Tangerine Dream - Atem (1973)

Artista: Tangerine Dream

Álbum: Atem
Año: 1973
Género: Progesivo electrónico ambiental/ Krautrock
Duración: 41:28
Nacionalidad: Alemania

Lista de Temas:
1. Atem
2. Fauni-Gena
3. Circulation Of Events
4. Wahn

Alineación:
- Edgar Froese / Mellotron, guitar, organ, voice
- Christoph Franke / organ, VCS 3 synth, percussion, voice
- Peter Baumann / organ, VCS 3 synth, piano

Alberto nos descansa y nos trae uno de los mejores discos de una banda que faltaba en nuestro blog... y lamentablemente se me terminan las vacaciones así que dentro de poco van a tener posteos más seguidos...

Atem es el cuarto álbum de estudio del grupo alemán de música electrónica Tangerine Dream, editado en 1973.
El disco está marcado por música que varía desde ambientes atmosféricos, hasta otros de más fuerte percusión y experimentales, con amplio uso del melotrón. Más accesible que su anterior Zeit, sería el último en publicar con su entonces compañía discográfica Ohr Records. Con éste disco se daría fin a la llamada época de los "Años Rosas".
Para la portada del mismo se partió de la foto de un bebé, Jerome Froese, hijo del líder de la banda Edgar Froese. Gracias al apoyo y la promoción del mismo por el DJ inglés John Peel abrió el éxito de la banda en el mercado inglés. Fue reeditado en CD en 1987 y digitalizado posteriormente en 1996.

Wikipedia

Y éste es el comentario del disco en manos del propio Alberto:

Tangerine Dream es quizas el ultimo dinosaurio ¡VIVO!?? estos germanos son casi la piedra fundacional del krautrock a fines de los años 60, más precisamente surgen en 1967. Inicialmente Klaus Schulze tocaba la batería, luego se transformaría en ese monstruo de los teclados que aún hoy asombra en el firmamento de la electrónica.
Los años 70 reciben a TD en su mejor forma y desarrollan quizás lo más rico dentro de su interminable discografía (llevan mas de 100 discos editados entre placas de estudio y bootlegs variados). En esos años se fue gestando en sonido del grupo, el estilo TD, hoy después de más de 47 años estos señores aún editan obras y siguen haciendo bandas de sonido de películas, algunas de ellas muy conocidas como "Firestarter".
Si uno le presta atención a la extensa obra de los alemanes puede distinguir fácilmente como marcaron la cabecita de más de un productor musical, por cuanto marcaron tendencia en materia de teclados, fueron básicamente pioneros en el uso de multiples instrumentos y no hay casi estilo que ellos no hayan mostrado durante décadas, es decir no sólo krautrock, ambient, electrónica, space o progresivo han sellado sus trabajos.
Sus obras, aunque mantienen su propio sello distintivo en materia de sonido, siempre le dieron una pincelada distinta, un matiz que las hace diferentes entre sí, quizás ese sencillo aditamento los mantuvo en vigencia durante tantos años.
Tangerine Dream siempre fue una banda secundaria en el espectro mundial ¿por qué? solo Dios sabe, pero nunca gozaron de la difusión de un Emerson Lake and Palmer, de un Vangelis o un Jean Michel Jarre pero cada uno de ellos sin duda copiaron las estructuras, fraseos, y climas de los teutones.
Quien deambulo por el sonido TD sabe que hay obras que son fantásticas... tal el caso de "Cyclone", "Rubycon", "Stratosfer" o "Encore". Hoy a pedido de un cabezón chatero presentamos Atem, el cuarto disco de estudio editado en 1973, simpre los TD fueron innovadores en el uso de instrumentos, fueron los primeros en usar secuenciadores, y le dieron una rosca increíble al mellotron, y ni hablar de los sintetizadores.
Atem se caracteriza por climas muy oscuros y de mucha percusión, siendo los mellotrones los protagonistas principales, un sello distintivo es la duración de algunos temas, obras de 20 a 30 minutos donde se despachan con cuanto ruidito podian sacar de los teclados, aparecen en casi todos sus discos.
Atem es básicamente un disco ambient. Excepto por "Wahn" donde los muchachos se despachan con arreglos de percusión y arreglo de voces que bien podrían ser del mejor disco de Avant Garde de la actualidad.
Una banda que marco un hito dentro de la música electrónica del mundo, creo que un blog como este no puede dejar de lado a Tangerine Dream, otra piedra fundamental para seguir en el camino del conocimiento musical, por supuesto atendemos el pedido de Tony pero además de "Atem" y "Green Desert" bajo la anuencia de Moe va a estar "Cyclone" un disco bastante particular de TD.

Alberto

Alberto ha dicho...
Y ahora, algunos comentarios en inglés y al disco:

Final album for the Ohr label. Apparently by this point, Edgar Froese was getting unhappy with Rolf Ulrich Kaiser marketing everyone on his label as freaks, and in fact Kaiser would shortly change the name of Ohr to Komische Musik (of course, things would only get worse when Kaiser released those COSMIC JOKERS albums, against the wish of some, especially Klaus Schulze). Anyway, the band continues the same, unusual spacy "music" they did their previous two albums. Only know, Edgar Froese started to include Mellotron, which he put to good use on the the title track, "Fauni Gena", and "Wahn". This is also what I consider their most accessible Ohr album, which isn't saying much (just that it's a single album, rather than a double like "Zeit"), as the music is still just as unstractured with hardly anything call conventional. I love how the album opens up, with strange wind sounds, before the Mellotron and drums kicks in. After several minutes going like this, growing ever more intense, there's this loud explosion, where the music quiets down to strange pulsing and droning sounds.
A lot of this sounds quite sinister, no doubt helped by the cover (done by Edgar Froese). "Fauni Gena" is Edgar Froese's Mellotron tour-de-force, as it's almost nothing but Mellotron (as electronic chirping birds). This sounds like a blueprint for his second solo album, "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale", except for one major difference: this is much more experimental. "Circulation of Events" is another really sinister sounding piece, no doubt caused by the strange droning and odd electronic effects. "Wahn" consists of a bunch of yelling and creaming, with startling percussion, before it ends with Mellotron. For me, I always thought the albums they did for Ohr were the most interesting, the only problem is it's not for everyone. But if you like music that hardly plays it safe, go for this album.

Ben Miler

"Atem" was atmospherically much brighter in contrast to their previous album Zeit". "Atem' (the German word for 'breath') is also one of my favourtite electronic albums from the 70's offering one of the true masterpeices from this genre. Froese, Baumann and Franke blend tons of analog synth and keyboard work to create an outerwordly 42 Minute daydream. Progheads beware as this was the first time TD used the Mellotron on any album. I always thought that Breathe was a fitting title for this album, as it does literally carry the tonal ebbs and flows of the breathing reflex.

James Unger

I would consider "Atem" as one of the three best studio albums of Tangerine Dream "Zeit" and "Rubycon". The titanic title track opens by entering of howling voices and repeating melodic mantra from drums, presented here with better production quality than on their two previous recordings. This also is much more concrete and aggressive music than on their earlier albums, and there resides a huge dramatic tension within the architecture of this surreal composition. After a climax the sounds move to an enchanting calm space filled with musical shadows and radiant shimmering objects. Slowly new elements start to emerge from the shadows; there are huge masses near the quiet space, affecting from a distance trough gravitational forces of colossal giants, not absorbing however the calm space immediately. There are exceptional tiny details in the larger tonal themes, creating a very physical presence which morphs to a more oppressing and frightful realms of shadows later. Also the atonal moments have decreased to quite small amounts from the previous albums, and in some parts there is a strong "cinematic" feeling, bringing mostly visual visions for me. Fitting the song's name well, "Fauni-Gena" starts with birdlike voices and tender flute melodies. Later stronger motives emerge accompanied by whispering human voices, and the tension grows stronger. Then on "Circulation of Events" a distressing wall of troubled sound is brought alive. Rather than Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", I would have used this song as a horror movie soundtrack. The last track "Wahn" is a collage of voices similar which were used in Pink Floyd's "Piper at The Gates of Dawn" album, drawing a beautiful conclusion from the au revoirs from flute whistles. Watching the album cover and listening to these noises, I was left with an impression like being contacted by some human but still alien character, touching my mind but leaving the concrete questions and answers from this masterful artistic dialogue.

Eetu Pellonpää

With this album, Tangerine Dream closes down a stage of constant electronic experimentation in a sustained spiral of maturation toward the sort of stylish frameworks to be elaborated from the "Phaedra" album onwards. "Atem" is, in short, one step in the assessment process that the trio of Franke, Froese and Boemann has been delivering from the days of that magnificent exercise on minimalism entitled "Zeit". Evidently, TD is aiming at becoming more expressionist and more expansive concerning the instrumental interactions among all members. The opener kicks off with a fabulous storm of mellotron layers accompanied by organ washes and ominous percussion- the transition from a 5/4 tempo to a tribal development shows a musical road that gets started from an orchestral point of view and ends on a more visceral note. This is an amazing introduction, full of magic, power and sinister vibrations. The synthesizer ornaments that go appearing enhance the mellotron's motifs quite proficiently. The track's first 6 minutes incarnate a perfect continuation of the then recent PF legacy from "Ummagumma", but there's still 15 more minutes to go. The remaining atmospheres are less loud, focusing on a combination of deceitful calm and overwhelming mystery, as if the sounds were ordained to conceal something disturbing that never really shows off. The relentless minimalism of "Zeit" is partially recovered here, but like I said earlier, the sonic sources are more expansive and less restrained, even signaling at times at the rough dynamics of the "Alpha Centauri" album. The somber moods get subtly augmented by the 10 minute mark, with the VCS loops and Farfisa's dreamy layers filling the starring role. Some guitar effects and mellotron ornaments get in from time to time, ultimately leading to a fade-out featuring the synth's lower notes. The album's second half starts with 'Fauni Gena', an 11 minute piece that pretty much anticipates the sort of precious atmospheres to be worked on during the 74-77 era. The mellotron flute leads most of the alleatory developments of the ethereal musical ideas that go emerging by: the other keyboards start quite mysterious, but when the mellotron strings take hold of the instrumentation, things become less mysterious and more solemn. 'Circulation of Events', on the other hand, states a sort of transition between "Zeit" and the new TD airs, although generally speaking it can be described as yet another example of carefully developed atmospheres. 'Wahn' is quite a peculiar epilogue to the album: its vocal and percussive resources feel quite rare, as if TD was taking a final look back at the "Electronic Meditation" days, even when the mellotron (the band's new found "toy") settles in to add extra colors to the fold. Despite the bizarre aura provided by this closer, "Atem" is a most powerful transitional album that reveals a high level of creativity from the TD guys during these years of musical restlessness and preoccupations for what lies on the artistic horizons.

Cesar Inca

Surreal would be the best way to describe the music and like good Avante Garde Jazz this music creates an atmosphere and Avante Garde and ambient is the structure of these electronic compositions. The songs are all credited to the band which comprised of Edgar Froese, Christopher Frank and Peter Baumann. Christopher Frank handles all the drums and percussion but all the band play organ at some point throughout with Edgar Froese on the Mellotron ,Guitar. Peter Baumann and Christopher Frank play the old Putney VCS3 synth as well.Voices ( vocals) are only on the last track from this album.
Atem the first track to commence the album is the longest with a running time of just over 20 minutes and basically is a slow build up with same main sequence over a layer of synth which is really only the first 1/3 of the track which then drops off and ambient would be the best way to descibe the remainder of the composition. I will admit that trying to describe the tracks on this album seems ludricous as you really need to hear them for yourself.
With sounds throughout like birds, water, insects wind etc over synths and organs you have a true soundscape and yet this album to me seems dark at the same time. It is not suprising that Edgar Froese is constantly doing soundtracks as his compositions are so vivid yet you still hear this album without even trying to listen to it.
Edgar Froese is a pioneer in elecronic and ambient music and this is the last album that Tangerine Dream would record on the Ohr Label. Coming from Germany the band has that distinct slant on progressive music with what seems to be only created in Europe. The album to follow Phaedra will be regarded as their best by many and will cement the bands position in Electronic music forever.
Great album and something really different for 1973.

Matthew T.

Again another TD release that tends to suffer from some criticism which perlpexes this reviewer. Still in the realms of new territories and released after the austere and cold magnum opus Zeit, Atem actually shows TD evolving as their soundscapes hint at more accessible music in general with the Virgin label. Atem is 20 minutes of moody, spatial oblivion taking you on a ride to the furthest galaxies and back and leaves the listener eagerly waiting the remainder of the work to unfold. On " Fauna Gena" the synth sounds point in the direction of later works like Rubycon and Stratosfear. Beautiful music in a metamorphic state, bird calls calling out not disimilar to PF's Cirrus Minor. " Circulation of Events" is largely non descript but with some pleasant percussive echoes playing out the piece. " Wahn" is an eight minute work which perhaps is the most unusual on Atem, with some great backing vocals and percussion adding to the synts and keyboards. Not the first or last time TD experimented with voice on their largely instrumental works. The songs plays out smoothly to make for a perfect ending, so all in all another classic from TD which will be revered for many years to come, remarkeably they had even more wonderful journeys to showpiece.

Chris S.

Just reading what instruments Froese, Baumann and Franke played on this album got me excited. All three play organ while two play synths (including Big Moog) and the other mellotron. Add piano, guitar, vocals and drums. This would be the last album they would do for Ohr Records. The first four album do have that Krautrock spirit about them but that would all change when they moved to Virgin Records. What makes this one a little different from the previous two is the mellotron. It's still dark and ambient but it almost seems like it would have been more suited as the second album bridging the debut to the dark, spacey soundscapes that would follow.
"Atem" means "Breath" and it's the side long opener. It sounds like the wind is slowly pulsating then the martial drumming comes in. It's all more intense before 3 1/2 minutes. Quite the drum show after 4 1/2 minutes. A calm a minute later and here comes the mellotron. It's dark and spacey. Big Moog after 10 minutes and before 11 minutes. Percussion sounds before 12 minutes then the Big Moog is back.Organ follows. Sounds get louder before 18 minutes.
"Fauni Gena" opens with melltron and synths then suddenly it sounds like were in the jungle. I can't help but think of Froese's solo album "Epsilon In Malaysian Pale" here. "Circulation Of Events" features sounds that wash in and out slowly as sounds hum. It's more powerful 3 1/2 minutes in. "Wahn" has these strange vocal expressions followed by loud outbursts of sound. Drums are prominant 2 minutes in, mellotron too.
John Peel claimed this was the album of the year back then. An incredible statement when you consider it was 1973.

John Davie

Fans of Tangerine Dream will forever wonder and debate how the band got from the abstract cosmic Kraut of their beginnings (the "pink" years) to the pulsating trances of Phaedra. Atem is the last album of TD's pink period and it doesn't offer much clues, neither did the 1973-recorded (but 1986-released and 1986-tampered) Green Desert.
Back in 1972/1973, Christopher Franke hadn't got his hands on a sequencer yet so he still features on the drums here, not the simple back-beat kind of beat that they would use on their tepid 80's albums but wild and furious percussion, almost arrhythmic and random. It can be admired during the majestic opening of Atem and later on in the album on Wahn. I would guess Pink Floyd's Ummagumma has been a huge source of inspiration here.
The opening minutes of Atem have always been amongst my favorite TD moments (this was one of my first LPs actually). Those dark and crushing mellotrons simply can't be resisted. The remainder of the track didn't do much for me though, and it's only in more recent times that I got into the droning, chilling and unsettling emptiness of the remaining 15 minutes. The lesson being, never give up on an album. Especially not on a good one!
Fauni Gena is another longtime mellotron favorite. It's similar to the more melodic and accessible Mysterious Semblance on Phaedra. But the tone is bleaker, more mysterious and more cosmic. Froese's second solo album (Epsilon In Malaysian Pale) offers more of this type of floating mellotron soundscapes. The austere darkness continues on Circulation of Events, a piece heavy on organs, puzzling synth sounds and processed guitar pulses. Wahn means "delusion', "phantom", "fallacy" in English. That kind of sums it up.
Concluding, there is one link with Phaedra, and that's the huge creative energy that both albums testify off. After my long journey with this music I now find this the strongest of Tangerine Dream's early albums, even beating Zeit. Needless to say this must be played in the dark at maximum volume and listened to with fully focused attention. There's a reason why Tangerine Dream was the loudest band on the planet.

Karl Bonnek

Wind...then a sequence of 4 ascending notes, three drum hits (2-pause-1). Who else than Tangerine dream can compose a 20 minutes instrumental suite based on the repetition of for notes and 3 drum hits?
Of course what makes the first part of "Atem" good to listen to is the big amount of variations over this incredibly simple theme and in addition all the excellent percussion work made by Christophe Franke contributes in giving to the suite a lighter weight. While the 4 movements of which Zeit is composed require attention and are totally meditative, Atem is driven into dark realms by the obsessive percussions.
It's only after about 6 minutes that the percussions quit and the organ is left alone. It's like a starship which leaves a planet's athmosphere: first propulsion and noise, then the quietness of the space with no-gravity. The journey is started and the little dissonances seem to signify that there's something outside. This part is similar to the chaotic part of Floyd's Atom Heart Mother, only less chaotic. Square waves come and go. Steps(?). Is it here where the Vangelis' Hell is from?
The suite proceeds quietly, but a high pitched note followed by winds and by a bass square wave note increase the tension. Let's then proceed to the end of the journey.
The side B contains three tracks. "Fauni-Gena" has a classic contemporary feeling. Also it starts rhythmless, but there's a "flute" melody. It reminds me to György Ligeti. If you think that Ligeti is one of the authors used by Kubrick for the soundtrack of his "Space Odyssey" the reference is clear. I think to "Gayane's Adagio" in particular.
"Circulation Of Events" is on the same mood of the previous, but it's more similar to Zeit than to the previous track. It developes in a slow crescendo made of square waves and an organ chord that sometimes is major, sometimes minor and often unstructured. The music is "atonal". The sporadic accents coming from Froese's guitar and the rhythm given by a keyboard are not far from the most experimental works of Vangelis.
"Wahn" (Illusion in German) starts with recorded voices. Then percussions. This is classic contemporary music. Try to listen to Luigi Nono or Karl Heinz Stockhausen. The music of Tangerine Dream in this period is not so distant from them.
What I mean is that the music of this period of Tangerine Dream can help in "making the ears" able to understand a very challenging kind of music like that. (They are still a bit easier).

Luca

Atem follows in the same example as the previous Tangerine Dream release, Zeit, in its darkly ambient sound. Different, though, in that this album seems to be only slightly less dark and much more sped up, but overall this album has more variety when compared to Zeit. "Atem", the first track, starts off with a tribal-like beat and ominous mellotron at a remarkably quick pace before turning into an experimental drone. "Wahn" is thoroughly tribal, featuring both tribal percussive beats coupled with periodic bouts of tribal screaming and yelling. "Fauni Gena" is a very airy and ethereal track that includes the organic sounds of birds that call back to the mellotron playing, a method that reminds me of E. Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus.
I didn't find this album as enjoyable as Zeit, but Atem definitely does have a slightly more energetic feel with the tribal elements and sped up composition. Atem seems unique in the Tangerine Dream catalog, but anyone who enjoys Edgar Froese's Epsilon in Malaysian Pale will find much to love in this album.

Alan

"Atem" brings the listener into places he never imagined existed, deep in the dark corners of space and his mind.
Tangerine Dream, for some fans, found their golden period only after "Phaedra", the official turning point of the band's career. But the so called pink years have a sort of seducing, arcane, and creepy magic to them that makes them sound like albums made by supernatural forces that happened to haunt the studio at those moments. "Atem" is one of the most strongly surreal, magic, and otherworldly albums Tangerine Dream has ever released, an extremely successful attempt in transporting the listener in places he would have never imagined existed, deep in the dark corners of space and of his mind.
Edgar Froese and his fellow partners already gave a wonderful example of Ambient with the previous LP "Zeit", a droned out piece of art that remains, in it's suspended stillness, a landmark achievement of Electronic music. With "Atem" they seem to go towards a direction they partially went on with "Alpha Centauri", however, in that 1971 release, they stopped at halfway. This 1973 release goes all the way down, to the point of no return. Creepy, majestic, epic, "Atem" has a wonderful crystal clear production that makes you doubt this was released in 1973, and gives to the music yet another hint of primordial and futuristism at the same time. The synths sound much more modern, the atmospheres extremely haunting and effective, even when you do hear something like tom drums in the background, it still gives the impressive feeling that human beings had nothing to do with the process of creating this album.
Breathe, is what Atem means. Life is present in this album, and if it is human, it's almost primitive and outnumbered by all the lifeless atmosphere: only on a track like "Wahn", with all it's scary vocal samples shouting and whining, the human form becomes one with the supernatural. But then there is a song such as the twenty minute title track, the bulk of the entire LP, where eerie, spacey soundscapes is all that is heard. What makes this track great is not only it's epic, descending structure, but also it's absolute effectiveness in bringing the listener into strange, dark realms. Then we have the ethereal, dark jungle of "Fauni Gena", for it's entire ten minutes having forest sounds in the background, in the foreground an eerie flute melody that echoes throughout the track. "Circulation Of Events" has a very suspenseful and extremely tense atmosphere, beautifully executed, it has a majestically unique sound that gives once again an impact to the listener, and makes him wonder why it's only about six minutes long. The mentioned "Wahn" closes the album eerily, to leave the listener stunned just after it's closing notes.
"Atem" is one of the most creative and underrated of Tangerine Dream albums, an experience that must be lived by anyone who loves Electronic music. The following album "Phaedra" will have even more advanced sounds, but it won't capture an atmosphere like the one in "Atem".

Nick

My favourite Tangerine Dream album ever. Just slightly better than Rubycon and much bleaker. I remember being sick in bed in 1987, looking out my bedroom window watching large flakes of snow fall while playing this. Ahh!, weird memories. This is the one that BBC DJ John Peel lauded to the skies, which is surprising because I hated most of the stuff he played.
Imagine 'Zeit' but a bit more lively. That's 'Atem'. Simple as that. Easily the best of their first 4 'noisy' less tuneful albums. Sounds great in 2009 and well worth 5 stars even though the whole thing sounds like someone's creeping up behind you ready to give you a great big fright!

Lewis Graham