50 Years of Phaedra: At the Barbican by Tangerine Dream
Release date: January 30, 2026Label: Kscope Music
It’s one of those albums that’ll never slip away and refuses to die. When Tangerine Dream released Phaedra on February 20th, 1974, it marked the beginning of their golden-era by being signed to Richard Branson’s label, Virgin Records. It remains one of the cornerstones of the most groundbreaking electronic albums that put a mark on the Berlin School of Music and their big break internationally from ambient, post-punk, progressive, new wave, and cosmic soundscapes that was about to unfold.
After unleashing their fourth studio album Atem in 1973 on the Ohr label which was Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser’s label set up in 1970, it marked the end of what was known as their “Pink Years” with the label from 1970 to 1973. Atem was a range from aggressive percussion’s, vocal arrangements, atmospheric sequences in its cosmic boundaries. And when they were signed to Virgin, they knew they had to upgrade their sequenced-driven sound for what was to come.
Last year in 2024 at the Barbican Hall in London on October 7th, the band’s current line-up which consists of Thorsten Quaeschning, Hoshiko Yamane, and Paul Frick, they played the entirety of the band’s groundbreaking album of Phaedra which celebrated its 50th anniversary. Capturing the spirit of what the original three-piece; Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann had endured, the next generation made sure to keep Froese’s spirit alive in this 2-CD set released on the Kscope label.
It’s also quite a challenge for what the trio had to endure in the band’s finest moment with a lot of support and cheering from the audience by urging them to keep going. From the moment they enter the stage on this live recording, during their From Virgin to Quantum Years tour, and celebrating the band’s time with the Virgin label and newer Quantum material, the Phaedra show at the Barbican is like being at the venue, showing your support, and giving this event, a night they’ll never forget.
Beginning with a meditated drone on ‘Sequent C’, to a more mellotronic symbolism with a Kraftwerk-like experience, aboard the Trans-Europa Express with ‘Moments of a Visionary’ and into the cavernous wonders on ‘Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares’, it then delves deeper into the cosmos with an 8-part suite on the ‘Hippolytos Session’ which refers to the Greek mythology that became the genesis for Phaedra, who was named after the wife of the Athenian King, Thesus.
There’s something tragic, yet fascinating in the way the trio envisions this lost, hidden world, unveiling its true secrets and its hidden forms of structure and vocalisations that sends shivers down your spine, top to bottom. You never know the danger lurking behind you, nor the surrealism Tangerine Dream puts into play with its mesmerising guidance that fills in the void.
But once they go back into the title-track, it becomes this fast-paced race against the clock between the synthesisers and the mellotron reaching towards the very end of the rat race that’s waiting for audiences to be hypnotised under their spell. After the crowd gets massive applause for the band to tackle the band’s magnum opus and Thorsten’s speech, they prepare to go into the band’s catalog old and new.
The joyful car ride in the video game world of the Grand Theft Auto franchise with an ‘80s like dance beat on ‘Happy Ending’ and the dreamy nightmare on the ‘Los Santos City Map’ whilst delving into the film score jungle, honouring the late, great William Friedkin in 1977’s theme to ‘Sorcerer’, the show is very much a continuation to see what the trio will think of next. They really sound like they are always up for a challenge when it comes to tackling the golden-era of Tangerine Dream’s catalog.
Performing three pieces off their 2022 album Raum featuring the wave-table sounds and field settings in the hottest part of the forest with the title-track, ‘You’re Always on Time’ and the post-punk nod to the late, great David Bowie during the Low-era on ‘Continuum’, its ‘Rare Bird’ that gets the crowd taken by surprise as the tackle the band’s time with the Jive Electro label between 1985 to 1987 before walking into the world of Devo and Vangelis in this Underwater Sunlight period for the ‘Dolphin Dance’ to begin.
The result here, is very impressive and very eye-opening, ear-listening, and jaw-dropping momentum on this technical level Tangerine Dream have tackled to prove the music and the legacy will live on to keep their ebb and flow, running in their veins. Yes, it’s not the same, yes, it is different, but you can’t deny what Thorsten, Hoshiko, and Paul have captured the wonders and mysteries behind the Dream’s atmosphere.
