Tangerine Dream ‎– Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack "Sorcerer"

I must have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this release. I've owned it three times so twice I've let it go only to 'keep coming back'. I've not seen the film and don't intend to so how it works as a soundtrack I can't say. What I can say is the impression I'm left with after listening is a pot-pourri of odds-and-ends and some decent (familiar sounding) snippets along with one track that sounds like it was culled from the Phaedra sessions (nice!) All that adding up to a TD bootleg 'playlist' feel. Virtually all 70s/80s TD came fully formed with that start to finish album 'arc'. This does not leave me that impression which is probably why it sometimes feels odd. I'm not getting rid a third time.

THE STORY OF the score to one of my all-time favorite movies and how it came to be is quite remarkable. William Friedkin (director) met with Tangerine Dream in Paris, told them the story and gave them the script to "The Sorcerer." He writes in the liner notes "One day in the middle of a primeval forest in the Dominican Republic, about six months into shooting, a tape arrived from THE DREAM, containing ninety minutes of musical impression. It is from this tape that the film has been scored, through the musicians had not then nor even now as this is written seen any of the footage. Yet somehow they were able to capture and enhance every nuance of each moment where their music is heard."

TANGERINE DREAM in my opinion were the early pioneers in the synth-techno dreamscape creation. These guys used everything they got there hands on - mostly sequencers, mellotron's, synthesizers and the guitar work of Edgar Froese. Sorcerer has some very beautiful ambient pieces on it like "The Search" "Creation" "The Journey" and "The Mountain Road" that stand on their own right nicely. Often you can see where bands of the time like trendy pop stars Pink Floyd may have been influenced or even "borrowed" from this dynamic trio. "The Dream" may have been written separately from the movie but you can't deny the fit, or the reality of the now classic "Betrayal (Sorcerer Theme)." It's raining pretty hard outside here - I couldn't think of a more perfect time to write this review.

At first glance this might appear to be the slightly less attractive sister of Encore. However this is a great album, only thing wrong with this is that the tracks are shorter than i'd like .. otherwise well worth a gander - also a cheap purchase.