Tangerine Dream – Ultima Thule

#TDSingleSaturday Week 2: ULTIMA THULE.

Enter: Peter Baumann. A keyboard player in a cover band, his chance meeting with Franke at an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert led to an invitation to join TD. The result is the first stable lineup of the band and the most famous, soon to pioneer their classic synth-heavy Berlin School sound.

Interesting then, that their first release is Ultima Thule - a rock-oriented curio, disconnected from albums before or after. Teil 1 begins with animated guitar shredding and never lets up; Teil 2 takes a more familiar approach with a progressive build-up and come-down over its short runtime. Instead, it's tempting to think of this as an exorcism of the rock spirit bubbling under the surface so far - following this, there's an intentional shift towards an electronic-oriented sound, resulting in some of their most adventurous work. For instance, our next TD album...

Also released as bonus material, here: https://www.discogs.com/release/23614895-Tangerine-Dream-Alpha-Centauri I'm very happy with the pressing on the copy I have.

On sale for 800 euro??? Maybe I could swap a copy for an original unpeeled butcher cover in mint conditions...