The world of Music is a poorer place today following the sad news that pioneer of electronica and founder of Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese died on Tuesday in Vienna.
Froese's son announced the news and reported that his father had suffered a sudden pulmonary embolism which proved fatal.
Originally linked in with the Krautrock movement during the late 60s and early 70s, Froese and Tangerine Dream ended up ploughing their own musical furrow, slightly different to that of their counterparts - bands such as Neu!, Kraftwerk, Faust, Can and Harmonia, who ran with motorik musical soundscapes and driving rhythms.
Tangerine Dream preferred to work with ambient sounds and spacey, trippy melodies - perhaps more in common with synth bands and electronic acts of the following decades than of its time.
Over their career they released more than 100 albums and in fact produced music for very well known films in the 80s, so even if you think you've never heard of them- chances are you've heard their music in film soundtracks without realising it.
During the 1970s, the band came to the attention of John Peel and were eventually signed to Virgin records at the labels inception in 1973. In 1974, they produced their seminal album "Phaedra" which is, among, electronic music fans, on of the most important works ever created.
Whilst Froese was heavily involved in electronic music, he never aligned himself fully to it - stating that he was open to, and loved many other forms of music - especially guitar driven rock. However, he felt he could never match up to the talents of many English speaking rock artists, so moved in a different direction.
His "conversion" to playing and composing ambient music came in the late 60s when he was invited to perform at the the home of Salvador Dali - inspired by the artist's flight-of-fancy artwork, he decided to take his composing and performing in a similar direction.
Edgar was once quoted as saying "There is no death, there is just a changing of our cosmic address". Wherever he is now, lets hope he's continuing to create his beautiful aural soundscapes. Rest In Peace - your talent and your creativity will be sorely missed.
