Phaedra (album)
| Phaedra | ||||
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1974 LP album cover, by Edgar Froese
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| Studio album by Tangerine Dream | ||||
| Released | 20 February 1974 | |||
| Recorded | November 1973 | |||
| Studio | The Manor, Shipton-on-Cherwell, England | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 37:33 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Producer | Edgar Froese | |||
| Tangerine Dream chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  |
| Sputnikmusic | |
Phaedra is the fifth studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released on 20 February 1974 through Virgin Records and recorded during November 1973 at The Manor in Shipton-on-Cherwell, England. This is the first Tangerine Dream album to feature their now classic sequencer-driven sound, which launched the Berlin School genre.
The album marked the beginning of the group's international success and was their first album released on the Virgin label. It achieved six-figure sales in the UK, reaching number 15 in the charts in a 15-week run, with virtually no airplay, only by strong word of mouth. It also earned the group a gold disc in seven countries, and yet in their native Germany it sold barely 6,000 units.
On hearing a set of recordings Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke had made earlier in the year at Skyline Studios in Berlin, Virgin Records' Richard Branson offered the group a five-year contract and was keen for them to record in UK. A huge modular Moog synthesizer was bought with the advance and the trio arrived at The Manor, in Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire in the winter of 1973.
The entire album was recorded in less than six weeks, with the first recording session taking place on 20 November 1973. Some of the music was recorded with the help of Froese's wife, Monique. Interviewed by Mark J. Prendergast, Froese recalled:
Phaedra was the first album in which many things had to be structured. The reason was that we were using the Moog sequencer (all driving bass notes) for the first time. Just tuning the instrument took several hours each day, because at the time there were no pre-sets or memory banks. We worked each day from 11 o'clock in the morning to 2 o'clock at night. By the 11th day we barely had 6 minutes of music on tape. Technically everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The tape machine broke down, there were repeated mixing console failures and the speakers were damaged because of the unusually low frequencies of the bass notes. After 12 days of this we were completely knackered. Fortunately, after a two-day break in the countryside a new start brought a breakthrough. 'Mysterious Semblance' was recorded on Dec 4th. Pete and Chris were asleep after a long day's recording session so I invited my wife, Monique, into the studio. I called in the studio engineer and recorded it in one take on a double-keyboarded Mellotron while Monique turned the knobs on a phasing device. This piece is on the record exactly as it was recorded that day. And this practice was to continue for the rest of the session.
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Wikipedia