Alpha Centauri (1971) is an album by the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
electronic musicElectronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group
Tangerine DreamTangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
. The music on this album is quite different from Tangerine Dream’s first album
Electronic MeditationElectronic Meditation is the debut album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream.-Recording and history:The album was recorded in a rented factory in Berlin in October 1969, using just a two-track Revox tape recorder...
, due to a heavier reliance on keyboards and electronic technology, although they still mostly remain in the background: the dominant instruments on the album are organ and flute. The shift in instrumentation still resulted in an atmosphere dubbed by Edgar Froese himself as Kosmische musik.
This album sold 20,000 copies in their native Germany, nearly four times as many as their later classic
PhaedraPhaedra is an album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream.This is the first Tangerine Dream album to feature their now classic sequencer-driven sound, which kicked off the whole Berlin School genre. This album marked the beginning of the group's international success and was their...
.
A nowadays extremely rare single "Ultima Thule" was released in the same year.
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Alpha Centauri (1971) is an album by the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
electronic musicElectronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group
Tangerine DreamTangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
. The music on this album is quite different from Tangerine Dream’s first album
Electronic MeditationElectronic Meditation is the debut album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream.-Recording and history:The album was recorded in a rented factory in Berlin in October 1969, using just a two-track Revox tape recorder...
, due to a heavier reliance on keyboards and electronic technology, although they still mostly remain in the background: the dominant instruments on the album are organ and flute. The shift in instrumentation still resulted in an atmosphere dubbed by Edgar Froese himself as Kosmische musik.
This album sold 20,000 copies in their native Germany, nearly four times as many as their later classic
PhaedraPhaedra is an album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream.This is the first Tangerine Dream album to feature their now classic sequencer-driven sound, which kicked off the whole Berlin School genre. This album marked the beginning of the group's international success and was their...
.
A nowadays extremely rare single "Ultima Thule" was released in the same year. Side 1 employs the same guitar riff as "Fly ...", but the single was at the time otherwise an unconnected release. Re-releases of Alpha Centauri in the 2000s have however included either or both parts of Ultima Thule as bonus tracks.
Track listing
- "Sunrise in the Third System" – 4:21
- "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola" – 13:23
- "Alpha Centauri" – 22:04
- "Ultima Thule, Part One" – 3:24 (2002 Sanctuary release, 2004 Arcàngelo release)
- "Ultima Thule, Part Two" – 4:09 (2004 Arcàngelo release)
Personnel
- Edgar Froese
Edgar Wilmar Froese is a German artist and electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group, Tangerine Dream. Although his solo and group recordings prior to 2003 name him as "Edgar Froese", his solo albums from 2003 onward bear the artist name "Edgar W. Froese".Froese...
– guitar, organ, bass, coffee machine, composer
- Steve Schroyder – organ, voice, echo machines, iron stick.
- Christopher Franke
Christopher Franke is a musician and composer. From 1971 to 1988 he was a member of the German electronic group Tangerine Dream. Initially a drummer with The Agitation later renamed Agitation Free, his primary focus eventually shifted to keyboards and synthesizers as the group moved away from its...
– drums, percussion, flute, zither, piano, VCS3
- Udo Dennebourg – flute, voice
- Roland Paulyck – synthesizer