TANGERINE DREAM: Raum (ATMOSPHERIC ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Seven years have passed since Edgar Froese's death, and in accordance with his creator's wish, Tangerine Dream continues the electronic adventure started more than half a century ago, on a less frenetic rhythm than before, but keeping his mentor's spirit intact and continuing to exploit his gigantic bank of sounds.

After the excellent "Quantum Gate" and the no less excellent "Recurring Dreams" revisiting with happiness some old compositions, the trio offers us a new studio opus soberly entitled "Raum", presented by the band as a collection of tracks that are difficult to interpret live, So much the work on the various sounds proved to be important.

And if its recent predecessors were rather easy to access, with unstoppable loops and melodies happily reminding the second part of the Virgin Years period (i.e. from "Tangram" to "Hyperborea"), "Raum" brings us back to the beginning of this period, in atmospheres like "Rubycon" or "Phaedra", or even "Zeit" by moments. Exit the melodies immediately memorable on a background of intoxicating repetitive loops, place to ambiences composed of assemblies of sounds and soaring atmospheres, on which come to graft some melodic elements.

'Continuum' opens the album with an orientation reminding Kraftwerk, electronic percussions a little bit cheap and an oscillating melody without real direction. The very long 'In 256 Zeichen' unfolds its 19 minutes in the same way, in the form of a long suite with a very slow tempo, welcoming around the 7th minute a first rather timid loop, while proposing a particularly neat sound orchestration. It's a soaring atmosphere and a return to the experimentations of the 70's. Tangerine Dream assumes this perfectly, presenting the title track as a wink to the first productions of the band, and notably "Zeit" and "Phaedra".

Only 'You're Always on Time' presents a real melodic orientation, standing out from the rest of the album which, if you listen carefully, is more similar to the improvisations at the end of the band's concerts, as we can find in the "Sessions" series, except that we can feel a huge work on the assembly of the different sounds that serve as foundations for the whole.

Finally, "Raum" takes us back in the past and the genesis of the band, aerial atmospheres and sound experimentations brought up to date through a careful assembly. Not necessarily easy to access at first, this album requires deep listening to fully appreciate its values. - Official website

TANGERINE DREAM

RAUM

KSCOPE

ATMOSPHERIC ROCK