Edgar Froese
Ages

The themes of inspiration that make up "Ages", the fourth solo album by Edgar Froese, are very diverse. There are cinematic suggestions (Fritz Lang in the opening track, "Metropolis"), literary ones (Henry Miller for "Tropic of Capricorn") and historical (for "Pizarro and Atahuallpa") but there is above all the great ease of the German Froese in manipulating the musical material and assembling it into combinations that are always interesting and pleasant to listen to, although - truly ingenious - there is little or nothing in this album.

It’s honest craftsmanship, and with this spirit, one should approach listening to it. In the quiet of his electronic workshop, Froese puts together nine tracks, from the shorter ones of four minutes to the medium-length ones, up to the long "Tropic of Capricorn" (21 minutes). In the end, there is enough produced to fill a double album, and in this format, the work was released in January 1978. In the studio is also drummer Klaus Krüger, who at that time made a brief appearance in Froese's band, Tangerine Dream, for the two albums "Cyclone" and "Force Majeure".

Craftsmanship, then: electronic and instrumental. It ranges from the soft and melancholic melodies of "Era of the Slaves" (with the keyboard-king of those years, the Mellotron, which here emulates the timbre of the flute), to the lyrical and poignant piano in the central episode of "Tropic of Capricorn", to the electric guitar solo in "Icarus", to the very characterized and lively theme of "Children's Deeper Study", to the synth solos in "Nights of Automatic Women" and elsewhere throughout the album, with the discreet yet incisive contribution of Klaus Krüger's drumming that enters into remarkable harmony with Froese's galloping imagination.

This was the electronics of those mature '70s: passion, hard work, the satisfaction of making music. And "Ages" does not stray from the trend: a healthy listen is worth it even today, indeed.

Republished on CD almost 20 years after the original edition, the only unfortunate note for fans is the absence of the last track of the double vinyl, "Golgatha And The Circle Closes", omitted simply due to lack of space on the single CD (Virgin, to make the reissue more appealing on the market, decided not to republish it as a double CD). The track reappears in the 2005 version of "Ages" (this time at the expense of "Children's Deeper Study") following the new arrangements made by Froese - sometimes too heavy - of his early works (including "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale" and "Macula Transfer").

Thus, this music exists in multiple versions, according to the decades in which it came to light: nothing strange, after all, for an album titled "Ages".