Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-1970s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann. In 1979, Johannes Schmoelling replaced Baumann until he departed in 1985. Since Froese’s death in 2015, the group has been under the leadership of Thorsten Quaeschning (Froese’s chosen successor and the current longest-serving band member, having joined in 2005). He was joined by violinist Hoshiko Yamane in 2011, Ulrich Schnauss from 2014 to 2020 and Paul Frick in 2020.
Tangerine Dream are considered a pioneering act in electronica. Their work with the electronic music Ohr label produced albums that had a pivotal role in the development of the German musical scene known as kosmische Musik (“cosmic music”). Their “Virgin Years”, so called because of their association with Virgin Records, produced albums that further explored synthesizers and sequencers, including the UK top 20 albums Phaedra (1974) and Rubycon (1975). The group also had a successful career composing film soundtracks, creating over 60 scores.
From the late 1990s into the 2000s, Tangerine Dream continued to explore other styles of instrumental music as well as electronica. Their recorded output has been prolific, including over one hundred albums. Among other scoring projects, they helped create the soundtrack for the video game Grand Theft Auto V. Their mid-1970s work has been profoundly influential in the development of electronic music styles such as new-age and electronic dance music.
In September 2017, the band released an all-new music studio album entitled Quantum Gate. In December 2019, they released Recurring Dreams, a compilation of new recordings of some of the band’s classic compositions. On 26 November 2021, the band released an EP entitled Probe 6–8 (including three tracks: “Raum”, “Para Guy” and “Continuum”), whose concept was developed further on their following album Raum, their latest studio album to date which was released in February 2022.
