Tangerine Dream
Melrose

Fathers and Sons: the third decade of activity for Edgar Froese begins in 1990 with the release of "Melrose," but in the meantime, the group he founded over twenty years earlier, Tangerine Dream, has changed significantly: both in inspiration and in members. Chris Franke, one of the historical members, has left a couple of years ago, but stepping in is Jerome Froese, Edgar's son. Along with Paul Haslinger, Tangerine Dream returns to the trio formation that seems particularly congenial to them. The album's title refers to a famous street in Los Angeles, Melrose Avenue, where Private Music, the label for which the album was released and which was, by the way, founded by Peter Baumann, a former band member, was located.

Nine tracks for an hour of music, a good album even if not exactly essential, "Melrose" represents one of the many stylistic evolutions experienced by the long-lived German group. Tangerine Dream deserves credit for always being open to change: their music evolves over the years, even decades, as it could not be otherwise given their close dependence on electronic means. "Melrose" is thus an album of electronic music entirely devoid of nostalgia for the past: the days of the "cosmic" aesthetic are dead and buried, even the sequencers - their trademark in the '70s-'80s - have disappeared.

Instead, in the foreground is a very "American" music (even though the album was recorded in Vienna and Berlin), with a sustained and lively rhythm, featuring - one after another - an impressive sequence of melodic inventions, sometimes entrusted to the digital piano or keyboards in general, sometimes to penetrating electric guitar solos, the latter attributed both to Edgar and to Jerome: for instance in "Three Bikes in the Sky," or in the successful "Electric Lion," while in the opening track, the title track "Melrose," we are offered a long saxophone solo by guest musician Hubert Waldner.

Perfect music for listening with headphones during a journey, perhaps by train: this is suggested by titles like "Yucatan," "Rolling Down Chauenga," or "Desert Train." Two decades have passed since their first album "Electronic Meditation": by now, Tangerine Dream has moved from meditation to action so much that their music, between fathers and sons, has become a family affair.