Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Alpha Centauri (album)

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Released
  
March 1971

Studio
  
Dierks Studio

Alpha Centauri (1971)
  
Zeit (1972)

Release date
  
March 1971

Label
  
Ohr

Recorded
  
January 1971

Length
  
39:48

Artist
  
Tangerine Dream

Producer
  
Tangerine Dream

Alpha Centauri (album) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaen00eAlp

Genres
  
Krautrock, Space music, Electronic music

Similar
  
Tangerine Dream albums, Krautrock albums, Other albums

Tangerine dream alpha centauri full album


Alpha Centauri is the second album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream, released in March 1971 by record label Ohr.

Contents

Content

The music on this album is quite different from Tangerine Dream’s first album Electronic Meditation, partly because of a heavier reliance on keyboards and electronic technology, although they still mostly remain in the background: the dominant instruments on the album are organ and flute. The other difference is that this album focuses on dark, spacey soundscapes as opposed to jam sessions. The shift in instrumentation resulted in an atmosphere dubbed by Edgar Froese himself as "kosmische musik". Julian Cope's Head Heritage wrote that the album "used the space rock template from[Pink Floyd's] [A] Saucerful of Secrets (and removed the rock)".

A nowadays extremely rare single "Ultima Thule" was released in the same year. Side 1 employs the same guitar riff as "Fly ...", but the single was at the time otherwise an unconnected release. Re-releases of Alpha Centauri in the 2000s have however included either or both parts of Ultima Thule as bonus tracks.

Release

Alpha Centauri was released on March 1971 by record label Ohr. It sold 20,000 copies in their native Germany, nearly four times as many as their later classic Phaedra.

Personnel

  • Edgar Froese – guitar, organ, bass, coffee machine, composer
  • Christopher Franke – drums, percussion, flute, zither, piano, VCS3
  • Steve Schroyder – organ, voice, echo machines, iron stick
  • Udo Dennebourg – flute, voice
  • Roland Paulyck – synthesizer
  • Songs

    1Sunrise in the Third System4:22
    2Fly and Collision of Comas Sola13:24
    3Alpha Centauri22:07

    References

    Alpha Centauri (album) Wikipedia