Tangerine Dream live at Barbican Hall: yet another landmark of electronic evolution

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.

Some commented within minutes of the end of the concert, that some renditions of compositions like the one from the Stratosfear album were probably the versions to remember. Let's not forget, this is an album from the mid-1970s, performed by a new line-up in 2019, which sadly has lost the founding member and luminary Edgar Froese few years ago...

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.

Using today's consecrated EM terms and genre labels, it would be quite a challenge to many EM fans to try to squeeze what Tangerine Dream still creates and performs into one of those increasingly narrowing categories.

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 reason why current line-up of Tangerine Dream can spend almost three hours surprising, enthralling, and animating the audience is because they are firstly musicians, and only secondly tech wizards.

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!

Horses for courses... and dogmas for decorum

The British expression "horses for courses" originated from the world of horse racing, and it means that different things are best suited for... different things, as certain horses were better suited for certain types of races.

Despite a horse racing parallel, this post would take a leap into the field of sound synthesis methods (and the hype around them) - hence the reason for the expression might become apparent shortly.

So... this post was triggered by a recurring question seen on forums: why doesn't somebody make an analogue FM synth (in specific context, meaning multi-operator complex FM synths)?

Another trigger was  a "demonstration" of "wavetable synthesis" done some time ago with 2 analogue waveforms, triumphantly stating that this is proof that it can be done via analogue means.

This is the point where, in some minds, the analogue synthesis methods move from a solid technological sphere into a realm of fetishes. It is also a perfect example for the case when the astute 'horses for courses' principle is clearly being violated.

Yes, analogue synthesizers have superb capabilities and a distinct personality - unique even, in some cases.

Vast research and development efforts have been spent by companies of all sizes in attempts to perfectly imitate the "analogue sound". Their imperfections and instabilities are one of the, if not the, most crucial features that give them their unique sound. Emulating these imperfections via digital means only seems simple, but actually it is a fiendishly difficult and complex task.

Yamaha DX7

However, if one sees analogue synthesis, due to all its merits and stemming also from undoubtedly hyped discourses on quite ill-informed forums, as "the" method to apply to everything, then one commits a fundamental technical and conceptual error.

This leads to proposals like the mentioned case of making a multi-operator FM synth to "beat" the digital beasts dating all the way back to the era-defining DX7.

It can be imagined, and to an extent, even created in a lab - yes, technology certainly allows it. However, it would be eminently pointless and a supreme waste of effort, if one considers the fact that the mentioned instrument needs to leave the lab and is to be used as an... instrument.

Reasons? Well, tiny changes to the so-called FM operators' parameters can cause vast changes to the sound. What is a mere case of oscillator drifting out of tune in case of substractive analog synths, in FM case this often brings radical changes to what we hear. Reasons are buried in FM synthesis theory, but they are far from obscure reasons.

In simplest case, we can imagine these operators as oscillators with simple waveforms, but later generations of FM synths do vastly more than that. Changing their frequencies can radically alter the resulting spectrum, as one operator modulates other(s) and even has feedback - and if their frequency  drifts, the resulting spectral components shift around - hence fundamentally affect the tones we hear. Not to mention the controls to these operators, which have to have well-synchronised envelopes and precise amounts usually.

Also, in this hypothetical example, even if we assume the analogue multi-operator FM concoction is stable and perfectly controllable (it would be neither), the musician would want to recreate later the FM patch he or she arrived at. This can only be imagined with copious help from digital technology and digital to analogue converters - similar to how early analogue synths acquired patch memory.

However, even in this case (and obviously we already have digital creeping in, albeit not strictly in the sound synthesis part itself), the resulting complexity is, simply put, a mind-blowing mess.

Even in the case of digital FM synths, the constant and justified polemic is centred on the difficulty to program them, and the need for very intuitive and stable interfaces in often outboard software, so that one can cope with even thousands of parameters at play. A supreme and to this day not equalled FM monster like the Yamaha FS1R died as a product shortly after its release, and this was not due to its astonishing (!) sonic capabilities, but its user interface.

Similarly, what was once triumphantly demonstrated in a Facebook synth group as "wavetable synthesis", as an analogue concoction managed to morph the output signal from one simple waveform to another, was something that still firmly resides in a hobby lab.

PPG Wave

Also, it simply just wasn't wavetable synthesis, full stop, in the Wolfgang Palm sense (which led to the revolutionary PPG Wave and its successors, like the current Waldorf Blofeld).

It just isn't wavetable synthesis, by definition... as latter needs perfectly stable and precisely "sliced" waveform parts stored in precise manner in a table, and then precise sweeps that index in this table in perfectly controlled and even modulated manner.

Also, those waveforms are eminently digital, because the wavetables store samples of these waveforms... and then a synth based on this method is scanning those tables. By definition, one cannot have analog waveform slices kept in a static table of values... only digital samples of those waveforms...

The resulting revolutionary sounds' spectral content simply cannot be achieved by a few analogue waveforms morphing into each other. Latter experiment posted on Facebook some time ago was similar to a demonstration of a slow and careful forward parking manoeuvre in a Trabant and then stating "tada, it is perfectly capable of doing all that a Bugatti Veyron can do!".

As a person who spent half a lifetime in signal processing technologies, it is, admittedly, a deplorable sight to see such waste of time, effort, and enthusiasm channeled in completely misguided directions and utter dead ends.

Personal note aside, where above two characteristic examples spectacularly fail is the factual misconception that a certain technology is THE answer for everything in sound synthesis.

The hype and downright fetishisation of analogue synths have a big role to play in the birth of such misconceptions.

Analogue synths are absolutely fantastic in... analogue synthesis, which usually means substractive or additive synthesis whereby oscillator waveforms are taken away from (via filters) or added to (by wave shaping or modulation effects that add harmonics).

Korg Kronos MOD7 top level view

Multi-operator and hybrid FM synthesis engines (e.g. FMX by Yamaha or MOD7 by Korg), wavetable synths (like PPG Wave or Waldorf Blofeld, etc.), granular synths (Waldorf Quantum and countless plugins are capable of this among many other things), the vast array of mighty samplers and so-called romplers (list would be simply huge), plus numerous eminently digital signal bending tricks (think wave sequencing and waveshaping from Korg), constitute vast and complex worlds - often very unique worlds.

Then we have the hybrid synths... Even the aforementioned PPG Wave was actually a hybrid,  since it had famous analogue filters after the digital signal chain. These synths can create phenomenal possibilities. The Korg Prologue flagship analogue synth with a digital add-on engine even lets the user write his/her own oscillators and effect engines, with any algorithm one can think of (that fits in the multi-engine's memory). The Roland JD-Xa can layer and combine complex sounds from both digital and analogue synth engines under its bonnet.

These all add to our sound synthesis and processing capabilities entire new and vast universes of sounds, which are simply impossible to create via analogue synths.

Excluding them in some absolutist hype is a classic and misguided dogmatic approach, and we can encounter it in many forums about electronic music and sound synthesis.

However, trying to replace some horses with others that are eminently unsuitable for, and factually incapable of running, certain courses is a futile at worst, tragicomic at best, attempt.

Conceptually, apart from signal processing theory and technology, where this exercise goes wrong from the start is the failure to see appropriate horses as mere devices to get us, via appropriate courses, to the finish line. Dogmas are not left for the decorum or the viewing area to talk about over a beer, they actually make their way onto the race track...

Analogue, as splendid and as hyped it may be, is not the answer to everything that recent decades of music technology produced. As shockingly obvious it may be to many, each approach has its strengths and weaknesses - and some horses are simply not suited, not even designed, to run certain courses.

Nobody attempted, certainly nobody succeeded, to create cobalt blue, cadmium yellow or ultramarine paints from plant-based pigments just to score some dogmatic point in the art of painting. Well, maybe some have tried, especially when e.g. certain minerals ran into some trade difficulties as it happened in the case of ultramarine, but the results are not exactly surrounding us in galleries... Artists used different paints with different characteristics for different tasks, and with a good reason...

The huge problem is when hype crosses a certain boundary, and makes certain words magical. Not

Waldorf Quantum display

only can hype achieve that, but also it can then make one forget that all, absolutely all, of our electronic instruments are... instruments. Nothing more.

If we forget that, then we can ask questions like one seen recently on a forum: why doesn't a certain major manufacturer see sense and "finally" create an analogue workstation.

Why the question was phenomenal nonsense, well, one can leave that to the reader (small hint, synth workstation product category definition with a feature list)... However, the fact that such conflating of methods, instruments, and categories is even possible, it is a testament to the power of synth hype.

It is a free world, and everybody is entitled to their prejudices, misconceptions, and beliefs - but this particular area is one in which those are at the same time creatively, artistically, and technologically self-defeating...  If hard to swallow, challenge is to name one single groundbreaking creative electronic artist who artificially excludes majority of sound synthesis methods from his or her arsenal, instead of looking at a range of tools to achieve his or her creative aim.

From the sublime to the epic - Kitaro turns 66

Masanori Takahashi, the multi-instrumentalist and electronic music legend who became known world-wide as Kitaro, turned 66 yesterday.

He began playing electric guitar in school, and later turned to synthesizers. International acclaim arrived during his years in the Japanese progressive rock group Far East Family Band, when he not only met the Berlin School electronic music luminary Klaus Schulze, but latter also produced the band's two albums.

Kitaro's first solo albums were released in 1978 and 1979, but a huge break-through came with the phenomenal soundtrack he composed in 1980 for the Japanese documentary series The Silk Road. The vast project, which managed to span 17 years, resulted in four electronic albums that are still landmarks of the genre.

His vast discography got him nominated 16 times for Grammy Awards (and Kitaro won one with Thinking of You), and it has huge musical range, too.

Although his music was categorised as "New Age" in lack of a really fitting label, Kitaro's instantly recognisable electronic compositions go from phenomenally delicate motifs and structures to ethnic elements originating all across the world map, from space ambient harmonies to soaring orchestral epics.

While synthesizers have been at the core of his music, electric guitars and percussion instruments, chiefly the mighty Taiko drums, also have a strong presence in his music.

From sublime and delicate sonic paintings we hear on Silk Road or the landmark album Oasis, he can seemingly effortlessly and extremely competently move to vast orchestral visions infused with Japanese traditional music - something we can hear on epic albums like Kojiki.

Latter is based on the ancient Japanese sacred text of same name, and it remains a perfect example of how Kitaro fuses state of the art electronics with ancient musical traditions and Western orchestral arrangements.

There are infinitely delicate and scintillating, translucent structures in his music, there are thundering Taiko drums, woodwind textures ranging from South-American to Japanese traditions, soaring electric guitars, and electronic harmonies that seem to emanate without human intervention from some other Universe.

His technical wizardry is always at play, and one of the most characteristic and individual lead sounds in all of electronic music is what Kitaro used extensively on his albums, a patch he originally created on the vintage Korg 700s synthesizer.

However, he remains one of the few synth legends that view technology "merely" as a creative and expressive tool for passionate and deeply human music - Kitaro, which means "man of love and joy", has never allowed technology to take over and become an end in itself. No wonder that his music can be heard in anything ranging from meditation classes to symphonic concerts and Golden Globe-winning Hollywood epics like Oliver Stone's Heaven & Earth.

Many happy returns and continued blissful harmonies in life and music, Takahashi-san!

Nocturne - the contemplative new album by Vangelis

After the Rosetta album that took us into outer space, and returned to a uniquely epic and passionate version of space rock we last heard some decades ago on a Vangelis album, the new studio album Nocturne is eminently intimate and terrestrial. It contains 17 tracks, with the majority being new compositions.

The record company's initial information about the upcoming release may have wished to entice certain segments of the public, as Nocturne was everywhere stated to be a "solo piano album". As it became increasingly clear that it wasn't, various outlets have backpedalled on this...

Some sites to this day obstinately misinform with statements like "for the first time Vangelis plays a grand piano on this record", which is complete and factual nonsense, full stop.

Based on the first single to see the light of day, namely the track entitled Nocturnal Promenade, it became obvious that one will be treated to piano (and sometimes piano-like) sounds pushed through copious amounts of reverb, and synthesizers, too would make an appearance.

However, to put to a side rather surprising cases of misinformation, the music on the album is bound to polarise and divide audiences - as even the early comments on e.g. Youtube have shown.

One of the major problems arises if one sees this album with nostalgia-tinted optics, or one does not treat it separately from all other Vangelis albums.

Why? Well, as it could be perfectly expected from the (overstated as it was) initial information, this was not to be an album of groundbreaking technical or musical wizardry. We have not had that for many years. Nor was it to be a dramatic and vastly orchestrated production, like some landmark albums from Vangelis's discography (note how some compared it to Rosetta and even El Greco...).

Also, Vangelis has made us quite used to changes in direction and large variations in genre and style from one album to another. As some have stated, this album feels extremely commercial, as if he had become what he criticised the most: a brand.

Well, another way to look at this is that Nocturne is actually true to a Vangelis ethos: he releases whatever he wishes, and without riding some fashion trend. We can recall how Oceanic or Portraits were received, and how much vitriol they gathered in reactions from some sections of the public.

It is interesting to hear, though, how the apparent weakness of some tracks is their key strength. One may find that Promenade has no concrete structure nor melodic direction, it is a quiet improvisation with little melodic motifs connected with musical wanderings. If one thinks of musically conveying an aimless and relaxed promenade, well, this improvised-sounding piece does exactly that... hence it is quite suggestive.

Calm renditions of  tracks like the main theme from Chariots of Fire are the re-interpretations of a composer several decades after the original. It is striking that the relationship between the new and original version is quite similar to the one between the late and the original versions of e.g.  Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now. The late versions, in both cases, are completely lifted out of their original context, are more intimate and highly personal.

The reworked version of To The Unknown Man, too is achingly beautiful and intimate in its stripped-down arrangement. Once again, comparisons with the original are, by definition, rather pointless.

Something that does not work terribly well on piano is Love Theme from Blade Runner - the long, sustained, and repeated notes of the original's melodic theme, now re-arranged to sparse piano notes suspended in the air (and occasionally connected up with little arpeggios) are having a hard time to keep that seamless flow and emotion that was present in the original. Re-arranging wind instrument-based pieces with long held notes to a piano or plucked instruments-based version, too present this classic problem - and this track is no exception.

New tracks like Moonlight Reflection are characteristic Vangelis: minimalist tiny motifs built from quick ascending/descending notes are instantly catchy and playful. The melody of Through The Night Mist puts the listener in a melancholic, but not dark or sad, mood - think of the piano-centric tracks on Mythodea or El Greco (the studio album, not the soundtrack of same title).

Early Years has innocence, longing, contemplation, simple beauty. Intermezzo stands apart in its arrangement, it is indeed a track that serves as a separator of sorts between the first and second parts of the album. Longing has again a remarkably simple and delicate rendition.

Unfulfilled Desire has perhaps the most chromatic adventures and passages of genuine harmonic tension that fit nicely with the title, quite unlike the other tracks' very comfortable sound. The closing track, Pour Melia, has a splendid arrangement with a superb purity, innocence and a gentle fairy tale-like feel, something to go to sleep with at a fragile young age.

From a technical viewpoint, there was considerable debate about what sounds from what period of synth making we hear on the album. The dissonance with Vangelis's own, and remarkably consistent, ethos is again notable. Maybe we should remind ourselves and appreciate what Vangelis has been saying throughout his entire career, and separate misleading marketing from that: he never cared, nor cares, about what makes the sound...

As he put it countless times, the source of the sounds he chooses to use does not matter, but due to various features and possibilities of electronic instruments, he "happens" to use predominantly the latter...

Nocturne is, and will be, more enjoyable if we keep in mind not just what it is meant to be as an album, but also its creator's nowadays unusually consistent artistic credo... It is an album without sharp edges, dramatic contrasts, surprising turns and twists - and despite its length, it seems to stay self-consistent.

Does it reflect an "old-fashioned" credo of human being composing, improvising and playing the music with as little as possible automation or computer technology? Thankfully, for a personal and instantly recognisable touch, yes, it is unashamedly "old-fashioned". Again, it is true to Vangelis's long-held convictions on the relationship between the musician and technology, and also to his principles on what role technology plays in the creative process.

Ultimately, it is a personal contemplation rendered with trimmed-down, sometimes entirely sparse arrangements - therefore, after all this non-exhaustive review blurb, one can state the obvious: due to its intent and nature, it really, really will be a matter of taste and "old-fashioned" musical (not synth musical) sensitivity whether this is a loved or disliked point in Vangelis's considerable discography...

Perception transformations: Sessions IV by Tangerine Dream

The fourth volume of live compositions, whose presence in Tangerine Dream concerts by now have become a firmly established tradition, continues to be a highly valuable addition to one's Berlin School electronic music collection.

As stated before on this blog, whenever attempted to pour into some words the rather indescribable previous Sessions releases, these lengthy live compositions constitute a stunning return of the vast live soundscapes that one could hear during Tangerine Dream concerts from many decades ago - but with an entirely up-to-date sound.

The two compositions on this album were recorded live in Oslo, Norway and in Pisa, Italy, during August and October last year.

The first track Persepsjontransformasjon (or, aptly called, Perception Transformation) is a perfect overture for this CD...

Hearing the gentle mellotron choirs, then the patient build-up of the piece, one can again realise: what others may describe, about other music pieces, as something reaching its "inexorable conclusion", in the case of Tangerine Dream we, once again, have inexorable development.

There is no self-indulgence here, despite the powers that can be unleashed, there are no static repetitions of some patterns or catchy accidents that improvising musicians may have stumbled onto and fell in love with.

As with all other Tangerine Dream sessions, the discipline that is again combined with imaginative treatment of the live music elements is remarkable.

We have a steady development of ideas, culminating in a fiery mid-section of sequenced Heaven. The superb organic textures produced by the violin, the semi-organic mellotron flute,  and the gentle piano sounds that arrive when the tight and hypnotically powerful sequencers fade away are not elements that stand out as contrasting ones to the eminently electronic discourse.

The second track entitled Four Degrees Parallax, which has another splendidly dreamy beginning, proves the same point: the intimate and gentle personality of the violin brought to life by Hoshiko Yamane, the mellotron and acoustic instrument-emulating textures emanating from Thorsten Quaeschning are in no way playing the role of gimmicky sonic contrasts against the high-octane sequencer sounds from Ulrich Schnauss and Thorsten,

As this second track eminently shows, the mind-blowing sequencer sections are making, as paradoxical as this may sound to those who have not yet heard Tangerine Dream or these Sessions, a perfect home for the gentle sounds rooted in acoustic instruments (real or sampled).

One can easily substantiate these claims by inviting the listener to really track how the fiery sequences pull back, dissolve in piano chords and sublime violin dialogues, then run alongside these hand in hand - to finish off with profound bass pads and an achingly beautiful violin hovering above the electronic landscape.

As someone once said about a German baroque composer, there are no straight lines in his music, only curves and waves.

Here we could easily say, well, paraphrase, that there are no cutting contrasts in Tangerine Dream Sessions, only fluid dialogues - between instruments with vastly different characteristics. There are no excesses nor self-indulgent show-offs, only seamless development of countless musical ideas.

Once again, Sessions IV is a two-part journey. Once again, it is a true adventure that will not disappoint, with a full range of experiences ranging from utterly dreamy passages to fluid and ever-changing melodic textures to mind-expanding sequencer fireworks.

As unbelievable and perhaps biased it may sound in the second decade of the 21st century, in terms of form, structure, execution and artistic intent, one finds it virtually impossible to find such electronic music that simultaneously can tick so many boxes.

The band's trust in the listener picking up on the myriad ever-changing elements and joining the band in its adventures has not changed since the first inception of the live Sessions - so those pampered listeners may say that it is impossible not to expect, even audaciously demand, further Sessions releases...

The passing of a visionary: Alan R. Pearlman, founder of ARP

Alan R. Pearlman, founder of, and creative genius behind, ARP Instruments has died on 6 January, aged 93.

Even as a student, after the 2nd World War he was dreaming of electronic instruments that could be real musical instruments for musicians, instead of laboratory curiosities. When he founded ARP Instruments, he started to put his dream into practice - and the list of his patents is impressive to this day.

When Moog and ARP Instruments were rival companies, ARP being the second most known synthesizer brand, even Bob Moog recognised the technical merits of ARP 2500. First of all, unlike Moog synths of the day, the ARP had famously stable oscillators - so it didn't need the notorious frequent re-tunings due to oscillators drifting over time.

Unlike the modular Moog, this ARP legend has employed a matrix system and special pins to achieve the patching, instead of a mass of cables.

Illustrious names used the ARP 2500 and its more affordable successor, the ARP 2600: Pete Townshend, Jean-Michel Jarre, Jimmy Page, David Bowie, Herbie Hancock, Jerry Golsdsmith, Jeff Wayne... and many uses of the legendary synths are as famous as some of these artists.

In Star Wars, the R2-D2 robot's whistles and bleeps were made via ARP 2600, and a few years earlier, the musical communication with the UFO that landed in Close Encounters of the Third Kind was made on an ARP 2500...

Jean-Michel Jarre to this day possesses and uses an ARP 2500, and he employed it on the recent live revival of his classic Oxygene album, too.

As a masterstroke, ARP has also released a charming and eminently portable synth, too - the ARP Odyssey. It was a duophonic, compact and quite affordable powerhouse of a synth has become another sought-after legendary instrument, featured on countless records. Everybody from Klaus Schulze to Chick Corea to ABBA to Billy Currie has used this synths that was ultimately made in three versions.

What can illustrate better the longevity of A. R. Pearlman's ideas and innovations than the fact that mighty Korg in 2015 has resurrected the ARP Odyssey as something that some abbreviate fondly as the KARP Odyssey...

To quote Richard Boulanger, "even at 90 and beyond, Alan R Pearlman was still dreaming of new circuits, modules, and controllers! Undeniably, Alan R Pearlman was an engineering genius. Everyone recognizes that his synthesizers were beyond brilliant. But I truly believe that the heart and soul in his machines drew their spirit and life from Alan’s musical virtuosity on the piano, his truly deep musical knowledge, his passion and enthusiasm for “all” music, and his nurturing and generous support for young composers and performers, regardless of whether they were into classical, avantgarde, film, fusion, rock or pop."

Korg ARP Odyssey

It is extremely rare to have a brilliant engineer and innovator with deep musical sensitivity and understanding of what a musician needs. On top of that, Alan R. Pearlman had superlative feel for ergonomic design, for aesthetic considerations - therefore his creations were true gems of electronic instruments, in the fullest sense of that word.

It is not overstating his and his creations' significance if one says that his instruments had life-changing impact on many, on both technical minds and on great musicians who embraced technology.

Rest in peace, relentless innovator and dreamer...

The Vangelis Register

In expectation of the upcoming piano album Nocturne, some internet comments on the first single from that album prompted a bit of an inventory...

No paperwork is involved, and it is not a catalogue of Vangelis releases... Instead, as some commented on Youtube along the lines of why Vangelis is releasing a "new age"-like album, or why he "pretends" to be a "classical composer" etc., it attempts to capture the list of genres, sub-genres and styles Vangelis has composed in. Some may have only heard of him due to certain soundtracks, but the full picture of his musical output is as astounding as one could possibly imagine (or not, in our world of increasingly pigeon-holed electronic music).

The list, admittedly, contains some quite loose categorisations, too - apologies, but latter are inevitable... not only because Vangelis often manages to fuse vastly different styles and genres, but also because often he can put a very personal spin on a well-established category...

So a quick "inventory" of what one can hear in his discography, with examples given as album and/or track titles:

• Early Medieval polyphony / Gregorian chant and Byzantine sacred music influences (parts of Mask, Heaven and Hell Part II, 1492 Conquest of Paradise, Ignacio)
• Echoes of mid- to late Renaissance secular and sacred music, including specific embellishments and phrasing (Monastery of La Rabida, parts of Direct and Opera Sauvage, a capella parts of Mask and Heaven and Hell)
• Jazz and jazz-rock (parts of Albedo 0.39, See You Later, Direct, Opera Sauvage)
• Progressive rock (Earth, certain Jon & Vangelis tracks)
• Space rock (Albedo 0.39, Spiral, Rosetta)
• Echoes of Berlin School i.e. works building on sequenced background and patterns (parts of Spiral, Direct)
• Minimalism, within that perhaps closest to a patterned/repetitive Steve Reich-like approach (Soil Festivities)
• "New Age", with a highly personal take on it (large parts of Oceanic, parts of Voices)
• Ambient (Creation du Monde, parts of The City, parts of Albedo 0.39 and Friends of Mr. Cairo)
• Electro-acoustic experimental (Beaubourg, Invisible Connections)
• Psychedelic rock (Hypothesis)
• Oratorio (Mask, Mythodea)
• Piano etudes (The Long March, seemingly the upcoming album Nocturne)
• 1920s style "easy listening" with 1950s arrangements (One More Kiss Dear)
• Synth-pop (I'll Find My Way Home and some other Jon & Vangelis tracks)
• Pop ballads (from Aphrodite's Child era, e.g. Spring Summer Winter and Fall)
• Eurodisco (Multitrack Suggestion)
• Rock 'n' Roll (Back To School)
• Symphonic poems / suites (El Greco - the studio album, Chariots of Fire final suite)
• Penderecki / Orff-style choral-symphonic suites (Heaven and Hell)
• Folk re-arrangements / re-interpretations (traditional and original songs on Odes)
• Blues and blues-rooted ballads (parts of Blade Runner, some Jon & Vangelis collaborations, Le Singe Bleu)
• Vocal-instrumental experiments and improvisations (Curious Electric and other parts of Short Stories, parts of See You Later)
• As a genre in itself, cinematic soundtracks (albeit spanning several above categories) - obviously, no examples are needed here of some of his era-defining classics... 

Identifiable specific ethnic influences:

• Celtic (Irlande, from Opera Sauvage)
• African (La Fete Sauvage)
• Far-Eastern (obviously the entire album China, some tracks on The City)
• Near- and Middle Eastern (2 tracks on Blade Runner, parts of Alexander, the ballet score The Thread)
• Greek secular and Byzantine sacred music influences (Earth, El Greco OST & same title studio album, original tracks on Odes, Rapsodies)
• Spanish / Andalusian with clear Moorish influences (parts of 1492 Conquest of Paradise)
• Native American Indian (parts of 1492 Conquest of Paradise)

It is a simple, but rather astonishing, fact that he really is the one and only synthesizer artist who managed to create music with such range - regardless of one's taste, the list is simply astounding. Whether one can appreciate all these musical genres, styles, historic periods' and geographic areas' specific musical characteristics, that is another matter entirely.

Considering that all of the above are instantly recognisable as works by Vangelis, one is reminded of a social media thread not so long ago. It asked, what genre does he compose in - the only correct answer was that the genre is called... Vangelis.