Tuesday, February 20 marks the 50th anniversary of Tangerine Dream’s masterpiece, “Phaedra”, released on Virgin Records in 1974.
Convergence Zone airs on that very date, and I’m thrilled to honor this vital album — a crackly original vinyl copy introduced me to the Berlin School of space music many years ago, as it surely has with so many others over the decades.
“Phaedra” was a surprise sensation on release — despite virtually no airplay, the album reached #15 on the UK album charts and stayed there for 15 weeks. “When Phaedra went into the LP charts, it was one of the great moments of my life,” said famed BBC Radio 1 presenter John Peel to an audience at London’s Rainbow Theatre in 1974, where he was introducing Tangerine Dream.
The album features the band’s strongest lineup, with Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann — it defined the sequencer-driven form they realized throughout the 1970s during their golden age on Virgin Records.
This week on Convergence Zone I’ll honor “Phaedra” with tracks from the album along with homages, interpretations, and distant inspirations by Amon Tobin, Bernhard Wöstheinrich, Suzanne Ciani, Caterina Barbieri, Perge, Redshift, Alvin Curran, Panabrite, and more
Convergence Zone revels in the legacy of Tangering Dream and the 50th anniversary of “Phaedra” – Tuesday February 20 at 10:30pm PT on 90.7 KSER, 89.9 KXIR; streaming at kser.org
KSER playlist + archive link (opens in new tab)
Norm Chambers – Music for the Dome (excerpt) – 00:00
Tangerine Dream – Phaedra – 03:58
Hélène Vogelsinger – Incantation – 20:24
Ron Boots – Where Are They Now? – 26:30
Tangerine Dream – Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares – 37:30
[‘ramp] – salomon’s road – 47:41
Tangerine Dream – Movements Of A Visionary – Remastered 2018 – 58:19
Redshift – Bombers in the Desert – 01:05:55
Perge – Anfa (Part 1) – 01:16:15
Bernhard Wöstheinrich – Pixel (excerpt) – 01:31:57
Lisa Bella Donna – Inner Space – 01:46:15
Steve Roach – Seeking – 01:52:43
Tangerine Dream – Sequent “C” – 01:58:24
Norm Chambers – Music for the Dome (excerpt) – 02:00:54