Tyger, recorded in Berlin and Vienna, was originally released in 1987. It was the final studio album of Tangerine Dream for the Jive Electro label. The inspiration for the songs came from the poems of William Blake, who lived from 1757 until 1827. Blake became very famous because of his prophetic poetry. On this album Paul Haslinger, Edgar Froese and Chris Franke asked female vocalist Jocelyn Bernadette Smith to guest and sing on a number of tracks. That's probably the reason why Tyger doesn't belong to my favourite Tangerine Dream albums. In my opinion there's just too much singing in songs like Tyger, London or Smile and in addition Smith's voice sometimes sounds like Donna Summer to me... Therefore the best songs on the album are the three instrumental ones. Alchemy Of The Heart is a jazzy track with superb and typical Tangerine Dream melodies. 21st Century Common Man, part 1 is an up-tempo piece drenched in keyboards, while 21st Century Common Man, part 2 is rather funky with a guitar solo, I think, but it might be a synth solo as well. The two bonus tracks on this re-release by Esoteric Recordings are Vigour, an up-tempo instrumental, and the seven-inch single version of Tyger featuring vocals. As I said before, this is not the best album of these German electronic pioneers, but it contains a couple of great pieces that you still may enjoy! *** Martien Koolen (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
