Phaedra was the album that saw Tangerine Dream move from relative obscurity to mainstream success. Championed by broadcaster John Peel, they reached the attention of Richard Branson and signed a deal for five albums with the Virgin label. Phaedra, released in 1974, was the first of these. It still sounds startlingly innovative, fusing what were then the latest synthesizer technologies with instruments including a Mellotron, organ, electric piano, guitar and flute. The use of sequencers to create rhythmic patterns was a new sonic experience for most listeners, while the processing of all the instruments through reverb and delay helped to create a template for ambience and atmosphere that still continues to influence music today. This book explores Phaedra in the context of the wave of experimental creativity in German music in the 1970s and the part the album played in the emergence of Kosmiche Musik, cosmic music, in 1970s West Germany.
Format: Hardback
CONTRIBUTORS: Dr. Dr. Dan Byrne-Smith
EAN: 9781501384134
COUNTRY: United States
PAGES: 128
WEIGHT:
HEIGHT: 197 mm
PUBLISHED BY: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
DATE PUBLISHED: 2025-09-04
CITY:
GENRE: MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Electronic, MUSIC / Ethnic, MUSIC / History & Criticism, MUSIC / Musical Instruments / General, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / International, MUSIC / Individual Composer & Musician
WIDTH: 127 mm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
Music reviews and criticism, Other global and regional music styles, Electronic music, Composers and songwriters, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Electronic musical instruments
Dan Byrne-Smith is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art Theory at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, UK. He is the author of Traces of Modernity (2012) and editor of Science Fiction: Documents of Contemporary Art (2020).