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Writer's pictureSylvain Lupari

TANGERINE DREAM: The Sessions iii (2018)

Updated: Feb 23, 2020

Scents of Thorsten Quaeschning and Picture Palace Music are reshaping those of this Tangerine Dream Phase 8 , but not those of Edgar's

1 10.05pm Session - Hanseatic Harbour Lights 35:14

2 09.10pm Session – Ost 42:42

Eastgate ‎| 083 CD

(CD 77:56) (V.F.)

(Berlin School, E-Rock)

I guess one has to listen carefully! My first rendezvous with THE SESSIONS iii was so-so. I listened again! I ignored this introduction, too usual but oh so necessary in an improvisation session. I listened, without images. Just the sound. Anesthetic mist, effects of strings that we triturate, timid layers of celestial voices and a sumptuous air of flute. This flute? I liked her at first listen. She is tributary of the first ambiences of Tangerine Dream with Peter Baumann (was it Edgar too?) on the Mellotron. And then the violin. Damn that I'm afraid that Hoshiko Yamane is going to be a rock in a shoe. Like Linda Spa and her saxophone! But here it's soft and close to the tones of a synth. These synths, like the percussive elements sparkling here and there, weave effects like ink on a blotter. And the mellotron and its flute! I imagine a dense fog, blue of its industrial ashes, while percussive elements surround the ambiances. This slight pulsation, which beat as timidly as the violin sounds, changes speed after 8 minutes. It's the rising of 10.05pm Session - Hanseatic Harbor Lights which becomes a real electronic rock à la Berlin School. The movement of the sequencer is in ascending mode, like a train on cotton dunes. And the violin! It returns to make sing its strings that launch good solos that are chopped by sharp and incisive sequences. The movement follows a very familiar tangent where the violin, the synth and guitar effects intertwine and exchange their place in a rhythmic whirlwind accentuated by sequencers and percussive effects that encode the rhythm with a spasmodic texture. This is a huge Berlin School which takes its oxygen in a Picture Palace Music phase of ambiences at the point of 20 minutes. The ambiances projected by the piano are superb and the panorama breathes those of Natatorium. But the pace is never off. It beats with scattered pulses. And a deaf line awaits its rebirth that will come fully, and for a brief moment, around the 27 minutes. Its movement is violent, like a crazy train, and relive its genesis upside down where sound effects, like applause, are more nourished. In fact, I still don't know why my first date was so/so ...

09.10pm Session - Ost is without a doubt the craziest title of these improvisation sessions started in early 2017. The introductory atmospheres are filled with sound effects that form these non-existent clouds of white mist when a train leaves the station of psychedelia. After more than 15 minutes of waiting at this railway station, the rhythm bites our ears with a flurry of sequences, pulsations, percussive effects and violin riffs. It struggles with these imaginary patterns of ascending dunes before exploding in a heavy rock that is furious to be trapped in the eye of a whirlwind of sounds. Another phase of atmospheres before it re-explodes (bis and re bis) in textures where the imprints of Thorsten Quaeschning and Picture Palace Music reshape those of the Dream without Edgar. 09.10pm Session - Ost will complete its journey as it started. Leaving all the same a beautiful imprint of a Tangerine Dream Phase 8 revamped by a more daring vision than on the first 2 The Sessions.

Sylvain Lupari (16/10/19) *****

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