Search - Tangerine Dream :: Logos: Live at the Dominion 82

Meticulous live TD set

Steve Benner | Lancaster, UK | 12/18/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At the time of its release in 1983, "Logos" was the first available live recording featuring the relatively new Tangerine Dream line-up of Edgar Froese, Christoph Franke and Johannes Schmoelling. (Schmoelling's first concert with the band, on the disc "Pergamon", was not at that time widely available.) All of the music for this album was laid down at a single concert, held at the Dominion Theatre, London, on 6 November 1982 and is almost entirely free of any studio overdubs - facts that will of their own speak volumes to long-standing aficionados of Tangerine Dream's live albums.The main track of this disc consists essentially of a 10-part suite constructed from musical ideas drawn from the band's soundtrack for Michael Mann's film, "The Keep", which went on general release the following year. At the heart of the `Logos' suite, parts V and VI are lifted straight from the film (from the scenes `Nickel? Silver!' and `The last of the soldiers in black', should you be interested in such things). The rest of the suite is mostly new synthesiser numbers, sewn together with moody musical threads drawn from elements of the film's soundtrack. For once, the whole set sounds keyboard derived, with MIDI-driven synthesisers and samplers - allegedly the first time the band had used samplers live - carrying the weight of the music, and with no guitar work anywhere in evidence.In addition to the 45-minute suite, which constituted just half of the concert proper, there is also a 5-minute encore item, `Dominion'. All in all, the release is redolent of the slick and highly professional live performances that epitomised this group at their height. Ideas segue seamlessly, with constant changes of mood and tempo, all building beautifully to climax and coda, just as expected. The only complaint might be that it is all just a tad too slick and effortless, without any hint of the frisson that one might expect from a live performance. But then that's the beauty (and curse) of programmable MIDI, for you!This remastered CD has not only had the old vinyl release's irritating side-break in the middle of the Logos set removed but also features index markers for the various parts - a very nice touch, indeed. There is no noticeable difference in the sound quality, to my ears, from earlier editions but then it was always very good and would have been difficult to improve upon. At 50 minutes in total, the running time is a rather less than generous by modern CD standards but with music making of this quality, who cares?"

Crisp sound of logos

Steve Benner | 11/07/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Logos", recorded during the 1982 tour of Tangerine Dream, tour promoting the newest album, "White Eagle", is in fact a very good collection of interconnected tunes. Although the remixed CD version features only two tracks, including one that lasts over 40 minutes, it is true that the latter is not a composition in itself, whether experimented over or not, but a preprogrammed set of tunes, which are connected by musical material nicely fitting the gaps. In this respect, this is the first concert album of Tangerine Dream (at least until 1982's "Sohoman" was released in 1999), which does not feature improvisations. Instead, the band replays tunes preprogrammed earlier.However, despite this new approach to live performances, "Logos" remains a very good album for strictly musical reasons. Featured tunes are interesting, performed brilliantly, and somehow the fill-in material keeps the suspense till the very end. Purely electronic, "Logos" does not feature any analog instruments; in particular, Edgar Froese does not play his famous modified guitar glissandi. Different strokes for different people; personally I prefer the classic albums of the 70s, but I can perfectly understand why "Logos" has always enjoyed immense popularity. Within the electronic genre of the 80s, it's a stellar album.It's perhaps useful to note that "Logos" was the last album of the sterile, purely electronic wave of interest by Tangerine Dream. The year 1983 brought significant changes to the sound of the band, and in my humble opinion, that change was very welcome."

A TRUE TD CLASSIC

Steve Benner | 10/30/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's great to see so many nice comments about this awesome album. A very profound work and an incredible sonic experience! In my view, this is the best live TD album, with Pergamon following closely, and certainly one of TD's best. The whole album is great, but the finalle of Part I (which was also used as the main theme in the film 'The Keep') is simply unbelievable."