Tangerine Dream / Richard Barbieri (live at The Union Chapel)

London
24 April 2018

Back in 1982, in one week I went to both Tangerine Dream and the final concert by Japan, all within a couple of days of each other. Fast forward just over thirty-five years, and here I am sat at The Union Chapel about to soak in the atmospheres of the Dream again, this time supported by Japan’s wonderful keyboard player Richard Barbieri. All of a sudden I feel like I’m seventeen years old again, filled with excitement about seeing both artists live (it also reaffirms that I had a great taste in music back then).

Barbieri walks on to the stage to warm applause, the guy sitting next to me decides to inform me that he is mainly here to see Richard, to which I replied that he was excellent when I saw him live last year. Barbieri’s soundscapes soon begin to hover around the hall; sometimes the noises he pulls from his instruments sound alien and cold, and at other times there is a beatific warmth in the pads that he uses. The drum machine pulls out odd clipped rhythms, reminding me that Richard still has one foot in creating some quite avant-garde overtures in his arsenal of electronics.

Because time is short, we don’t get the usual banter from Richard between tracks. He does point out his old modular synthesizer from 1978 and then jokes “It’s not the oldest thing on stage” before he launches into a haunting version of Japan’s “Ghosts”. It’s here that I see a few people around me get visibly excited at the thought of hearing this incredible song performed live. More eerie atmospherics and mercurial drum patterns follow as Richard plays tracks from his latest album Planets + Persona. All too soon his brief thirty minute set is over, but before leaving the stage to rapturous applause he informs us that he will see us later.

I have to admit here that the last time I saw Tangerine Dream live it was the Froese, Franke and Schmoeling line-up of the band in the 1980s, so it does feel a little strange to be sitting here waiting to see the band with no surviving original members. After Edgar Froese “changed cosmic address” back in 2015, he passed the mantle of carrying on the band’s music and legacy to Thorsten Quaeschning, who took on what was probably a very daunting role. After years of TD’s live sound incorporating acoustic instruments, the new line-up would go back to the electronic sound that served the band so well in the past. In the last year or so I had excellent reports about the bands live performances, so I have had to come here to witness it for myself.

We are back to the classic three person line-up again, who are introduced on to the stage by Edgar’s widow Bianca Froese-Acquaye. When the lights go down and the screen above the band comes on revealing cosmic images, a part inside me jumps for joy. From the opening deep bass synth rumble and some majestic sweeping chords I know I am going to be in for two hours of classic Tangerine Dream. Ulrich Schnauss kicks in his sequencer and the crowd erupts, Hoshiko Yamane is on an elevated podium at the back and creates melancholic tunes on her violin.

The set is a seamless run of sounds that have witnessed the birth of the universe and beyond. It’s a mixture of 1970s and 1980s classics that merge into each other effortlessly. Segments from The Sorcerer soundtrack blend with “Love On A Real Train” and a part of Rubycon. “Roll The Seven Twice” also features as Thorsten hammers away behind his banks of synthesizers to pull out those spellbinding melodies. The lights and visuals are quite stunning and give off an element of what the old Lasarium shows that Tangerine Dream once did must have been like. At one point, images of Edgar appear on the screen to a massive cheer.

For me though, one of the highlights is a rendition of the classic track “Stratosfear”, which was on the latest album out at the time I first discovered Tangerine Dream. Its power live has not diminished in all these years, and as it fills the Union Chapel you somehow feel in touch with the beauty of the cosmos and travelling through the void of space. For the encore, Richard Barbieri joins the band onstage for a jam and his sound melds in perfectly with the sound of Tangerine Dream; the piece is both majestic and full of strange otherworldliness. As the track draws to a close people give the band a standing ovation that they richly deserve.

The wonder of the evening was how the band managed to tap into the vibe of that classic 1970s-era Tangerine Dream and transport us back to a time when Mellotrons ruled the world. Certainly one of the finest live performances I have seen for a while, and Edgar can rest easy floating somewhere out there in our solar system knowing that Tangerine Dream’s musical legacy is in good hands.

-Gary Parsons-