Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra has 50th anniversary reissue

There will be an extended 50th anniversary reissue of Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra this April featuring the band’s first ever UK show live recording.

Phaedra is one of Tangerine Dream’s most successful and acclaimed albums and this limited edition 5CD/Blu-ray boxset is a deep-dive celebration of one of the most important and pioneering electronic albums of all time.

To be released on 18th April, Phaedra 50th Anniversary Edition is a six-disc boxset featuring a remastered original album mix, along with two discs of out-takes from the recording sessions. The complete concert at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London in June 1974 (the band’s debut live appearance in the UK) and a Blu-ray disc featuring Steven Wilson’s 5.1 Surround Sound mix. The box also features an illustrated book with a new essay by Tangerine Dream authority Wouter Bessels.

‘Kosmische Musik’

Originally released by Virgin Records in February 1974, Phaedra spent 15 weeks on the UK charts upon its release. Recorded at The Manor studios in November 1973, it was the band’s first album for Virgin and vitally, it was the first record in which they used a sequencer. This is seen as the moment the band created their signature sound, and this development in their music production would go on to have a huge impact and influence on electronic music to this day and had a fundamental effect on ‘Kosmische Musik’ – a term coined by Tangerine Dream founding member Edgar Froese which came into regular use before ‘krautrock’ and was preferred by some German artists.

Phaedra’s groundbreaking use of synthesizers and sequencers created a lush and immersive soundscape that was unlike anything else at the time. Its success came from word-of-mouth and self discovery, despite the record receiving no radio play support upon its original release, it integrated itself into cultural society and helped to popularise the concept of electronic music as an art form and showed that it could be just as, if not more so, complex and sophisticated than any other forms of music.

Tracklisting

CD One – Phaedra
Phaedra
Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares
Moments of a Visionary
Sequent C
Phaedra (Steven Wilson stereo mix) [Bonus Track] Sequent C (Steven Wilson stereo mix) [Bonus Track] CD Two – Phaedra out-takes volume one
2nd Day
Flute Organ Piece
Phaedra Out-Take version 2A
CD Three Phaedra out-takes volume two
Phaedra Out-Take 1
Phaedra Out-Take 2B
2nd Side Piece 1
2nd Side Piece 2
Organ piece (5.48)
CD Four – “Live at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London. 16June 1974”**
The Victoria Palace Concert Part One
CD Five – “Live at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London – 16 June 1974”**
The Victoria Palace Concert Part Two
The Victoria Palace Concert – Encore
Blu-ray – Phaedra 5.1 Surround Sound mix by Steven Wilson
Phaedra
Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares
Moments of a Visionary
Sequent C

** Previously unreleased

Released 18 April, to pre-order click here

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