On
this day, half a century ago on February 20th, 1974, the future of
electronic music would receive one of its most important foundation
stones, as Tangerine Dream released their fifth studio album, Phaedra.
It was an album that would introduce one of the most crucial components
to the production of synthesizer based music, with the step sequencer
taking centre stage on this most influential album.
As well as
introducing music fans to the mechanical, hypnotic bass pulse of the
step sequenced modular synthesizer, this was the first album by the
group to be released on Richard Branson's burgeoning Virgin Records.
Branson had heard a set of recordings Edgar Froese and Christopher
Franke had made earlier in 1973 at Skyline Studios in Berlin, and was
impressed enough to sign the group to his label and invite them to come
to the UK to record. They set up camp at The Manor in
Shipton-on-Cherwell during November of 1973 and spent just under six
weeks to complete the album.
Initial production did not go
smoothly, however, as the group and studio engineers wrestled with a
seemingly endless string of technical issues. Things began to change
with a breakthrough recording by Edgar Froese, assisted by his wife,
Monique. Froese recalled the session.
"Phaedra was the first
album in which many things had to be structured. The reason was that we
were using the Moog sequencer (all driving bass notes) for the first
time. Just tuning the instrument took several hours each day, because at
the time there were no presets or memory banks. We worked each day from
11 o'clock in the morning to 2 o'clock at night. By the 11th day we
barely had 6 minutes of music on tape. Technically everything that could
go wrong did go wrong. The tape machine broke down, there were repeated
mixing console failures and the speakers were damaged because of the
unusually low frequencies of the bass notes. After 12 days of this we
were completely knackered. Fortunately, after a two-day break in the
countryside a new start brought a breakthrough. 'Mysterious Semblance'
was recorded on Dec 4th. Pete (Baumann) and Chris (Franke) were asleep
after a long day's recording session so I invited my wife, Monique, into
the studio. I called in the studio engineer and recorded it in one take
on a double-keyboarded Mellotron while Monique turned the knobs on a
phasing device. This piece is on the record exactly as it was recorded
that day. And this practice was to continue for the rest of the
session."
The title track was originally based on an
improvisation recorded in the studio, and unintentionally exhibits one
of the limitations of the analog equipment used at the time. As the
equipment warmed up, some of the oscillators began to detune (they were
highly temperature-sensitive), which was responsible for some of the
changes in the music towards the end of the piece. Both the title track
and "Movements of a Visionary" rely on Franke's use of the Moog analog
sequencer as a substitute for bass guitar.
With the release of
the album, Tangerine Dream were suddenly thrust onto the world stage as
the premier ambassadors of the new German "Krautrock" scene, even
though, ironically, Phaedra did rather poorly in Germany, selling a mere
6,000 units. But the story was very different on the international
markets, as it reached gold record status in no less than seven
countries. This was all with virtually no airplay and sales only being
pushed by word of mouth by fans. In the UK, the album peaked at #15 on
the LP charts!
Its effect on the trajectory of electronic music
was incalculable. The sound of precision, pulsing step-sequencer
synth-bass became ubiquitous within techno pop music as the decade
progressed, becoming foundational to iconic, groundbreaking works by the
likes of Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder. Phaedra has since gone on to
be acknowledged as one of Tangerine Dream's most essential and respected
albums, defining the group's career from that point forward.
