Tangerine Dream – Tangram

4 reviews for Tangerine Dream – Tangram

1. 

   Markus / France – 2022-11-22

   Tangram is one of my long time favorite from Tangerine Dream.Two sides of metamorphic but somewhat controlled work and then again not that much. This was the perfect mix of it. And still each set is like an adventure, and I like these sounds pre-midi with less sampling so much.

   These are wonderful landscapes, the growing of the soft sequence in the beginning of set 1 until it change the speed.Then comes a soft part close to unplugged with nice acoustic guitar atmospheres very moody and smooth, just before the relentless rhythmical pulse by a probable drum-machine transforming into a bath of hot pads very movie kind (sounding slow like beginning of part2). This peace leads directly to another sequencing layerings gradually to a kind of very powerful climax to a beautiful ending.
   Every part is carefully linked together just like one journey, through valley, mountains, waters or air. This Tangram polygons forms from the ancient Chinese game is a sound-colorful trip through the essential elements of the world, with beautiful organic motion.(The inside artworks with the tangram mirrors beside are by the way perfect, but seem only to be found in the early vinyl version).I was always stuck by the subtle changes of the sequences at the end of set one just before the final orchestra, there is a strange harmonic relations that resonate still in me.
   The analog pads in the beginning of set 2 are incredibly thick, hot like beautiful. Then the rhythmical pulse progressively changing is very clever and nicely syncopated, shaping in different form with powerful themes with lead guitar and synths. This makes us come to some more noisy weird transitions and another variation pulse re-appearing again to other soundscapes horizons.This also the opening album for Johannes Schmoelling who was one of the best performer that joined the band.

   A main Album, a classic electro-acoustic album, even if the electronic part can seem more present, these moods remain very relaxed an still very melodic. A truly great Work from Tangerine Dream opening the last 20 years of the millennium that will also give big influences to so many artists around the world.
   This is my review 31 years after my first listening of the original vinyl in 1980.

   2011. Markus / France

2. 

   Renaat Mattheus / Vlaanderen – 2022-11-22

   Na dit prachtige album ben ik als trouwe TD-fan afgehaakt. Het is nooit meer goed gekomen.

   2008. Renaat Mattheus / Vlaanderen

3. 

   Aionios / Canada – 2022-11-22

   This is one of the landmark TD albums. It was done shortly after Johanes Schmoelling joined TD, and it is the first of a series of exceptional albums that define the ‘Schmoelling period’ in TD‘s long and astonishing career.
   Tangram is a transitional album that contains the ‘best of both worlds’, with TD still making concept music and with Schmoelling contributing his own creative ideas. True, this album is too polished, too precise, compared to Cyclone and Force Majeure, but it marks, after all, the beginning of the 80’s.
   I guess the beauty of Tangram lies in its consistency and continuity; and, yes, in its perfection! It is a beautiful work without weak points, meant to be listened to and enjoyed from beginning to end. I like both parts the same, although I give a slight preference to the introduction of part II, and to the ‘creation’ sequences halfway through part I.
   Not really much else to say about this CD, comparable to White Eagle, Exit, Pergamon and Logos Live, except that, I would love to see TD, currently in decline, make this kind of electronic symphony music again.
   But, all the same, I am glad that Tangram is there and I can enjoy it any time I want to!
   It is, indeed, today’s classical music.

   2003. Aionios / Canada

4. 

   SB / UK – 2022-11-22

   I remember hearing an excerpt from this not long after its release, on the ‘Friday Rock Show’(BBC1, UK). It blew me away.
   I’d just heard Ricochet, and had gone and bought it the next day.Two utterly classic albums from TD‘s great days. Very different in sound but very similar in presentation. Oh, why did they wander from the path?Some of the themes from Tangram appear on the East Berlin concert recording from ealier that year, which gives this a similar freshness to Ricochet.

   For anyone wishing to sample TD from this era, this is one album to listen to, several times.

   2009. SB / UK