| Alpha Centauri | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 1971 LP album cover | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | March 1971 | |||
| Recorded | January 1971 | |||
| Studio | Dierks Studio | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 39:48 | |||
| Label | Ohr | |||
| Producer | Tangerine Dream | |||
| Tangerine Dream chronology | ||||
| ||||
Alpha Centauri is the second major release and second studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released in March 1971 by record label Ohr.
The music on this album is quite different from Tangerine Dream's first album Electronic Meditation , partly because of 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 other difference is that this album focuses on dark, spacey soundscapes as opposed to jam sessions.[ citation needed ] The shift in instrumentation resulted in an atmosphere dubbed by Edgar Froese himself as "kosmische musik".[ citation needed ] Julian Cope's Head Heritage wrote that the album "used the space rock template from [ Pink Floyd's] Saucerful of Secrets (and removed the rock)". [4]
A nowadays extremely rare single "Ultima Thule" was released in February of the same year. Side 1 employs the same guitar riff as "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola", 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.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [3] |
| Head Heritage | positive [2] |
| Pitchfork | 7.8/10 [1] |
Alpha Centauri was released in March 1971 by record label Ohr. It sold 20,000 copies in their native Germany, nearly four times as many as their later classic Phaedra .[ citation needed ]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Sunrise in the Third System" | 4:21 |
| 2. | "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola" | 13:23 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Alpha Centauri" | 22:04 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 4. | "Oszillator Planet Concert" (Sanctuary/Castle (2002), Arcàngelo (2004), Reactive/Esoteric (2011)) | 8:03 |
| 5. | "Ultima Thule, Part One (2000 remix)" (Arcàngelo (2004), Reactive/Esoteric (2011)) | 3:24 |
| 6. | "Ultima Thule, Part Two" (Reactive/Esoteric (2011)) | 4:24 |
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-1970s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann. In 1979, Johannes Schmoelling replaced Baumann. Since Froese's death in 2015, the group has been under the leadership of Thorsten Quaeschning. He was joined by violinist Hoshiko Yamane in 2011, Ulrich Schnauss in 2014 and Paul Frick in 2020.
Edgar Willmar Froese was a German musical artist and electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group Tangerine Dream in 1967. Froese was the only continuous member of the group until his death. Although his solo and group recordings prior to 2003 name him as "Edgar Froese", his later solo albums bear the name "Edgar W. Froese".
Electronic Meditation is the first major release and first studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released in June 1970 by record label Ohr.
Zeit is the third major release and third studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. A double LP, it was released in August 1972, being the first release featuring Peter Baumann, who joined then-current members Christopher Franke and Edgar Froese. Zeit is subtitled Largo in Four Movements.
Atem is the fourth major release and fourth studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released in March 1973 by record label Ohr.
Phaedra is the fifth major release and fifth studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was recorded during November 1973 at The Manor in Shipton-on-Cherwell, England and released on 20 February 1974 through Virgin Records. This is the first Tangerine Dream album to feature their now classic sequencer-driven sound, which is considered to have greatly influenced the Berlin School genre.
Ricochet is the seventh major release and first live album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released, on the Virgin label, in 1975. It consists of two side-long compositions mixed from studio recordings and the UK portion of their August–October 1975 European Tour. The sound of the album is similar to that of the group's other "Virgin Years" releases, relying heavily on synthesizers and sequencers to produce a dense, ambient soundscape, but is much more energetic than their previous works. Ricochet uses more percussion and electric guitar than its predecessors Phaedra and Rubycon, and borders on electronic rock. The main innovation on the album is the use of complex, multi-layered rhythms, foreshadowing the band's own direction in the 1980s and trance music and similar genres of electronic dance music.
Rubycon is the sixth major release and sixth studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released in 1975. It is widely regarded as one of their best albums. Rubycon further develops the Berlin School sequencer-based sound they ushered in with the title track from Phaedra.
Strung Out in Heaven is the seventh full-length album by American psychedelic rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre. It was released in June 1998 and was the band's first and only recording with the large independent label, TVT Records.
Cyclone is the eleventh major release and eighth studio album by Tangerine Dream and the first in their canon to feature proper vocals and lyrics. The cover is a painting by band leader Edgar Froese.
Irrlicht is the first album by Klaus Schulze. Originally released in 1972, in 2006 it was the sixteenth Schulze album reissued by Revisited Records as part of a series of Schulze album reissues. Recorded without a synthesizer, Irrlicht's set of "early organ drone experiments" is "not exactly the music for which KS got famous".
The electronic music group Tangerine Dream has released more than three hundred albums, singles, EPs and compilations since the group was formed in 1967.
Optical Race is the thirty-fifth major release and eighteenth studio album by Tangerine Dream. Optical Race is the inaugural album of the Melrose Years era, as it is the first appearance of the band on the Private Music label, founded by former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann. It was their first album without Christopher Franke since 1971's Alpha Centauri and the band's first to be programmed largely with a computer, an Atari ST using Steinberg/Jones software. The sleeve of the 12" release and the first release on CD and Compact Cassette features a die-cut outer sleeve with a multicolored inner sleeve.
Join Inn is the fourth album by Krautrock band Ash Ra Tempel. It was recorded at Studio Dierks by Dieter Dierks during breaks in the sessions for the Walter Wegmüller album Tarot. It was originally released on LP by Ohr in Berlin, catalogue number OMM 556032. Each side of the LP comprises one long track.
In den Gärten Pharaos is the second album by German band Popol Vuh, released in 1971 by record label Pilz.
Ohr ("Ear") was an influential German electronic/experimental record label set up by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser in 1970.
Mk II was the second album of the British rock band Steamhammer.
Canyon Dreams is the fortieth major release and it was released as the fourteenth soundtrack album by German band Tangerine Dream. It was recorded in 1986 and released in 1991 on compact disc and compact cassette formats. The music was written as a sound accompaniment for an eponymous scenic video film about the Grand Canyon by Jan Nickman, released by the record label Miramar in 1987 on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc. The album's tracks are divided into various episodes and related to the titles of the cuts.
Ultima Thule primarily refers to:
Peter Frohmader was a German electronic composer, musician and visual artist. He was also known by the pseudonym Nekropolis, a name under which he released several early works. Taking cues from Carl Orff, Magma, Glenn Branca, and Black Sabbath, Frohmader was recognized for his nightmarish and gothic compositions and as an important figure on the European progressive electronic scene.
