Electronic Meditation
| Electronic Meditation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 1970 LP album cover | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 1970 | |||
| Recorded | October 1969 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 36:37 | |||
| Label | Ohr | |||
| Producer | Tangerine Dream | |||
| Tangerine Dream chronology | ||||
| ||||
Electronic Meditation is the debut album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released in June 1970 by record label Ohr.
Recording and release
[edit]The album was recorded in a rented factory in Berlin in October 1969, using just a two-track Revox tape recorder.[3]
The first five albums released by Ohr Records, including Electronic Meditation, featured sleeves by Reinhard Hippen, all with dismembered baby doll parts as a central aspect of the imagery. The original LP had a balloon inserted in the cover; the 2004 Japan CD release is a copy of the original LP cover and includes the balloon.[4]
Electronic Meditation is the only Tangerine Dream album to feature the line-up of Edgar Froese, Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler. Two other musicians, organist Jimmy Jackson and flautist Thomas Keyserling, also performed on the album although they were uncredited in the original release.[4][1] Shulze left the band before Electronic Meditation was released, and Schnitzler followed him shortly after.[1]
Composition
[edit]Its style is a unique form of free jazz, electronic art music, and instrumental rock; or as Sound on Sound magazine described it, "free electronic rock".[3] Its instrumentation ranges from conventional instruments such as the guitar, organ, drums, and cello to various custom-made electronic devices implemented by Edgar Froese and found sounds such as broken glass, burning parchment, and dried peas being shaken in a sieve. The backwards vocals at the end of side B are of Edgar Froese reading from the back of a ferry ticket from Dover to Calais.[3]
Dominique Leone of Pitchfork described the songs "Cold Smoke" and "Journey Through A Burning Brain" as sonically related to the characteristic sound of Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze, "than anything TD became famous for". The song "Journey Through A Burning Brain", in particular, reminded Leone about the music from Schnitzler's Kluster records, with "unidentified sound effects and a hard-line approach to free improvisation". The next are considerably gentler than Electronic Meditation.[1]
Reception
[edit]| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Classic Rock | [5] |
| Pitchfork | 7.6/10[1] |
In its retrospective review, AllMusic wrote: "The album is not without its flaws, but it's strong in many ways and shows abundant promise".[2] Stephen Dalton in his review for Classic Rock described the album as "more an historically interesting cult curio than essential Krautrock milestone"; however, he added that "from sketchy but seminal basement tapes like these, an entire cosmos of sound was mapped."[5]
Music journalist Rob Young described the album as "landmark, [..] a gas-giant of a record, votive and solemn in mood, cosmic in scale, yet built of recognisable materials: mellotrons, analogue rumbles and amplified flute. Somewhere between improvised music, contemporary classical and the future direction of progressive rock."[6]
Track listing
[edit]All tracks are written by Edgar Froese, Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Genesis" | 5:57 |
| 2. | "Journey Through a Burning Brain" | 12:26 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 3. | "Cold Smoke" | 10:38 |
| 4. | "Ashes to Ashes" | 4:06 |
| 5. | "Resurrection" | 3:27 |
Personnel
[edit]- Tangerine Dream
- Edgar Froese – six- and twelve-string guitar, organ, piano, sound effects, tapes
- Conrad Schnitzler – cello, violin, addiator
- Klaus Schulze – drums, percussion, metal sticks
- Additional personnel
- Jimmy Jackson – organ (uncredited in the original release)
- Thomas Keyserling – flute (uncredited in the original release)
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Leone, Dominique (6 February 2003). "Tangerine Dream: Electronic Meditation/Alpha Centauri". Pitchfork.
- ^ a b c Brenholts, Jim. "Tangerine Dream – Electronic Meditation". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
- ^ a b c d "Tangerine Dream: Their Changing Use Of Technology Part 1: 1967–1977". Sound on Sound. December 1994. Archived from the original on 15 November 2004.
- ^ a b Berling, Michael (29 September 2016). "Electronic Meditation". Voices in the Net.
- ^ a b Dalton, Stephen (July 2012). "Tangerine Dream - Electronic Meditation". Classic Rock. No. 172. p. 107.
- ^ Young, Rob; Schmidt, Irmin (2018). All Gates Open: The Story of Can (e-book ed.). London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-31151-4.
External links
[edit]- Electronic Meditation at Discogs (list of releases)
