album). Movements of a Visionary (7:57) is a comparatively more experimental piece and features otherworldly sounds generated on the VCS3 and driving passages generated on sequencers atop which long and drawn-out chords (with tiny modulations) are played on a "churchy" sounding Hammond organ. The closing track is an extremely sad and haunting piece, which features very spacey and heavily echoed flute and synthesizer parts. This is another favorite track and a great way to end the album.Although this version has not been remastered, the sound quality is pretty good.All in all, this is a superb album from Tangerine Dream and is very highly recommended along with  Rubycon  (1975);  Ricochet  (1975); and  Stratosfear  (1976). Other albums from the progressive electronica genre (Berlin School specifically) that are recommended include a few recordings by Klaus Schulze:( Timewind , 1975; and  Mirage , 1977).

Tangerine Dream once again delivers as usual .The tile cut "Phaedra" is spectacular and all the music is dreamy and animated. Tangerine dream has always been my favorite alternative group. They did a great soundtrack for the movie "Legend" and "Firestarter". Go for it for an ultimate experience in imagination!!!

Exactly like it was in the 70s. Technology is wonderful.

One of the best early albums from TD. Very etheric, dreamy.

I bought Phaedra when it came out in 1974 and recently bought the remastered CD with the ridiculous typographical errors on the paper insert. Is Virgin America employing chimpanzees, now? Still, who cares, because now that I am an electronic musician myself I find this album endlessly inspiring and inventive. I listen to it at least once a week, especially in the car on the way home from work, and never get tired of it. It's the sound of three inventive electronic musicians having fun with their instruments and letting their imaginations run riot. And it all sounds so rippingly analogue!The title track is a masterpiece, epic stuff, especially that relentless sequencer, and for those who like that sort of thing, there's another here not unlike it, "Movements of a Visionary." "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares" is a melancholy piece for mellotron, and a lone synthesiser making that lovely, bubbling white noise. I've read that the album's final track, "Sequent C'," was played on a flute. I didn't know that. Anyway, it's a haunting piece.Phaedra is a great album linking TD's previously very European, austere, experimental music with the lush soundscapes they started to make with the next album, Rubycon. After that, it was all downhill, with too much drumming and electric guitar, and new-age soundtracks for hang-gliding documentaries. Phaedra stands as a great moment in time; they never made music that sounded like this either before or afterwards. If there are any outtakes in the TD vaults, I'd like to hear them.

Excellent lay down on the couch, close your eyes and "float" with the music kinda music. If you are a product of the 60's and partied in the 70's and 80's you know what I mean

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This is a review of the 1995 remaster. Initial impressions are that the sound stage is neither very broad or dynamic. However the recording is clear and seems well balanced.The synthesisers have good range and texture whilst not swamping the vocals which gradually build the sonic layers.As the recording progresses more use is made of the channels whilst resisting the temptation to play with the stereo effects.Bass tones are surprisingly clear and there is no audible muddiness, compression or distortion. The influence of these soundscapes on early 1990’s game sound tracks is clear.The clarity of the recording is testament to both the quality of the original recording and the remaster. The dynamic range is not bad given the date of the original recording.Whilst more modern recording and soundscapes are far more complex that should not detract from an appreciation of the quality of this recording.A good recording for fans of the electronic genre and much better than expected for its age.I have not set out to write reviews of the music content as “beauty is in the ears of the listener”. These reviews are about the quality (or not) of the recorded sound. To read about how the reviews are done please see my profile.

I didn't like the first 4 or 5 Tangerine Dream albums they released but then Phaedra came along & everything changed. It has a hypnotic relaxing quality. The albums that came after were also brilliant but more abvanced in style. I had most of them at some time or the other. Logos, Underwater Sunlight etc......I would just like to add R I P..... EDGAR FROSE.

It has been a long time since I first heard this way back in 1974 on vinyl. I felt prompted to buy a CD version (thank you Amazon).What came out of my speakers was this wonderful sound like an eminating cosmic journey. Ok so it's only a short length, but what you get is furturistic quality that trancends the ages from 1974 and still enjoyable in 2019. Enjoy the trip.

Still the best electronic music group and PHAEDRA is one of their best albums - highly recommended.MARCH 13 #TangerineDream #Barbican Hall London. 7.30pm. Tickets priced £25.00-£35.00 + fees, available from the Barbican and Ticketmaster websites. THE EVENING STANDARD: "True pioneers of electronic music and influential beyond measure, Tangerine Dream come to the Barbican."

The fledgling Virgin label signed two important German bands in the early 70s: Faust and Tangerine Dream. First, they released The Faust Tapes album, a collection of studio experiments and outtakes, in a Bridget Riley sleeve for only 50p (the price of a single in those days: very tempting to a schoolboy prog-rocker, I can tell you). Then along came Phaedra. Both showed aspects of so-called "krautrock" that were very different to the melodic pop of Kraftwerk, who were enjoying their 15 minutes of fame at that time courtesy of their "Autobahn" single riding high in the charts. Phaedra and TFT combined electronics (largely homemade, in Faust's case) with white noise, tape effects and elements of musique concrete, to often disconcerting and at times frightening effect. The passing years have been kind to TD and they are rightly revered as pioneers in sequencer-driven electronic music whose influence has been widely felt. Future Sound of London's "Lifeforms" in particular, and also Orbital, show an obvious debt. Chris Franke got a unique sound out of his Moog that, once sequenced up, sounded like nothing else at the time (with the exception perhaps of some of Isao Tomita's reinterpretations of Debussy), and providing the glacial minimalist rhytmns that underpin the classic TD trilogy of Phaedra, Rubycon and Ricochet. In fact, the nearest I heard was years later on the 12" mix of ex-Propaganda singer Claudia Brucken's "Kiss Like Ether": a bautiful synthesized opening with washes of mellotron only spoiled by the arrival of some rather clumpy beats.But back to Phaedra. The title track clocks in at 17 minutes and has truly stood the test of time. What is shocking 30 years on is the sheer pace of it. Instruments and sounds come and go swiftly, all played out over Franke's sequencers and short mellotron bursts. There's an intensity and precision to it that makes me think of Pink Floyd's "On the Run" from their "Dark Side of the Moon" album the year before, where a scampering synthesiser rhythmn dominated the entire song, overlaid by a collage of odd voices and stranger sounds. But Phaedra is a more varied beast. Out of abstract and etherial sounds come mellotron and synth lines that rapidly mutate into a machine-like humming, before a classic Franke line comes through to dominate proceedings. Already by the three minute mark a crescendo is reached, with a simple stereo-panning and heavily phased mellotron theme that is quickly replaced by a bass guitar riff before Franke's main sequencer line comes in to dominate proceedings. It races ahead with more rhythms, mellotron and other effects piling on top of one another, until it spectacularly crashes and burns (intentionally, or was this the Moog going out of tune as another reviewer suggested?) around the 10 minute mark. we're then into the wind-down, starting with an eerie soundscape played on what sounds like an old Farfisa organ. Echoing electronic bird calls and lapping waves evoke some alien wildnerness, only to be replaced by a cold mellotron coda overlaid with flute and organ sounds for the final five minutes or so.So why four stars? Next track "Mysterious semblance.." has not aged well, in my opinion. It's long (about 11 mins), saddled with a pretentious Prog title and is largely mellotron driven. In fact, it recalls the worst of that era when mellotron meant an "orchestra in a box" to many musicians and a chance to impart a quasi-classical feel to a song. Fans of Barclay James Harvest or Genesis and their "Watcher of the Skies" will probably disagree, but mellotron is best used here on the title track, peeking out of the rhythms now and then, or supplying the complete change of pace and style that marks the final third of the piece. "Visionary" is OK but unremarkable: more robust sequencer lines, but it lacks all the things that make the title track so extraordinary. But "Sequent C' is a great 3 minute coda to the album, a series of beautiful looped and overdubbed melancholic flute lines. It makes me recall "Coelacanth" from Shriekback's Oil and Gold album: gloomy, dark and brooding. All in all though, an important album and an influential one, not just to others but also to TD themselves. Elements of composition on Phaedra are re-worked to great effect on the superb "Rubycon" parts 1 and 2 the following year, where Franke's hypnotic sequencer lines were often given centre stage and allowed to dominate proceedings unhindered at times.A gripe on the packaging though: as someone else said, where are the paintings that originally graced the gatefold sleeve? A fuller history of the band plus more photos to accompany these Virgin remasters would have been nice.

Bought the Original Album when it was released.Always loved it. Probably an acquired taste of music. Found it strangely relaxing.Wanted a CD and download replacement.

This was released before I was born, and although I've been a fan of "electronic" music (for want of a better classification) such as The Future Sound of London, The Orb, Orbital, Jean Michel Jarre for ages I have somehow managed to completely overlook this gem.It is very reminiscent of lots of more recent music - or perhaps that should actually be the other way around; you can recognise in more modern compositions some of the ideas and structures demonstrated by Tangerine Dream in this album - and it feels very familiar and soothing.I've only played it through a couple of times so far (only 37 minutes long) but I suspect that it's going to get a lot of play-time.Definitely recommended to fans of the genre, particularly younger folk who missed out the first time around!

A trip down Memory Lane... I bought this to use instead of vinyl and it's as good as I remembered. Tangerine Dream's use of electronic sounds was a revelation when it first appeared. Even with today's use of synthesisers and sequencers being more common, Tangerine Dream still stand out as the experts in the field. The rich, dreamlike mix of sounds is a close-your-eyes type of experience. There are phrases that you can hum along to, but the whole album shows the versatility of the artists and what images can be conjoured up with sound.

Brings back memories of my misspent youth

Another great performance from one of the greatest group's going, it feels as though you are there. Just great, thanks team

Strange sounds coming from all corners of the room! Is it the cry of a seagull or a barking dog? Let your imagination fill in the blanks. This is the stuff of dreams...or nightmares.

Brilliant. I listen to this while writing. This is where modern techno music began. Tangerine Dream were the first and the best.

When this first came out on vinyl, I was advised that it was somewhat inaccessible. Not so. Love it

Bought back great memories, you will love it if a fan

Good CD