Edgar Froese - Specific Gravity of Smile

Froese founded Tangerine Dream in Berlin in 1967 and was the only constant member. Early in their career the group were associated with the scene known in the UK as “krautrock”, and their debut album was comprised of tape collages.

But as they developed they had little in common with the “motorik” sound of Neu! and Harmonia, the challenging experimentalism of Faust or the free-flowing improvisations of Can. Instead they developed a spacey, synth-driven sound that was profoundly influential on electronic and ambient music.

Tangerine Dream released more than 100 albums and wrote music for numerous movies including Tom Cruise’s breakthrough 1983 film Risky Business and Legend.

The band enjoyed a break when it caught the attention of John Peel, who named their 1973 album Atem as his album of the year and were soon signed by the then-upstart Virgin label of Richard Branson.

Virgin Records gave Tangerine Dream free rein in the studio and the result was 1974’s Phaedra, which became one of electronica’s seminal works.

The album pushed the limits of the era’s sequencer technology to create a psychedelic atmosphere that some critics likened to space travel.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/23/tangerine-dream-founder-edgar-froese-dies