Tangerine Dream
White Eagle

THE REVIEW

Between 1980 and 1985, Johannes Schmoelling joined Tangerine Dream, who were still licking their wounds from Peter Baumann's departure from the group. Those six years were a period of very intense work, during which the German trio released six studio albums, six soundtracks, and two live albums: out of that frenzied activity, "White Eagle," released in 1982, is one of the best results.

The '80s had just begun, and electronic music was no longer the same. With cosmic inspirations exhausted and old analog synths put away, electronics reinvented itself as sterile entertainment music, severe and ascetic as expected, but not for that reason void of emotional and occasionally even physical engagement.

Within Tangerine Dream, the newly introduced Schmoelling played an important role in this: he was the one who refreshed the sound of the renowned Froese-Franke company and introduced the precise and clear tones of digital synths. The sounds are sharp, arranged in an orderly syntax: "Mojave Plan," the long opening track of the album, is an exemplary demonstration. Twenty minutes fly by in a single breath, with electronic percussion accompanying the three main sections of which the piece is composed, rhythm, liveliness, there’s really no risk of boredom during this highly successful track in its exuberant inventiveness.

The subsequent "Midnight in Tula" is characterized by a very fast tempo, suggesting a strange sense of chase: these 4 minutes of music would be perfect for the soundtrack of "Blade Runner," and who knows if it's a coincidence that they're both from 1982.

"Convention of the 24" is perhaps the weakest track on the album, where the excessive repetition of a melodic cell entrusted to a bass sequencer causes, over more than 9 minutes, a certain rigidity. The closing, however, is splendid: "White Eagle," the title track of the album, is a poignant electronic ballad of just over 4 minutes, introduced by an arpeggio of pure sounds upon which melancholic melodic lines are layered; it was a hit in Germany, having been used as the theme for a television series.

No one is as skilled in drawing soundscapes, sonic landscapes, with "White Eagle," Tangerine Dream no longer looks to the cosmos, but towards Earth: and they make us love this blue planet of ours.