Tangerine Dream At Union Chapel

This video, via Resident Advisor, captures Tangerine Dream in April at Union Chapel in London.

Froese’s widow, Bianca Froese-Acquaye, introduces the group and they perform two songs, 1977’s “Monolight” and 1986’s “Dolphin Dance”.

The video also features behind-the-scenes footage of TD’s Thorsten Quaeschning, Hoshiko Yamane and Ulrich Schnauss at the event.

12 thoughts on “Tangerine Dream At Union Chapel

    1. I’m a fan of the current incarnation of TD, but I’d agree that the group seems to under-utilize her.

      That or it’s just unclear what she’s doing. It looks like she’s got a Launchpad, but it’s not clear what she’s doing with it.

      I’d like to see them add some more virtuosic violin soloing to a few of their tracks. It would help fill the void left by the lack of guitar solos.

      It’s also hard to tell what Schnauss does live – though you can hear his influence all over their recent albums. Again, it would be more enjoyable to watch as a fan if you had some clue of what he was doing.

      You can tell what Quaeschning is doing most of the time, because he does so much of the keyboard playing. Some of the sequenced riffs look like he’s miming them to look busy, though. That or he’s got utter machine-like precision.

      None of this is that much different than TD live performances when Froese was alive. Every time I saw them, it seemed that much of the music was either tape playback or extremely sequenced. And the least interesting version of the band was in their ‘lite rock’ years, when they probably did as much live playing as they ever did.

      They have been making a return to the band’s improvised roots in their live sets, with big extended improvisations. It’s an awesome development and I hope that they keep getting more adventurous with this!

  1. TD is way past its prime and don’t warrant *four* live posts in the last *two months*. How about shining more light on emerging talent?

    1. This is an interesting and well made video about the modern incarnation of a group that led many of us into synthesis. Not everyone is into IDM, EDM or modular noodling. I get that it’s not your thing, but the great thing about a blog is that you can just scroll to the next post.

    2. I especially enjoy the possibility to watch live electronic music concert videos, they are not that common, so keep the posts coming! 🙂 It’s easy to scroll past a blog post if one is not interested.

  2. I was there and it left me with mixed emotions. Cards on the table: I am a Froese/Franke/Baumann or Froese/Franke/Schmoelling lover. With a few exceptions, everything outside those lineups is pretty mundane, formulaic and emotionless to me. Please don’t start the hating – its just my opinion – you don’t have to agree. I even walked out of a concert in the 2000’s as it was just plain boring with an overburdened lineup of drums, guitars and wind instruments. Having said that, I have collected all their recordings. I welcome the present incarnation, Schnauus is revitalising the band and even Quaeschning seems to be more TD like than ever. I too have no idea what the violinist does apart from the obvious here and there. I feel the return to more sequenced and improvised work will pay off over the coming years. Getting back to their roots is most welcome for me.

    1. The Franke, Froese Baumann lineup was the best, followed by the Schmoelling era.

      That said, the current lineup is already in third place, which is not bad at all given the group’s history. I think they could go higher on the list, too.

  3. Dig around and check out Johannes Schmoelling’s “Windblown Reeds.” Its a real jaw-dropper. The title piece is in two sections and they’re surreal audio movies. If someone ever wonders what synths are about, that’s a great way to make them go “Ooooh, now I get it…” Johannes knows his way around a piano, too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *