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Rating: If I had to choose an album that represents the moment of highest balance for Tangerine Dream, it would be Ricochet. Released in 1975, it is often presented as a live album, but in reality it’s something more complex: a bridge between on-stage improvisation and studio reconstruction, between instinct and control.
The core material comes from the European tour in ’75, particularly from the concert on October 23 at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, London. But what ends up on the album is not a simple live recording. The tapes are taken apart, reassembled, reimagined. Part One draws inspiration from the concert’s opening but is largely recreated in the studio, with hypnotic sequencers moving forward through continuous micro-variations. Part Two maintains a more direct connection to the live performance, even though it’s filtered by careful editing work; the piano introduction by Edgar Froese, added later, introduces an almost unreal moment of calm before the music expands again.
Ricochet is one of the group’s great albums, but it shouldn’t be seen as an abrupt ending. Even Stratosfear (1976) is a successful album, more compact and melodic but still fully inspired. However, it’s with Cyclone that things really start to creak: the direction changes, the experimental urgency fades, and the magic of this phase gradually dissipates. The Eighties would still offer interesting moments — above all the live album Poland — but they would be more the exception than the rule.
What makes Ricochet so fascinating is precisely this position of perfect balance. It’s not a simple live document, nor an album crafted at the drawing board: it’s music born from improvisation then sculpted in the studio, without losing its hypnotic charge. It’s an album that doesn’t seek easy melodies, doesn’t explain anything, and demands time and attention.
Listened to today, Ricochet remains a total journey: an electronic trance that slowly captures you and leaves you with nothing to hold on to. An absolute high point in the history of Tangerine Dream, and one of the moments when their artistic vision was truly, completely, uncompromised.
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