This video, via Laurence Ker, captures much of Tangerine Dream’s 50 Years Of Phaedra Concert, held at the Barbican in London on 7 October 2024, in front of a full house.
It’s not a professionally recorded video, and there’s an occasional back of the head blocking part of the view. But the video and audio quality are good enough to make us want to hear and see more.
The performance features the current lineup of Hoshiko Yamane, left; Thorsten Quaeschning, center; and Paul Frick, right. The performance is not a note-for-note live recreation of the original, but instead sounds like what many fans might want from a live performance of Phaedra – featuring the sounds and themes of the original, in electronic, sax and bongo-free arrangements.
The middle portion of the performance features tracks that are staples of their recent performances, and an improvised ‘Session’ that recalls the music of the band’s earliest incarnations.
Originally released in 1974, Phaedra defined Tangerine Dream’s early ’70s sound and featured the lineup of Franke, Froese & Baumann – which, to many, is the group’s most important incarnation.
We have not heard any word yet on an a official release of 50th anniversary performance, but the group already has a substantial backlog of unreleased live recordings.
If any Synthtopia readers attended the concert, leave a comment and share your thoughts on it!
Love it
Next year: Rubycon and Ricochet wil be performed
As a 40-year fan of TD, I can say that the group’s live performances are better than they have ever been.
There recent albums have been excellent, too. Raum and the Sessions box set, especially.
They’re never again going to do something as influential as Phaedra, though, because the times are different. Back then, these were sounds that none of us had heard before and it blew our minds.