Sky Arts has just broadcast a fascinating documentary about Tangerine Dream entitled 'Revolution Of Sound', and it prompted me to dig out some of the many live bootlegs that I have from the band and to give them another listen. Tangerine Dream are a godsend to bootleggers, as the long pieces that that play means that all they have to do is point the mike and press play, and then do nothing until the first piece ends 40 minutes later! The other great thing about their concerts is that because they employ so much improvisation, no two are ever the same, and Wednesday's gig can be totally different to Tuesday's. There are literally hundreds of live bootlegs available on the internet, and the fan project Tangerine Tree has done a superlative job in collecting the very best of them and making them available to a wider audience. The creators of the project received permission from Tangerine Dream to release the collection on a strict non-profit basis, and several volumes have been used as the basis for official releases later on. Material was collected from audience recordings, soundboards, radio and TV transmissions, and in some cases the purchase of studio masters. Only recordings of a high quality and a unique nature were considered for the core volumes, and these were professionally re-mastered and released on CD-R, accompanied by high quality artwork. Tangerine Leaves releases were based on material that did not meet the high quality standards of a Tangerine Tree release, or from concerts that were not considered notable enough, but if a better source was found, a Tangerine Leaves volume might be upgraded to a Tangerine Tree one. My favourite period of the band's history is the period leading up to 'Phaedra' in 1973 through to 'Stratosfear' in 1976, although I do have recordings from a number of later incarnations of the band, as well as some from as early as 1968, but really I love everything that they've done.
As the actual recordings can sometimes be hard to track down I thought I'd post one recording from each year from 1972 - which foreshadows what would appear on 'Phaedra' a year or so later - to 1976, which is the year before they released the official live double album 'Encore'. For the 1972 concert I've chosen a recording from Cologne, which is a major highlight of the Tangerine Tree fan project, as it presents a totally unknown recording from that year. Originally a mono recording, the music has nothing to do with the already known Cologne gig on 25 November 1972, which exists as an FM radio recording with an announcer, although it is certainly from the same period considering the instruments used. It contains two long tracks, but no-one knows if it was really recorded during that show. In 2011, the main Tangerine Tree organizer reminisced about the recording: "I received this a few years ago from a Belgian collector. I can't even recall his name, or if he was/is part of the tadream list. I got an email in which he offered me a tape from the 'Klangwald' show, and of course, I said 'great!', hoping that he had a superior copy of the show than what was in circulation at that time. As some of you may know I even contacted radio and TV stations and bought pricey master copies for the Tangerine Tree series, but the 'Klangwald' show was unobtainable. You can imagine my surprise when I first heard the cassette (an old one which had 'Klangwald' written on it). Despite an awful amount of tape hiss, it was clear that this was a different recording. I then passed it on to be remastered, and they did the usual excellent job. How the Belgian fan got hold of it I guess we'll never know. Musically it fits right into the late '72/early '73 kind of music that TD was playing, and although I wasn't quite convinced, I labeled the disc as 'Klangwald', knowing that it must have been a pretty long show if you combine it with what we already knew before!" It is quite likely that the origin of this recording is one of those 1972 shows for which no recording is known to exist, but the music is excellent, an improvised cosmic classic that perfectly fits into the 'Zeit' and 'Atem' period. The sound quality is very good, given the age of the recording, and seems to be taken directly from a live soundboard.
As the actual recordings can sometimes be hard to track down I thought I'd post one recording from each year from 1972 - which foreshadows what would appear on 'Phaedra' a year or so later - to 1976, which is the year before they released the official live double album 'Encore'. For the 1972 concert I've chosen a recording from Cologne, which is a major highlight of the Tangerine Tree fan project, as it presents a totally unknown recording from that year. Originally a mono recording, the music has nothing to do with the already known Cologne gig on 25 November 1972, which exists as an FM radio recording with an announcer, although it is certainly from the same period considering the instruments used. It contains two long tracks, but no-one knows if it was really recorded during that show. In 2011, the main Tangerine Tree organizer reminisced about the recording: "I received this a few years ago from a Belgian collector. I can't even recall his name, or if he was/is part of the tadream list. I got an email in which he offered me a tape from the 'Klangwald' show, and of course, I said 'great!', hoping that he had a superior copy of the show than what was in circulation at that time. As some of you may know I even contacted radio and TV stations and bought pricey master copies for the Tangerine Tree series, but the 'Klangwald' show was unobtainable. You can imagine my surprise when I first heard the cassette (an old one which had 'Klangwald' written on it). Despite an awful amount of tape hiss, it was clear that this was a different recording. I then passed it on to be remastered, and they did the usual excellent job. How the Belgian fan got hold of it I guess we'll never know. Musically it fits right into the late '72/early '73 kind of music that TD was playing, and although I wasn't quite convinced, I labeled the disc as 'Klangwald', knowing that it must have been a pretty long show if you combine it with what we already knew before!" It is quite likely that the origin of this recording is one of those 1972 shows for which no recording is known to exist, but the music is excellent, an improvised cosmic classic that perfectly fits into the 'Zeit' and 'Atem' period. The sound quality is very good, given the age of the recording, and seems to be taken directly from a live soundboard.
Track listing
01 Klangwald 1
02 Klangwald 2
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