Tangerine Dream – Phaedra

Found this particular pressing locally, disc looks immaculate but has substantial surface noise, like you're in a car, throughout the A side, even in the dead wax. Much less on the B, but still there. Still - hard to mask the deep enjoyability of this work.

Tangerine Dream’s brilliant use of the sequencer is an outstanding compositional element of “Phaedra”. The patterns shift through different time signatures in linear progressions, creating sensations of depth, as if the listener is descending deep within a bottomless expanse. Delay effects are timed in unison with the sequenced notes, cascading them into more complex divisions. Lush synthesizer strings and a Mellotron are enhanced by phasers, morphing the tones with an elastic character that one might describe as “otherworldly”. Dark and surrealistic, “Phaedra” is a masterpiece of the era and sets a precedent for excellence. It should be noted that Phaedra is a character from Greek mythology, dramatized in the play “Hippolytus” by Euripides.