“This recording shows how this concert was totally crazy but the sound, for an official album now, is obviously below expectations”
Disc One
1 First Movement (19:12)
2 Second Movement (23:42)
3 Third Movement (24:18)
Disc Two
1 Fourth Movement (23:40)
2 Fifth Movement (11:33)
4 Sixth Movement (12:28)
BOOTMOON002CD (CD 126:26)
(Berlin School) (V.F.)
The concerts of the 1977 North American tour were among the wildest performances of Tangerine Dream, especially because of the contact with the public who discovered the phenomenon Froese, Franke and Baumann for the first time and by the enthusiasm of the press who incessantly incensed the album Stratosfear and the current tour. This press, oral and written, praised the laser show as well as this bizarre, experimental and psychedelic music that was after all rather catchy, even melodious. New phenomenon, disproportionate reactions! Enough to arouse the curiosity of the more adventurous, like me. I was there! In April 1977 I was sitting in La Place des Arts to hear, and especially see. Like many, I had heard Stratosfear on the radio. In 77, CHOM-FM, the rock and progressive radio of the time in Montreal, was playing the music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze (yes, Klaus Schulze), Kraftwerk (Radio Activity), Jean-Michel Jarre (Oxygene) and Vangelis. Montreal, already quite avant-gardist from a cultural point of view, beats to the strange pulsations of the music made by synthesizer and sequencer. Although I really liked Jarre and Mike Oldfield, I was not really a fan of the genre. On the contrary! At the dawn of my majority, I smashed my speakers with the music of Queen, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Supertramp and Pink Floyd. My ears had tried the adventure Stratosfear, Phaedra and Rubycon without much success. But what a wonderful evening I spent. When Encore was on the tub, and after taming Phaedra and Stratosfear, I rushed out to buy it, but something was missing.
I was able to get my hands on the entire concert, which was simultaneously broadcast on CHOM-FM, with the complicity of a friend. What would later become the bootleg Patrolling Space Borders. Bootlegs! Lord, how many pirate recordings can there be on Tangerine Dream? I'm not sure, but I think all the concerts have been recorded. In recent years, irreducible fans have set up a big project called; Tangerine Tree. This project consists of collecting recordings of Tangerine Dream concerts. A committee selects these records by dividing them into two categories; the Trees for the best recordings are generally tapes that come from the console or radio stations (soundboards) and the Leaves for the recordings of less good qualities, that is to say recordings from the audience. Everything is done with the consent of Edgar Froese. This huge collection, which includes 8 series and nearly 90 volumes, is available for free and circulates easily among the fans. MONTREAL-APRIL 9th, 1977 comes from this source; Tangerine Tree Volume 18: Montreal 1977. And it's the Bootmoon label that has acquired the rights for a pressing of 10,000 copies that are sold in a cardboard sleeve. No remastering or dusting. It's exactly the same, but sold at high prices…The music is substantially that of Encore for the first 3 movements. The sound is different, but the structural frames are similar. So, it's CD2 which has all the focus. For the music, and for other things since the Bootmoon executives slept on gas by sending the CD1 of the Aachen concert, released at the same time. An unforgivable mistake that shows that a quick dollar exceeds the respect of the art. The mistake was corrected, and it gives more weight to the stories and legends behind Tangerine Dream. As for music, the CD2 is literally smoking. The music is pure electronic delirium with sequences and percussion elements that weave lines of parallel and divergent rhythms in rhythmic crossroads that defy any percussionist's arms. These rhythms served as a basis for synth and mellotron waves whose solos and harmonies are the soulless friends of Edgar's furious guitar solos, as I recall.
This recording shows how this concert was totally crazy. The sound, for an official album now, is obviously below expectations. We find all these details that make you smile on a bootleg; murmurs, spontaneous cries of joy, crumpling, loud applause and others (here there is a radio voice promoting CHOM-FM at 97.7). In short, an excellent bootleg but a poor level of sound quality for an official release. I don't understand why you should pay for such a non-professional result. I believe the Tangerine Tree still exists, but it's more discreet following a request from Edgar. So, if you are lucky you can come across a real gold mine. And if you're a fan of the 77 North American Tour, the Washington concert at Lisner Auditorium, also broadcast on the radio, is even better. At the sound level, as well as its content. This is the Tangerine Tree Volume 4. There are rumors about the Seattle and Los Angeles concerts ...
Sylvain Lupari (July 13th, 2010) *****
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