More than half of a century of electronic music came to Barbican Hall last night...
The London venue is renowned for a very varied calendar, in the sense that it makes a self-conscious effort to select the very best of classical and contemporary music.
On the stage where historic performances of ancient to futuristic music could be seen and heard over the years, by legends ranging from Ravi Shankar to Philip Glass, now Tangerine Dream took the sold out Hall into another Universe...
It was an important live performance for numerous reasons, not "just" another live appearance of an electronic music legend. So below impressions are not a perhaps usual run-down of the tracks and moments the audience could enjoy last night...
Firstly, we are now at a point that is more than fifty years after the band was formed - and we could see and hear them turn into luminaries of what became known as the Berlin School of electronic music. However, as difficult it may be for some to believe this, this is as far from a nostalgia act as certain quasars at the periphery of our known Universe are from our planet...
Sure, the audience always welcomes the legendary classics, and Barbican Hall audience was no exception. One could hear and enjoy parts of Sorcerer, Stratosfear, Poland Live, White Eagle, and as a theatrical master strike, second part of Ricochet, among other classics... but each and every composition was given new life and new energy by the current Tangerine Dream line-up.
The fact that new live versions of such classics can be considered by hardcore fans not only full of new life energy, but also somehow 'definitive' versions, is a huge achievement.
Second important point about the Barbican concert is that in a landscape filled with electronic acts that are focused on a more stereotypical type of electronica, Tangerine Dream still, in 2019, represents a unique island.
Why? Well, this is not electronic music where technology is allowed, or happens, to take over. This is not electronic music that is focused on its functional role.
In other words, as strange as it may sound, unlike EDM or ambient acts focused on functional role of music (i.e. to make us dance or to relax us, respectively), Tangerine Dream is closer to the ancient Greek's views on music. This is music that wants and succeeds to be a reflection of the wider Universe, wants to make us feel a sense of cosmic wonder and to take us out of our everyday reality. Pythagoras, whilst working on his musical theories, would have been happy to hear this performance :)...
In this sense, Tangerine Dream, with a set list spanning half of a century of electronic music, have demonstrated yet again that they are still very attached to the central ethos of the very first experimental years of the band: this is, as new age-ish it may sound nowadays after too much aimless over-use of some terms, cosmic music.
Technology is "merely" an instrument here, and we could again see and hear musicians jamming and improvising together on stage. Electronic music? No, not in the way many would understand that word pairing.
Thirdly, it is no accident and no empty semantics in the title under which the performance ran: Quantum Of Electronic Evolution - emphasis on evolution.
All the old and new tracks that were performed have demonstrated eloquently: Tangerine Dream has not been, and still refuses to be, a static band. We can enlist the line-up changes, sure, but also more importantly the many changes in (often highly risky) directions. We can consider the still fiery live performances that every time surprise us with something new, which does not destroy the central intent of the original composition that can date back several decades even. Last night's performance was eminent proof of that.
Technology and people have changed vastly over the increasingly many years, but one could challenge even specialists to come up with a solid number of electronic acts that have not stopped evolving since the late 1960s.
The Barbican Hall performance was at the same time, and as paradoxical as it may sound, sublime and Earth-shattering live night exactly because of this evolution.
We can come up with many names that have spent many years performing the same golden gems over and over again, with a few cosmetic or technological twists here and there. This was emphatically not a concert of that kind...
What may be the ultimate open secret of Tangerine Dream is exactly their attitude to technology.
The vast powers tamed or unleashed by them are serving the musical purpose - let's think of the ethereal improvised sections in the by now traditional live composition that closed the performance, with sublime violin seamlessly blending with electronics.
Let's think of the same sensitive violin, then the achingly beautiful and delicate Mellotron flutes and strings of yesteryear, joining forces with sequencers that could make the building shake.
Let's think of multi-layered and uniquely Tangerine Dream musical lines and curves that build up into compositions where the brain simply, and joyously, gives up trying to follow and analyse what is going on. The renditions of parts of the latest studio album, Quantum Gate, or the classics from Poland and Stratosfear, can be enumerated here.
If Tangerine Dream fans ever needed it, the Barbican Hall performance is once again reassuring them: this band does not stop evolving...
Paul Frick, very notably, joined the Thorsten Quaeschning, Hoshiko Yamane and Ulrich Schnauss trio in the second part of the concert... and as a theatrical master strike, he surprised us with the legendary piano intro to Ricochet Part II, which still remains a master class in live electronics.
As a fan, a huge thanks to the band for making more than fifty years of electronic music sound utterly contemporary, relevant, meaningful and, above all, moving!
Thanks for your review. I've not 'seen' TD since the mid 80's but have been a 'fan' of their output since Phaedra (with a bit of a hiatus in the 90's/early noughties) and as tapes, vinyl and CDs (from my 'collection' - such as it was) have dispersed I have returned to their albums old and new afresh via the wonderful plethora of streamable outputs.
ReplyDeleteSo, for me, the highlight of the Barbican performance was definitely the Ricochet segment. Hearing different interpretations of classics (Sorcerer does seem to be getting a great deal of critical re-acclaim with its introduction into recent set lists - deservedly so) is always satisfying. I agree entirely that an art form such as electronic music should keep evolving - refreshing and re-creating existing ideas is part of that process and TD have always done this masterfully.
For me the improvised final segment was a bit too self-indulgent, rambling somehow ? For die hards and those perhaps who appreciated the very early albums (I've probably only listened to Zeit and Atem a handful of times - sorry, the 'first four' never really 'got' me) I'm sure it was a real treat, but for me, maybe unfamiliarity bred a certain amount of weariness as crossed what seemed like the 'magic' side of a 33rpm side threshold. Don't know, if I'd heard it a few more times it might have delighted me as much as the previous elements had.
Can I also comment that, as legendary as the Barbican may be, did others find the acoustics a bit 'fluffy' ? Or is that just me in my advancing years ? I do find this with many performances - that they often seem too bass heavy for me, with a kind of booming resonance that drowns out the finer, more highly pitched melody parts ? We're all different and since I've felt this at almost every concert or gig I've been to, almost regardless of venue, I'm prepared to accept that it's me, not perhaps the place. Just interested to read if and what others felt I guess.
All in all I feel bad making any sort of negative comment. Having just searched out of curiosity a few weeks ago when and if TD were touring, then seen two dates in the UK one of which was fairly convenient and hastily booked in excitement I was certainly not disappointed. I agree with many that the current lineup are taking the Dream in an entirely positive, exciting direction. A very enjoyable night out and hope to catch them again when they and I are in transportable adjacency within this vast cosmos !
Thank you for the review and thank you Tangerine Dream !
Thanks and definitely, sometimes there was a very saturated and resonant bass that I was very surprised that was not picked up in room measurements. So exactly as you described, sometimes it managed to overtake completely and was impossible to pick out details and even main lead parts due to the harmonics it produced. Certainly some were resonant frequencies as the floor and the seats were strongly vibrating, too - something like this was sometimes caught in Royal Festival Hall, too and it is somewhat inexplicable nowadays.
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ReplyDeleteIt was an awesome concert, I loved 'White Eagle's, Stratosfear' and the 'Quantum Gate' tracks, the improvised long piece at the end was excellent, too.
ReplyDeletePlease can anyone post the actual set list??
Would be brill, I haven't found any official-ish version anywhere, just putting together things from the memory and some discussions.
DeleteI was there too and I did not think the Barbican's PA did the music any favours - the band were pumping out a very wide audio bandwidth and the PA was creaking at the seams a bit, reducing the clarity somewhat.
ReplyDeleteAgree, was very surprised with the EQU (or lack of), I thought it improves gradually when somebody at the main desk wakes up but it carried on like that to the very end. There were some unforgivable resonant frequencies hit, and also saturated coloured bass many times that drowned out everything else. I only heard such seeming lack of room EQU in the RFH on some concerts...
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