Intuitive Music

Edgar Froese is one of the most important electronic musicians and founding member of the pioneer electronic music band Tangerine Dream.

Born on June 6th 1944 in Tilsit, Eastern Prussia, Edgar Froese was born on the last year of the World War II and his father and other relatives were murdered by the Nazis. Before the end of the war, he flew with his mother and family to Berlin where we grown up. Edgar Froese started working at age 15 to support the family’s living and three years later he recieved a scholarship from the Berlin Academy of Arts for his artistic skills. There he studied arts for four years apart from working in numerous jobs, including as a publicity creative and working in campaigns for IBM, Coca Cola and Ford. During this period, he also graduated in philosophy and psychology but he had a confrontation with the school after his graduation paper on Kant’s Categoric Imperative. As a teenager, Edgar Froese self-taught to play guitar and in 1062 he started playing with several pop and jazz bands. Froese also worked as a record sleeve designer and, assisited by his wife Monika, he designed the cover of many records from the 60’s, some of them including pictures of his son Jerome.

In 1965, Edgar Froese, who had been at the time nicknamed “the Viking” for his Nordic look, formed the rhythm and blues band The Ones, which released the single “Lady Greengrass” in 1967. Edgar Froese’s fascination for the work of the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali drove him to became acquainted with him personally through the German artist Joseph Beuys, and in 1967 he and his band accepted an invitation to perform several private concerts in Dali’s villa in Cadaques, Spain. Edgar Froese’s interest for Dalí drove him to record the album “Dalinetopia”, later in 2005, a tribute to the works of the painter which he described in the liner notes as “composed in honor and respect of an artist character who touched more than anybode else the level of subconscious all human beings have in common.”

In Cadaques, the happening afternoons used to be attended by all sort of artists from the London and Paris underground culture. As a result of Edgar Froese’s friendship with Dalí, in July 1967 he was asked to write the music for the documental on Dalí that the French producer J.C. Avery was filming at the inauguration of the famous Dali’s Christ statue. There, Dali danced to their music and shown his interest for their -as the painter described- “rotten, religious music” inviting them to play another three times. The rest of the band didn’t quite enjoyed the surrealist ideas and, after an unfortunate trip to Paris where they broke and literally starved, the band split and Edgar returned to Berlin to find other musicians interested in his new vision of contemporary music. Froese’s interest for the surrealism growth to the point of claiming that “in the absurd often lies what is artistically possible.” The meeting with Dalí left such a big impression on him that he decided to move to new undiscovered territories in music, as he said: “This was the biggest change I have ever had in music. By seeing the way he was talking and thinking, I found that everything was possible. I thought that I would do the same thing as he did in painting, in music”.

Back in Germany, in September 1967 Edgar Froese formed Tangerine Dream with a group of students from Berlin’s Academy of Arts. The first version of Tangerine Dream was originally an electro acoustic group involved in the emerging experimental and new cultural scene of the city and involved in other artistic activities. In 1969, featuring a new lineup with Klaus Schulze on drums and Conrad Schnitzler on cello, Tangerine Dream recorded their debut album “Electronic Meditation”, which is considered one of the most advanced experimental works in the history of modern music. The band has gone through numerous line-up changes since, being the most classic the one formed in the mid 70’s by Edgar Froese (guitar, keyboards), Peter Bauhman (keyboards), and Chris Franke (keyboards, drums). During this period Tangerine Dream entered into the world of synthesis and electronica, recording a series of albums that drew the guidelines of the electronic spacial music. Edgar Froese is the only member of the band who has remained through the years.

Apart from leadership of Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese started a parallel solo career in 1974 with the release of the album “Aqua” album, in which he used Gunther Brunschen’s ‘Artificial Head System’ to create an effect of three dimensional sound. The album was followed by “Epsilon In Malaysian Pale” (1975), influenced by a trip of the artist to south-eastern Asia and Australia. This same year, he also released the compilation “Electronic Dreams”. “Macula Transfer”, recorded on an old 4-track Ampex tape machine that Tangerine Dream had bought from Abbey Road Studios. The album was released in 1976 and it’s titles were named after plane flight numbers such as “Quantas 611″ or “OS 452″. During the next years, Froese also released the albums “Ages” (1977), inspired in the work of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí, and “Stuntman” (1979), where he used the digital technology for the first time including wave tables created by the German engineer Wolfgang Palm.

In 1977, Edgar Froese and his wife Monike helped David Bowie and Iggy Pop, who had just moved to Berlin. During the two year period in which Bowie recorded in Berlin the albums “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger” Tangerine Dream shared their rehearsal stage with both Bowie and Pop. At the time, there was a project for a musical collaboration involving Edgar Froese, David Bowie and Brian Eno, which never got to terms.

In 1982, Edgar Froese wrote the soundtrack for the director Wolf Gremm’s film ‘Kamikaze 1989′ which was released on Virgin. A year later, he released his first solo release in 12 years, the atmospheric album “Pinnacles”.

In 1995, after another 12 year hiatus as a solo artist, Edgar Froese released the double album “Beyond The Storm” featuring 13 remastered old tracks and 15 new ones. In 2000, Edgar Froese went to a bitter chapter of his life when his lifetime couple and wife Monike died after a long disease. She was a very talented graphic artist who designed the covers for many Tangerine Dream albums and she also took most of the band photographs during 35 years.

In 2003, Edgar Froese started a series of ambient music releases under the title of “Ambient Highway”. In the 00’s, Edgar Froese still leads the band Tangerine Dream accompanied by his son Jerome.