Beyond The Storm

There is a lot of previously unreleased material in the two and a half hours of music here. Additionally, all of Froese's solo albums (except "Kamikaze 1989") are represented here to some extent and in some form or other. All of the tracks culled from earlier albums are featured in new versions, however; "refreshed" and brought up-to-date by the addition of newer electronic textures or additional layers. Few, if any, of these reworkings represent any improvement over their original versions, though, with most sounding as though they have been touched up merely for the sake of it, rather than to correct any inherent defects. I think it is a little sad that Froese cannot seem to accept the artistic validity of many of his early works and feels the need to keep tinkering with them like this. Personally, I can see no real reasons at all for most of what the music has been subjected to here, other than to make a lot of it sound more 'modern'-something I see no need for at all! But, to each their own, I suppose......

Long-standing fans of Froese may find some of the reworked tracks interestingly different, but I found nothing particularly riveting here. 'Tropic of Capricorn' (from "Ages", 1978) is presented in a much shortened, tauter version, making this much improved on the original. 'Drunken Mozart' (previously 'Drunken Mozart in the Desert' from "Stuntman", 1979) has been revamped quite nicely, with a more overblown-and more effective-intro (the Pink Floyd quote from "Wish you were here" remains intact!) as well as extra supporting textures and a modified ending. (Incidentally, the whole ten minutes are here, not just three minutes as suggested by the jacket's track listing.) These are about the only improvements to existing tracks, though.

Of the others, some have escaped relatively unscathed. 'Scarlet Score for Mescalero', from "Stuntman", has minimal additions, contributing an up-to-date-ness that works quite well without damage to the original. An 8-minute version of 'Pinnacles' (from the album of that name, 1983) has a somewhat altered tune at the beginning, but is merely shortened after that. 'The light cone' (also from "Pinnacles") has been altered very unobtrusively, whilst 'Stuntman' (from the album of the same title) is almost completely untouched, apart from some minor additions at the very end. Unfortunately, though, the original delicate opening to 'Detroit snackbar dreamer' (also from "Stuntman") has been so over-laden with extra textures that it has now become quite ponderous, with the rest of the track being weighted down with too many new additions too.

Other tracks have been freshened up and made to sound more modern but, sadly, no more interesting than their originals. 'Metropolis' (from "Ages") falls into this category, along with 'Walkabout' (from "Pinnacles"). This latter is newly set about with many additional voices and textures, which unfortunately just seem to add clutter without adding interest!

Unfortunately too, it has to be said that some tracks have been mutilated-it's the only word for it-virtually beyond recognition. 'Upland' (from "Aqua", 1974) is perhaps the saddest example of this. This track's original hypnotic beauty has been completely destroyed by totally unnecessary overlays-some in the wrong key-including a boring percussion pattern and mind-numbingly twee keyboard figure, which between them completely drown out the original material after only a few minutes. Very sad indeed. 'Epsilon in Malaysian Pale' (from the 1975 album of that title) fairs only marginally better, with barely any of the original material remaining discernible, apart from the underlying pulse and the later harmonisation. Considering that the very beautiful album from which this later comes is now out of print (SHAME!) this sort of treatment is doubly regrettable.

"Macula Transfer", another long out-of-print album from 1976, fairs a little better, although most of that album seems to have been condemned to eternal obscurity. A track from it, originally entitled 'IF810', is presented here in a fairly lightly revamped version bearing the title of the album rather than its own name. Somewhat ironically, though, this new track sounds to derive from the remixed version of 'IF810' which appeared on the later Virgin records' release "Edgar Froese: Solos 1974-1979", rather than from the original. All traces of the old gurgling VCS3 analogue synthesiser have been totally expunged, which is a great shame and symptomatic of much of the "out with the old and in with the new" attitude that seems to lie behind this album. Sigh!

As for the previously unheard material presented here, all of it is typical Froese solo work. It is clearly gleaned from a wide range of periods; fans of Edgar Froese, or indeed of Tangerine Dream, will have much fun speculating as to just when each piece was laid down. (Although I suspect that most of them have been subjected to at least some further modernisation, prior to release.) Most tracks are fairly gentle New Age ballads, or aimless guitar-and-percussion bops, complete with obligatory synthesised string washes! Only a few stand out as worthy of particular mention: 'Moonlight on a crawler lane' sounds as though it would make good film music. It conjures up the monotony of long-distance driving on American roads at slow speeds, having a strong forward movement that nevertheless feels to be getting nowhere very quickly. 'Shores of Guam' has some nice sequencer patterns and breathy synthesiser voices very reminiscent of 'Zen Garden' from "Le Parc". 'Vault of the Heavens' sounds to date from Tangerine Dream's late Private Music period. It features very brassy synths and a wailing electric guitar line over a strong percussion and a constant tata-tata-tata sequencer track. By far the most imaginative and technically accomplished of the new tracks, though, is 'Carneol', the final track of the first CD. This is a delightful study of patterns of beat, pulse and stereo imaging and sounds to be the most recent or, at least, most recently revamped, of the material on these two discs.

In summary, I would say that for most listeners, the material on these two discs has been too much worked over and is much too over-worked to be of any real interest. However, there is undoubtedly sufficient here to make this release an essential purchase for the confirmed Froesian. Fans of softer New Age electronic music may also find much of this of interest. Others-especially those who prefer Tangerine Dream's early music, or indeed, heavier later music-may do better to shy away. Read more ›