Tangerine Dream
Logos - Live

When Froese, Franke, and later Schmoelling took the stage, each positioned like a Lagrange point in a stable yet constantly evolving system, I like to think that the same synths, mellotrons, sequencers, and samplers, the electronic flow itself, were somehow aware of it. As if the entire arsenal of sounds, distortions, rhythms, and samples agreed to be conceived, shaped, and guided into ever-new landscapes, some more captivating and engaging than others, but always on a journey. Unfortunately for me, I never had the chance to see this lineup in action, but in 2012 I saw Tangerine Dream, with Froese and other new members (including the enchanting Linda Spa), playing a large part of this beautiful album.

The original Logos was recorded in 1982 in London. We are in the period right after Tangram and just before what is considered their last great classic, Hyperborea. As far as I'm concerned, the 1979-1983 window is when these guys intrigue me the most. From the last "analog" masterpiece, the powerful Force Majeure, veined with progressive and classical music, comes the lively digitization of the ’80s with a taste for more immediate, less "spatial," more intelligible melody. It's a bit like moving from the signals of a radio telescope, of which I can't make heads or tails without an astronomer to explain, to the high-resolution photos of Voyager 2 speeding between Titan and Iapetus.

Logos is a forge of melodies, rhythmic patterns, atmospheres, sketches, a bubbling of electronic fields internally divided into 9 movements, all but the first and last identified by a color. It goes from the hypnotic daydream of the Intro, to the magmatic flow of the Cyan (no, not Galeazzo…), to the hypnotic progression of the Velvet (which is not actually a color, but oh well…) and so on, amidst inlays, bridges, sonorous blends. There are quite a few sounds that are objectively a bit outdated, simpler and more direct solutions compared to the works of the Seventies, but the taste for chiseling, good melody, and a certain degree of creativity are not lacking.

The highlights, needless to say, come at the closings of the sides: Logos Blue arrives unexpectedly to tear through the frenetic sequencer rhythm of the previous section, expanding the rhythm, then layering into a chase of synthesizers. Logos Coda, which effectively closes the work, is preceded first by the darker and more haunting moments of the record, then by a curious pop ride supported by liquid sounds, sampled electric guitars, and solos. It arrives with an imperial and sci-fi-like progression that somewhat anticipates the tones of Hyperborea and delivers an ecstatic, strange sense of relief. A mention for the encore of the live, Dominion, catchy and negligible though pleasant.

Ah, and as usual, Tangerine Dream doesn't play live studio tracks but presents unreleased material, often presumably improvised. Interestingly, some parts from this live album, especially from the second side, would be extracted to compose another enchanting and bizarre adventure of these guys, the haunting soundtrack of The Keep, Michael Mann's (1983) wartime fantasy film, which deserves a viewing especially for the splendid music.

Masterpiece? Not at all, but it is an album that keeps you company, doesn't bore you, and whose visions, after all, reassure us poor mortals. Which, after all, having come from the hands of those Tangerine Dream, it too has something like a sort of (mysterious) self-awareness.