Electronic Meditation is the debut 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 album was recorded in a rented factory in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
in October 1969, using just a two-track
RevoxReVox is a brand name of Swiss audio equipment created by Studer in the 1950s.The ReVox brand name was spun off into Studer Revox AG in 1990. During Studer's acquisition by Harman International Industries, Revox was sold separately to a group of private investors.Many consider ReVox open-reel tape...
tape recorderThis article deals mainly with analog tape recorders for audio applications; information on digital recording, recording of video signals, and recording of data can be found in other articles....
. Its style is a unique form of
free jazzFree jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s.Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
, electronic art music, and
instrumental rockInstrumental rock is a type of rock music which emphasizes musical instruments, and which features no or very little singing.Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style, most notably Buckethead, Joe Satriani,...
; or as
Sound on Sound magazine described it, "free electronic rock". Its instrumentation ranges from conventional instruments such as the guitar, organ, drums, and cello to various
custom-made electronic devicesAn experimental musical instrument is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments. Some are created through simple modifications, such as cracked drum cymbals or metal objects inserted between piano strings in a prepared piano...
implemented by Edgar Froese and
found soundsThe term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from the undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...
such as broken glass, burning parchment, and dried peas being shaken in a sieve.
Electronic Meditation is the debut 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...
.
Recording and history
The album was recorded in a rented factory in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
in October 1969, using just a two-track
RevoxReVox is a brand name of Swiss audio equipment created by Studer in the 1950s.The ReVox brand name was spun off into Studer Revox AG in 1990. During Studer's acquisition by Harman International Industries, Revox was sold separately to a group of private investors.Many consider ReVox open-reel tape...
tape recorderThis article deals mainly with analog tape recorders for audio applications; information on digital recording, recording of video signals, and recording of data can be found in other articles....
. Its style is a unique form of
free jazzFree jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s.Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
, electronic art music, and
instrumental rockInstrumental rock is a type of rock music which emphasizes musical instruments, and which features no or very little singing.Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style, most notably Buckethead, Joe Satriani,...
; or as
Sound on Sound magazine described it, "free electronic rock". Its instrumentation ranges from conventional instruments such as the guitar, organ, drums, and cello to various
custom-made electronic devicesAn experimental musical instrument is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments. Some are created through simple modifications, such as cracked drum cymbals or metal objects inserted between piano strings in a prepared piano...
implemented by Edgar Froese and
found soundsThe term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from the undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...
such as broken glass, burning parchment, and dried peas being shaken in a sieve. The backwards vocals at the end of side two are actually Edgar Froese reading from the back of a ferry ticket from Dover to Calais. The original LP had a balloon inserted in the cover; the 2004 Japan CD release is a copy of the original LP cover and includes the balloon.
Electronic Meditation is the only Tangerine Dream album to feature the line-up of Froese, Schulze and Schnitzler. The 2002 CD reissue on Sanctuary Records revealed that there were two previously uncredited musicians: organist Jimmy Jackson and flautist Thomas Keyserling.
Track listing
All songs written by
Edgar FroeseEdgar 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...
,
Klaus SchulzeKlaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 50 albums lasting over 3 decades.-1970s:In 1969,...
,
Conrad SchnitzlerConrad Schnitzler is a prolific German experimental musician. Schnitzler has been a major, though reclusive, figure on the European music scene since the late 1960s. Schnitzler was an early member of Tangerine Dream and a founder of the band Kluster. He left Kluster in 1971, first working with...
.
- "Genesis" – 5:57
- "Journey Through a Burning Brain" – 12:26
- "Cold Smoke" – 10:38
- "Ashes to Ashes" – 4:06
- "Resurrection" – 3:27
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...
– six- and twelve-string guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
, organThe organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet...
, pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, sound effectSound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
s, tapesMagnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording generally consisting of a thin magnetizable coating on a long and narrow strip of plastic. Nearly all recording tape is of this type, whether used for recording audio or video or for computer data storage. It was originally developed in Germany,...
- Conrad Schnitzler
Conrad Schnitzler is a prolific German experimental musician. Schnitzler has been a major, though reclusive, figure on the European music scene since the late 1960s. Schnitzler was an early member of Tangerine Dream and a founder of the band Kluster. He left Kluster in 1971, first working with...
– celloThe cello is a bowed string instrument. The word derives from the Italian violoncello. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra...
, violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
, typewriterA typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with a set of "keys" that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper...
- Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 50 albums lasting over 3 decades.-1970s:In 1969,...
– drumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of music instruments, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of...
s, percussionA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...
, metal sticks
- Jimmy Jackson – organ (uncredited)
- Thomas Keyserling – flute (uncredited)