So here it is, the last TD post, and an album that marked another departure - this time of Chris Franke, who'd been a constant in the lineup since the early 70s. In the grand tradition of Tangerine Dream's official live albums occasionally containing live music, Livemiles features half an hour of edited and studio-polished highlights from Franke's final concert in August 1987, but before that, features half an hour purporting to be from a concert in Albuquerque in June 1986.
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Alternate cover art used on some reissues
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When
asked why the first side of Livemiles shares absolutely no music in
common with audience tapes from the Albuquerque concert, Froese only
ever deflected along the lines of "well, we did play that music at some
point on that tour". Whatever the source though, Livemiles: Albuquerque
is still a good four-section piece of music. Starting from a
fourteen-minute buildup and ending on a stately, anthemic melody, it
finds this short-lived trio lineup on fine form, but Livemiles: Berlin
is better. In three sections of around nine minutes apiece, the lovely
Caspian Sea section gives way to the more rhythmically driven Velvet
Autumn/Sunnyvale (these titles were announced during a concert broadcast, so I think are
canon), then Dolphin Dance from Underwater Sunlight draws it to a
close. So the Berlin track is a very good patchwork of a few highlights
from Franke's last concert, but there's more...
pw: sgtg
Bonus post: Tangerine Dream live at Reichstagsgelände, West Berlin, 1st August 1987
...here's the whole thing. As mentioned above, the open-air concert in West Berlin with which Franke bowed out was broadcast in full, so recordings made for an excellent quality source to use in the Tangerine Tree fan project. The Livemiles: Berlin sections can be heard in their rawer form, the band's recent albums are all touched on (including instrumental versions of Tyger tracks - yay, listenable Tyger!), some of their film and video music is featured, and Haslinger's solo piano spot takes in themes going right back to Richocet and Pergamon. Sure, the sound might be a bit slick and everything segues just a bit too perfectly (long-standing rumours of backing tapes abound), but I love this recording as a two-hour deep dive into the sound of mid-late 80s TD.
pw: sgtg
Previously posted at SGTG:
Thanks for the TD.
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