Green Desert
Tangerine Dream

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Green Desert (1973) - Released 1986

1. Green Desert2. White Clouds3. Astral Voyager4. Indian Summer

Edgar Froese - keyboards, guitarChris Franke - keyboards, percussion.Compositional credits are EF,CF for tracks 1,2 and 4, and are CF,EFfor track 3 (interesting!).

I think we all know by now that this album was recorded without PeterBaumann, and was meant as an appetiser for prospective new employers,Virgin Records. It did the trick obviously, as Richard Branson signedthem up and their first effort for his label was 'Phaedra' (to bediscussed next week). Merely being nothing more than a 'demo', thisalbum didn't see the light of day until the 1986 release of the 'InThe Beginning' box set. I'm glad it was released. This is the first TDalbum I truly like (ok, some parts of Atem were good). If I had only 1pre-Virgin record, this would most definitely be it...

The album starts off with a dark and ominous feel for the first fewminutes, before some laid back drumming (in comparison to drumming onearlier albums) and some mellow guitar stroking come on board to showwhat a departure this is becoming from the earlier material. To me,this actually sounds later than 1973... more like 1977. This is notElectronic Music at all, it's rock. But that's no bad thing... ForceMajeure for example is a rock album, and again is one of myfavourites. The last 3 minutes sees the guitar and drums fade away,giving us a beautiful ending to the first track.

White Clouds again could be from the late seventies. Another drummingfrenzy as found on earlier albums, synthetic bird tweets, varioussynth sound effects. One can imagine a purposeful man striding throughDeath Valley accompanied by this tune... not much else to say on thisone other than it's only 5 minutes long and so brings me to myfavourite track all the more quickly!

Astral Voyager is the highlight of the album for me. Ok, so it doesn'tchange much at all, but here we see Chris Franke turn his hand torhythmic sequencing for the first real time. Not sure which instrumenthe would be using at this stage, but it does sound rather good.Strings and flute add to the bass sequence giving us a very simple 3layered sound which is as full as it ever needs to be (maybe a trickEd should relearn... 64 track midi studio does not mean you have touse 64 tracks! - (ask Marcel Engels (FSP) - his track Faraday is aclassic example of 3 or 4 layers providing all that is required for abeautiful piece of music). I could listen to an extended 70 minuteversion of this track easily! I was delighted to find this trackunderlying a section on the Ambient Monkeys release.

Indian Summer rounds the album off. Some very piercing synth stabsover some 'wind' effects, gradually becoming fuller, enhanced by bassnotes. Twirly flute-like melody, some effected guitar. I would havepreferred a nice Franke sequence bubbling away under all of this, butthe track is pleasant enough. Lie back on the bed, lights off, eyesclosed, and I am transported to Thomas Cook adverts of tropicalbeaches, bright blue skies and oceans (hardly a 'desert' image hey),palm trees gently blowing in the wind. And all too soon the album isover... good job I have it on repeat play! :-)

All in all, for me at least, this album is TD as I know and love them.This completes their stride away from space music as started withAtem. I've been listening to this album for a whole week now, and amalmost sorry to have to move on to start listening to Phaedra....

Regards,Lawry

Excellent album by TD!Although somehow I just don't think this is pure TD 1973...I can see the transition from Atem to Phaedra but I can not see Green Desertin between.But then again I'm not complaining because I love this album...it is verydifferent then most albums they did in that period.

1. Green Desert

Excellent track. Begins very quiet with just one note and somefilterturning.Sound fxs and later on very laid back drums come in. (superb!).It gets even better with Edgar on the guitar...I get this Pink Floyd feeling when I listen to this track, but the greatthing about this track (and not PF) is that it continues very long.Drumming gets wilder and the ending is more laid back again.

2. White Clouds

Definitely Indian feelings when I listen to this track.(no, not with indian summer).Strange thing is when I heard this track for the first time I couldplay/whistle along with it...had I heard it before somewhere on tv or radiomaybe?

3. Astral Voyager

Ah, for the first time 'heavy' sequencer work from Chris.Quite simple actually...2 transitions, some flanged choirs, some solo workandthe track is finished, classic (berlin) em music actually. :-)

4. Indian Summer

The strings on this track sounds as if they come from a solina or anotherstringmachine and I don't know exactly if that was available at that time.I always try to find the time signature/measurement (how do you say it)between the string-sounds...but fail. :-)Not much really happening in this track, but it's a nice one (well, my leastfavorite actually).

I wish they had some more tapes of this lying around...

Marcel

This album is very difficult for me to review as the (I feel)inappropriate "enhancements" blur the historical relevanceof the recordings. I just don't hear most of this album fitting inthe time line as we have been going back and listening to them.This is most evident on track 3 "Astral Voyager," where mostof the tonalities and compositional style seem more mid-80's( I'm reminded of Pinnacles.) I really don't know what, if anythingat all was recorded in '73. The first track is a little more believablewith the drums and guitar and very basic drone. I could see thesethings being done back then, but sizable chunks of the albumare simply out of time. Part of this opinion is based on having apretty good idea what they had to work with technically back thenand a large amount of this recording does NOT represent that.

I am perhaps a little more critical on thispoint than I'm sure many of you will be. It's not that I don't likethe album, I do. I just have had the opportunity to hear somebootleg live recordings lately that have really turned me on, andwould have very much liked to hear the recordings in the raw.I recently read an interview with Edgar where he justified the"additions" as giving the audience something new, which I can understand to adegree, but I can take it raw, and in this casewould have preferred it that way.

I think I'd put my vote in for Green Desert being my favorite track.This one feels closest to original though there's plenty of add-onshere, too. Track 2 I'd believe the drums were original, but thechord progression has no connection to anything else that wasrecorded in this time frame at all. Track 3 I've already mentioned,though I'm critical of it's inclusion, I like it as a piece of music.Track 4, well again, these kinds of chord progressions don't appearuntil much later in their music.sooooo what is real?

What were the circumstances of Peter Baumann not being on thisrecording again?

Poly

Another late addition, and there's little to add to what others have said, buthere i is for all you 'completists'.

Green Desert [1973]Edgar Froese, Chris Franke

Green DesertWhite CloudsAstral VoyagerIndian Summer

By the time I get around to posting this, there will inevitably have been anumber of posts explaining the background to this peculiarity. Unfortunately, Iplan to reiterate some of these for the purposes of my review/discussion.

1. Green Desert was recorded by Froese and Franke, when Baumann was on one ofhis sabbaticals.2. Green Desert was replaced by Phaedra (see next weeks' discussion) when TDwere signed by the fledgling Virgin label. I have seen at least two versions ofthe reason for this :a) TD were/are a democratic band and didn't want to release an album withoutPeter's inputb) the album was intended as a demo to persuade Virgin to sign them.Personnally, I don't believe either, wholely. I think Ed 'n' Chris created thiswhilst between contracts and the only reason they didn't release it when signedto Virgin was because their forwarding fee (or whatever its called) allowedthem to buy new gear and experiment before their new contract required analbum.3. Green Desert was released in 1986, but contains remixed/re-recorded musicrather than the original.

I'll start by saying that I like this album - I like it a lot. The combinationof drums, guitar and background effects (particularly in the title track) leadthis right up my street. Musically, I think this album is out-of-line with thealbums around it, whether they be Atem and Phaedra or Poland and Le Parc or LeParc and Underwater Sunlight.

First off : I have heard a number of times that Chris threw away his drum kitafter Atem. The use (and prominence) of so much drums on this album is,therefore, a quandry.

Are these reports incorrect or inaccurate?Possibly (we'll never know for sure, I guess). Perhaps Chris threw his drum kitaway before Phaedra was released, but that could have been after Green Desertwas originally recorded. Or maybe the 'throwing away' was a metophorical,rather than physical, act and he kept his hand in all through the Virgin years.Perhaps Chris dusted the old kit off in 1984 and returned to his roots.

Was a studio musician used?Well, TD has never shyed away from saying who did what on their albums (exceptperhaps for more details of the studio musicians used on Beach Theme / Scenefrom the Thief CD) and quite happily stated that Klaus Krieger played on two TDand one Froese album, so I doubt this.

Secondly : When did Edgar start playing the guitar like that? The opening phaseof the title track contains a solid, melodic piece of guitar work, totallyunlike anything that appeared before and until much later (at least in theirstudio work).

And finally, when did TD start the great synth melody lines? They moved fromthe ambience of Zeit and Atem to the sequencer sounds of Phaedra and Rubyconand by-passed the melody of Green Desert until Stratosfear? I think not!

I believe that this is a very complex, and much handled, album, featuring manylayers of music created over many years. The drum work and background chordsequences etc. may have come from the original recordings, but I think allguitar and lead synth work is new. I also think these parts were not originallypart of the album, but added in 1984 to more closely reflect the musical styleof TD at that time.

Of course, until Ed sees fit to release his memoirs, we will never know, andmusing on such matters are simply a waste of time. I enjoyed wasting my time -I hope you enjoyed wasting yours.

BTW, this gets a 4AS from me.

--------------------------------------------------------------Craig R. J. Cordrey