Electronic Meditation...the start of the journey
Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:09 am
From the dusty vaults comes Inkey$ 10 interview with Edgar and Chris...chatting about the early days of TD and Electronic Meditation:
Dennis Emsley-" Hello and welcome to Inkey$ 10. Our first interview for this issue is with probably the best known band on the electronic music scene, I'm referring of course to Tangerine Dream. Well two thirds of Tangerine Dream actually, as Johannes Schmoelling couldn't join us ... Jeanette started the proceedings by asking how the original members first got together."
Edgar Froese-"Terribly (laughs) the thing was that the whole recording session, I mean it was a recording session, it wasn't planned to release the first record at all. It was a Sunday afternoon when we came together on a small studio in Berlin and we were just sitting together and playing around a bit, and someone did tape it and a couple of months later, we already had forgotten about the session; about the tape and everything and we got a letter from a German record company saying 'Oh we are very interested, it's very unusual kind of music and we want to release it', and we couldn't stop laughing about it. Because we thought 'what an winner', to want to release such a record. Because as you must know at those days Germany had no music identity at all really and so we were not prepared to copy American music, to copy English music. So we tried to do something on our own and what we did was just rehearsing. We just tried to figure out which way to go and that first experiment, call it an experiment, should be released on a record was very fascinating, that's all about that."
Jeanette Emsley-"Chris how did you come to join Tangerine, were you approached by Edgar?"
Chris Franke-"Well he was looking for (laughs) somebody actually”...
EF- “Tell them the true story, it’s very funny”
(General laughter)
CF- “Er, I guess his drummer died or just couldn't work anymore (laughs), I can't talk!..."
EF-" He can't continue, but I tell you; if we talk about all these silly things, ok. There was a studio session and I got approached to play guitar, to copy guitar playing on a Simon and Garfunkel track recorded for a German version and, what was is? What was the name, do you remember?"
CF-" the Boxer!"
EF-" The Boxer, yeah right. But I didn't want to do it, so they said ok if you do not want to record the guitar do you know somebody who could play the drums?. I said 'no I don't, but I will go figure (it) out’ and through someone else I got in contact with Chris and he told me ok Chris is a very good drummer; he can easily do that. So I said ‘Chris ok would you come along, I don't play the guitar, but would you like to play the drums on a German version of the Boxer’?, so you went into the studio (laughs) and that's how we came in touch with each other (laughs). That's the truth!"
(General laughter)
CF-"Maybe he dreamed or maybe it is true (laughs). But anyway there was this one little studio existing in a cellar of a music school made by the government for experimental music and through that studio we heard from each other, what we are doing, and so forth and my Art school group, just members of my school, we were already started improvising music, creating free form of music inspired, maybe by Hendrix and Cream music and so on, and I also heard already one Tangerine Dream concert that was absolutely free, totally free, very loud, very impressive wall of sound and actually there was already some mental connection with this practical thing we just described, how we personally met and then actually it happened that Klaus Schulze who played with the group for a more strange reason (because) no one else would play with him. So we just did a couple of sessions and rehearsals and there were already concert offers and we started touring".
Dennis Emsley-" Hello and welcome to Inkey$ 10. Our first interview for this issue is with probably the best known band on the electronic music scene, I'm referring of course to Tangerine Dream. Well two thirds of Tangerine Dream actually, as Johannes Schmoelling couldn't join us ... Jeanette started the proceedings by asking how the original members first got together."
Edgar Froese-"Terribly (laughs) the thing was that the whole recording session, I mean it was a recording session, it wasn't planned to release the first record at all. It was a Sunday afternoon when we came together on a small studio in Berlin and we were just sitting together and playing around a bit, and someone did tape it and a couple of months later, we already had forgotten about the session; about the tape and everything and we got a letter from a German record company saying 'Oh we are very interested, it's very unusual kind of music and we want to release it', and we couldn't stop laughing about it. Because we thought 'what an winner', to want to release such a record. Because as you must know at those days Germany had no music identity at all really and so we were not prepared to copy American music, to copy English music. So we tried to do something on our own and what we did was just rehearsing. We just tried to figure out which way to go and that first experiment, call it an experiment, should be released on a record was very fascinating, that's all about that."
Jeanette Emsley-"Chris how did you come to join Tangerine, were you approached by Edgar?"
Chris Franke-"Well he was looking for (laughs) somebody actually”...
EF- “Tell them the true story, it’s very funny”
(General laughter)
CF- “Er, I guess his drummer died or just couldn't work anymore (laughs), I can't talk!..."
EF-" He can't continue, but I tell you; if we talk about all these silly things, ok. There was a studio session and I got approached to play guitar, to copy guitar playing on a Simon and Garfunkel track recorded for a German version and, what was is? What was the name, do you remember?"
CF-" the Boxer!"
EF-" The Boxer, yeah right. But I didn't want to do it, so they said ok if you do not want to record the guitar do you know somebody who could play the drums?. I said 'no I don't, but I will go figure (it) out’ and through someone else I got in contact with Chris and he told me ok Chris is a very good drummer; he can easily do that. So I said ‘Chris ok would you come along, I don't play the guitar, but would you like to play the drums on a German version of the Boxer’?, so you went into the studio (laughs) and that's how we came in touch with each other (laughs). That's the truth!"
(General laughter)
CF-"Maybe he dreamed or maybe it is true (laughs). But anyway there was this one little studio existing in a cellar of a music school made by the government for experimental music and through that studio we heard from each other, what we are doing, and so forth and my Art school group, just members of my school, we were already started improvising music, creating free form of music inspired, maybe by Hendrix and Cream music and so on, and I also heard already one Tangerine Dream concert that was absolutely free, totally free, very loud, very impressive wall of sound and actually there was already some mental connection with this practical thing we just described, how we personally met and then actually it happened that Klaus Schulze who played with the group for a more strange reason (because) no one else would play with him. So we just did a couple of sessions and rehearsals and there were already concert offers and we started touring".
