Tangerine Dream - The pioneers of kosmische musik

We meet the historic German band, now in a renewed three-piece line-up with Thorsten Quaeschning, Hoshiko Yamane and Paul Frick, just ahead of their concert scheduled for July 4th at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, as part of the "Worm Up!" series, born from a new collaboration between Ponderosa Music and Art and I Pomeriggi Musicali. Speaking to us is frontman Thorsten Quaeschning, who took up the mantle as leader of the legendary cosmic band from Berlin, following the passing in 2015 of its founder and deus ex machina: the unforgettable, unmatchable Edgar Froese.

How did the dream of continuing the journey of Tangerine Dream come about?

After Edgar's sad passing, it wasn't easy at all to figure out what to do. Edgar had precise plans for every single scenario, he had an extraordinary option for everything. His goal was that the idea and concept behind Tangerine Dream should be stronger than the people and musicians involved. So all we could do was try to carry forward his wonderful dream, his vision, and we immediately started writing a lot of music.

What was your relationship like?

I remember we played together two months before he passed away, on a short tour of Australia. We were at peace and in agreement about everything. In the summer of 2014 there was a kind of shift in the basic concept of Tangerine Dream. We dropped the percussionists, the guitarist and the saxophonist, and devoted ourselves exclusively to sequencer-driven electronic music, which was probably the very heart of the project's underlying engineering.

A return to the roots…

I remember that during that period he guided me through everything. One day, while I was composing, at a certain point he told me to let it go. That if I wasn't convinced, I couldn't force it. The problem is that I was layering a hundred sounds onto a single score. In short, I certainly wasn't obligated to follow that path. Edgar told me that everyone learns and can improve day by day and find their own way. So I hope that what we're putting forward today is a bit better than what I had in mind seven years ago (he smiles, ed.).

Your scores often start slowly and then build until they create a kind of celestial floating. Could you say that in some way this drift is also a metaphor for life and the swing of emotions that follow one another every day?

Thank you so much. That's actually a wonderful compliment. Great question. Of course, the best way to compose is to have a concept and an idea before the melodies take shape in your mind. I think the main issue is how many days go by with a certain piece of music in your head. It's something we talk about a lot in the band.

In what sense?

If you sense melodies inside you, it can happen that they actually improve over time, if for instance you let them settle for a few days. But then you have to decide when the moment has come to record them. And that's when the doubts start. Like: "Here, maybe, if I'd left it in my head two more days, it would be better by now. But the fear of forgetting some detail is ultimately stronger and sometimes wins out. I also always hope the result isn't too esoteric or elusive.

It's ready now and I hope it's the final version. There are always the waiting times tied to the label and so on. It could be released as early as next year, in spring or summer.

You're guests at Worm Up! in Milan. What will you play?

Normally we don't think about it too much. Our main goal is to have fun. We'll draw something from the period between 1974 and 1986, so from "Green Desert", and then we'll swap out some parts with music composed in 2017. We usually skip the 90s, because they don't match our personal tastes and current ideas. So in concert we mostly let ourselves be carried away by the 70s and the first half of the 80s. We usually play for a little over two hours. We often play a session too, which is something halfway between improvisation and something set in advance. It's nice to improvise, but only up to a point, also because we have a lot of rules to follow. What we play live I prefer to call a real-time dialogue, meaning we agree on the tempo and a main theme and start playing with the sequences. Or at least we try to.

What's your relationship with the audience while you play?

For us the audience defines a state of mind that is then connected to the space in that particular moment. If the audience reacts in some way to our sounds, it will definitely have an impact on the music, creating a kind of collective resonance. It's happened many times. The Italian audience, then, is an experience apart, as shown for example by what happened last year. It's usually a mixed crowd of young and older people. And they interact with us differently, especially compared to what we generally feel with German audiences, where people sometimes seem to give back a photograph taken from the stage. In short, they don't move at all. Of course, we often play in opera houses or universities, so it's not easy for that to happen there. But in Italy, regardless of everything and the context, there's a lot more energy, and I really like that. There's a very important feedback from the audience. An unusual connection that's inspiring.

And Italian music?

I love your folk music enormously. It's simply incredible.

Interesting. Alright: for Paul, if I had to translate it into a musical term, I'd say staccato. He plays very rhythmic notes that are also very short, and he does it with incredible timing. So yes: Paul is staccato. As for Hoshiko, I'd say she "simply" has great taste, because sometimes she stays in the background and it's hard to tell what she's playing. She also uses a lot of effects. And if we think of all the ones that exist for guitars, we can say she has a whole world at her disposal. Hoshiko practically has a guitar-pedal company's worth. As a result she can turn a guitar into a mellotron or a synthesizer at any moment. These pedals, incidentally, work much better when connected to her violin. With her, a choir can sound like a mellotron. So it's hard for the audience to see and understand exactly what she's doing with her instruments. Many wonder: is this a string quartet or an orchestra? I find it wonderful.

An album that changed your life.

It's very hard to pick just one. Generally speaking, I'd say “Zeit” by Tangerine Dream, because it sounds so different from everything that came before it. Otherwise “Ágætis Byrjun” by Sigur Rós. But if I had to pick just one, I'd say “Selling England By The Pound” by Genesis, because to me it's the best piece of progressive songwriting ever written. It's got some truly fantastic riffs. It's very English music, so they weren't trying to copy anything else. No, okay, maybe King Crimson, although Genesis didn't use a single blue note on that album.

(04/07/2024)

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google