30th Anniversary of Tangerine Dream’s “Phaedra”
March 1st, 2004 by Koldo Barroso
30 years ago, in March 1974, pioneer German band Tangerine Dream released the album “Phaedra” which revolutionized the world of pop music with the birth of Space music.
“Phaedra” was released worldwide by Virgin Records, was recorded in just three weeks, and reached number 15 of the British Top 20 albums staying on the chart for 15 weeks, which meant unprecedented success in the history of electronic music. The maturity of Tangerine Dream’s music came with this album which featured the line-up formed by Edgar Froese (guitar, synthesizers), Peter Baumann (keyboards), and Chris Franke (keyboards). In this album the band used an arsenal of instruments including the bass, organ, flute, VCS 3 synthesizer, Mellotron, electric piano, and for the very first time the huge Moog modular system that Chris Franke had just bought from The Rolling Stones, which the British Pop band never learned to use.
In 1995, Virgin re-issued the album on CD featuring the original front cover artwork using the Super Bit Mapping technology.