Looking back at : Phaedra

tdream4ever
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Post by tdream4ever »

Along with Rubycon and Ricochet, probably the most played in my collection of the virgin years. And the most recorded on my own personal mixes. My 2nd TD album purchase along with Ricochet. I will play this album loud from beginning to end out in the California desert's under a full moon with a campfire going. . .very cool.

:D :D :D :D :D out of 5
DREAMING. . . . Now, Then!
har
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Post by har »

About time I did this..........

Phaedra is probably "The One" that hooked me, and still gets me every time I listen to it. It was either this or Ricochet I heard first and it made a MASSIVE impression on me when I was a 15 year old Rocker at the school.

I lose myself in this album, the atmosphere is immense and the sounds are (still) incredible.

I would love TD to do something similar in style to this now, but perhaps this would not go down to well with some and would be too different from the current direction ( which I love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! also )

I also like Phaedra 2005 very much. :wink:

So, to summarise the position............

Phaedra is the one for me 8)
exit81
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Post by exit81 »

There's something oddly distant about Phaedra that always makes me want to turn it up and listen closer, almost as though there's something deep and dark buried just beneath the surface of the music. The fact that I never discover what it is means the music always has a very mysterious quality. The same applies to Rubycon and Ricochet too, but more so to Phaedra because it sounds so icy and malevolent.
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bigmoog
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Post by bigmoog »

exit81 wrote:There's something oddly distant about Phaedra that always makes me want to turn it up and listen closer, almost as though there's something deep and dark buried just beneath the surface of the music. The fact that I never discover what it is means the music always has a very mysterious quality. The same applies to Rubycon and Ricochet too, but more so to Phaedra because it sounds so icy and malevolent.
I have always thought this. In fact these recordings just ooze malevolence and eerie icyness, yes I know we bring ourselves to the music, but this Trilogy of magickal recordings are way beyond, way beyond :D
...The wise.....are silent.....
har
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Post by har »

exit81 wrote:There's something oddly distant about Phaedra that always makes me want to turn it up and listen closer, almost as though there's something deep and dark buried just beneath the surface of the music. The fact that I never discover what it is means the music always has a very mysterious quality. The same applies to Rubycon and Ricochet too, but more so to Phaedra because it sounds so icy and malevolent.
You have hit the nail on the head there exit81 :!:

This is exactly how I feel about Phaedra, every time I listen to it.

8)
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Post by 24db »

Edgar Froese- "To say it as simple as I can, Tangerine Dream music always has been a reflection of a certain state of consciousness. The main difference I have felt was that there is a different texture, less melodies, less ‘theme orientated’ music. So you have a more or less environmental sound, which is not wallpaper. But it's a sound you live in, which you are surrounded with. It's atmospheric."

Mixing it, Jan 1997
har
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Post by har »

" A sound you live in, which you are surrounded with "

Superb :!:

So true.

8)
24db
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Post by 24db »

har wrote:" A sound you live in, which you are surrounded with "

Superb :!:

So true.

8)
the geezer should write a book ;) :D :D
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dreamerofdreams
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Post by dreamerofdreams »

I think Phaedra was when it all came together for me. After the "punk" of Electronic Meditation and the expermentation of Alpha Centauri, Zeit and Atem, it was the album that saw the band get into its stride. I love Phaedra and see it as a milestone for what was to come.
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SequenceC
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Post by SequenceC »

Phaedra is a gorgeous album, and was one of the first albums I heard samples off (on Cdnow.com before it was bought by Amazon)

I often get two images when listening to the album, an icy distant planet, and the English countryside in Winter, on a foggy day, with cold rain or snow. I love the mysterious hypnotic sound on the album, and how it has a more improvised 'live' feel, i.e. the detuning oscillators on the title track.

Yes, Rubycon does have a more refined sound, with complex layers interwoven together. With Rubycon, it sounds like TD had learnt some lessons from the recording of Phaedra, and were putting these into practice. However as much as I love Rubycon, I prefer Phaedra. I personally find it more atmospheric and prefer the melodies. And as I said at 'A Celebration Of: Tangerine Dream' at St. Leonards Church, Sequent C' is the perfect way to end the album.

My first TD purchases were 'Tangerine Dream' and Encore. 'Tangerine Dream' was a cheap compilation that had the whole Phaedra album + Rubycon Part One and Stratosfear (title track)
http://www.voices-in-the-net.de/tangeri ... m_1996.htm

So for the first few months, most of the TD I listened to was Phaedra and Encore.

What I also find interesting is how the previous album Atem has a very different atmosphere. IMO Atem provides images of a humid dense planet, with primitive life, jungles and swamps. Phaedra on the other hand, has a desolate icy scenery (fits perfectly to Edgar's artwork).

The concert Berlin Deutschlandhalle November 29th, 1973 was recorded a few days before TD went to record Phaedra at The Manor, but yet sounds very different.
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Post by sparrow »

Wonderful descriptions of Phaedra & Atem Ben..sums it up nicely.
24db
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Post by 24db »

what a shame it was all rubbish after Phaedra :)...sorry I've been watching Kraftwerk and the electronic revolution on DVD. It always amazes me how relatively intelligent people dismiss music as soon as a band gathers a fan base and makes some money.
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SequenceC
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Post by SequenceC »

24db wrote:what a shame it was all rubbish after Phaedra :)...sorry I've been watching Kraftwerk and the electronic revolution on DVD. It always amazes me how relatively intelligent people dismiss music as soon as a band gathers a fan base and makes some money.
Phaedra sold very poorly in Germany at the release, compared to how it sold in the UK (chart status) and how Alpha Centauri sold (20,000 copies, a very respectable amount). Perhaps this is what you are referring to?
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Post by 24db »

SequenceC wrote:
24db wrote:what a shame it was all rubbish after Phaedra :)...sorry I've been watching Kraftwerk and the electronic revolution on DVD. It always amazes me how relatively intelligent people dismiss music as soon as a band gathers a fan base and makes some money.
Phaedra sold very poorly in Germany at the release, compared to how it sold in the UK (chart status) and how Alpha Centauri sold (20,000 copies, a very respectable amount). Perhaps this is what you are referring to?
Nope, I'm referring to the continued nonsense spouted by talking head 'experts' saying that TD sold out the moment they signed a contract with Virgin, I'll forgive nutty old Julian Cope. Obviously this neatly glosses over Kraftwerk, who the exact same rules don't apply to apparently. Double standards? never!. TD could then be comfortably airbrushed out of whatever neat pigeon hole you'd like to shoe horn them into this week (none of which do they fit into, but hey that's just my opinion...just because it ain't 'difficult' or ART or a recording a geezer p***ing into a bucket pressed onto a LP made from Horse dung). Just because TD sold record A to amount B of fans in year C...doesn't mean a thing. The OHR years stuff was hardly a great success (I'm talking about sales here)...until Virgin started selling their stuff. If the 'experts' had had their way the chances are that TD would have given up after 4 records, 99% of fans would have missed out on X amount of years of enjoyment. In some ways, and in a round about way, it's almost as if the fewer records you make, the bigger reputation you get. Look at Neu!...3 albums (actually make that 2 1/2) and people think they're gods. Kraftwerk? nothing from them for 20 years...OMG they can walk on water...funny old world isn't it :D
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SequenceC
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Post by SequenceC »

Yeah, very interesting point. And something I was thinking about a few weeks back, as I saw some comments. Including from Julian Cope (although maybe it's more of a preference for the Ohr years).

If you listen to EM - Phaedra, you can hear a progression from Atem to Phaedra. Atem has is more structured than Zeit and has lots of 'tron just like Phaedra. Also the running times are fairly similar (both for the total playing time and each track in the same order).

So I see Atem as the bridge between the Pink and Virgin years.

One thing for sure, I have grown very fond of Atem recently. Before I wasn't a big fan of it, always thought it was good, but now I really think it is special. And I really enjoy the 1972/3 concerts that have a fairly similar sound as well.
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