Tangerine Dream: Alpha Centauri (1971)
In 1970, Tangerine Dream released Electronic Meditation, which has got to be the least typical sounding album you’ll ever hear from those guys, as it was guitar and drum-oriented Krautrock with an underground feel. That album featured Edgar Froese, Conrad Schnitzler, and Klaus Schulze. Schnitzler and Schulze quickly left the band, with Schnitzler releasing a handful of solo albums, and Schulze joining Ash Ra Tempel before embarking on a solo career to make a name for himself as one of the electronic music’s biggest names.
Tangerine Dream recruited two new guys, a 17 year old drummer and keyboardist named Chris Franke and an organist named Steve Schroyder. The resulting album was Alpha Centauri, which was a drastic change in sound from their previous album. Instead of intense guitars and drums, they went for this experimental space sound in the most unconventional manner imaginable. Synthesizers make their first appearance here as well, but they used it mainly for electronic effects.
The album only features three cuts, but you’ll pretty much be expecting the unusual when the album bears titles suchs as “Sunrise in the Third System” and “Fly and Collision of Coma Solis”. The album is loaded with what sounds like a rather sinister sounding pipe organ, on top of just endless spacy electronic effects. There are some drums, but it’s near the end of “Fly and Collision”.
The title track, once again, is a journey in to deep space, with lots of flute. At the end is some spooky spoken dialog in German. I can’t be certain what they’re saying. Those spooky voices at that part of the album really gives me the creeps. This album is truly the product of the early 1970s.
It’s amazing how any record label could release such an album, realizing it would not be very popular with a large audience. But apparently Ohr Records, the label the band was recording for at the time, seemed more interested in music than whether the album will sell a zillion copies and be admired by millions of 14 year old girls (like whatever label N’Sync or the Backstreet Boys records for).
Alpha Centauri is only the first of two more albums that were more or less in this vein (Zeit, Atem), before the band moved to Virgin Records, and began to make a name for themselves in the world of electronic music. While early Tangerine Dream is definately not for everyone, if you like the unusual and totally off-the-wall, you be sure to get a copy of Alpha Centauri.