"Atem" was Tangerine Dream's fourth album, released in 1973. In many ways, it marks the group's furthest departure from the world of rock and pop and the closest they ever came to the sound world of the classical avant garde.

The opening title track, 'Atem' (the German word for 'breath') clearly builds upon earlier TD material, like 'Alpha Centauri' and 'Zeit', being similar both in scale-it is over 20 minutes long-and style. In many ways, it is an updating of "Electronic Meditation", with Chris Franke's tom-tom drumming providing the main impetus over mostly organ and synth sounds in its early parts, and for its almost organic overtones. 'Atem' is a beautifully structured work and has an exquisite central section, with a quiet heartbeat pattern played on tom toms, over an eerie mellotron loop and some beautifully textured patterns of white noise and, later, throbbing VCS3 sounds.

The next track, 'Fauni-Gena' is another largish work (almost 11 mins) which continues in a similar vein. The sound world here is suggestive of the primitive rainforest, with, once more, a haunting mellotron loop over the sounds of exotic birds and other creatures (whether real or synthesised is never obvious) carrying the listener's imagination off to far away times and places. 'Circulation of Events' is another typical early TD meditative piece, featuring sustained organ and synthesiser notes over a rising VCS3 pulse. The final track, 'Wahn' (another German title: this one means 'delusion'-in the sense of that which gives rise to insanity!) is unique in the Tangerine Dream canon, however, in consisting of little beyond vocal utterings (grunts, mutterings, screams, shouts and so on) echoed and reverbed, until a rising percussion line restores some semblance of decorum and a gentle mellotron theme sings the work to a close. This is a track owing more to Ligeti's 'Aventures' and 'Nouvelles Aventures' and works of that ilk, than to anything from the rock or pop world. Perhaps the closest you can get to this nowadays would be Trevor Wishart's 'Vox cycle'.

This CD is a remastered release from original master tapes by TD's own Eastgate studio, so is probably as definitive a release as could be achieved. Its analogue origins remain apparent throughout, however, with tape hiss being quite prevalent, especially through the quieter passages, of which this disc has plenty. This needn't put you off, though, as the material more than makes up for these technical shortcomings, and I'm happy to report that the release is free of any particularly disturbing remastering artefacts.

The dark side of Tangerine Dream. In this recording, they summarized all previous experiments with sound. The result is stunning, and there is no doubt why John Peel, a BBC DJ decided to promote a completely unknown electronic group back in early 1973. Creepy and dark music. Best consumed at night, on headphones. The title track contains all elements that I appreciate in the oldest vintage Tangerine Dream, namely: creepy, monumental tones, the feel of space and distance, danse macabre of these early analog instruments, no conventionality and lack of musical conformism. If Zeit was the interlude, then Atem is the symphony. Never later they managed to record such a creepy record. I always have goose-bumps when I listen to Fauni-Gena. After you meditatize yourself completely, at the very end of the record there comes Wahn, a grotesque track. Putting aside the modulated sound of acoustic percussion, one might say that this is a live recording of a BDSM session. Brrrr. See for yourself. Highly recommended for those who want to extract the best from their experimental years.

I have often wondered why Tangerine Dream never seems to go away. The stuff they've done in the last 15 years or so is so generic that it's not even funny, their music during that time period seems pretty indistinguisible from any countless incidental music found on TV shows and movies. In my opinion, TD should have called it quits after they released Force Majeure in 1979. My opinion of Tangerine Dream in the 1970s is totally different and I found what they did some of the most interesting music I have ever heard. Atem is their final album from Ohr, and apparently they left the label because they were sick of Rolf Ulrich Kaiser (the owner of Ohr) marketing the band like freaks (R.U. Kaiser changed the label name from Ohr to Kosmische Musik after Atem and Ash Ra Tempel's Join Inn were released), this was the exact same reason why Klaus Schulze also left Ohr/Kosmiche Musik as well. It could also be the fact that BBC Radio mogul John Peel loved Atem and gave the band exposure outside of Germany and so a British label showed interest in them (in this case, Virgin). By Ohr standards, Atem is by far TD's most accessible album during that era (1970-1973), but even that album is quite inaccessible, but still easier to get in to than Zeit or Alpha Centauri. Listening to this album, there is absolutely no evidence where this band was headed when they signed to Virgin (no sequencer heavy synth patterns here, it's still pretty much the same vein as Alpha Centauri and Zeit). Atem opens with the title track which features this really cool Mellotron and percussion and as the intensity builds up to a climax, there's this explosion in which the sound dies down to some really cool droning. "Fauni-Geni" is basically a demonstration of Edgar Froese's Mellotron, with tons of cool effects that sounds like it came out of a jungle. He'd later expanded on the style of that cut on his second solo album, Epsilon in Malaysian Pale (1975). "Circulation of Events" is another really disturbing droning cut, while "Wahn" features some really disturbing screaming that even disturbed my mother (and she's used to the music I listen to). All the music has that really creepy atmosphere and the cover, created by Edgar Froese himself, really fits the music very well. The baby on the cover is that of Edgar's son, Jerome Froese, little did anyone know back in 1973 that some 20 years later, that baby, who would be grown up by that time, would be a member of this band (unfortunatley they were no longer worth listening to by that time).

Don't be fooled by the late cheap electro-syn Tangerine Dream. Their real power lies on their first 4 album (From electronic meditation to Atem) and vanished after the success of "Phaedra". Atem and Alpha Centuri are their best records. Both are the best exemplars of cosmic krautrock. The eerie aura, stellar jam of mellotrons and keyboards, sparse yet effective ambient arrangement... avant-grade at best. The best cut is "Wahn", it's just like the realm of a nightmare. ... "fauni gena" makes you feel lost in Amazon rain forest, facing death. Excellent electronic music.

It's nice to hear these almost ancient experimental efforts again after so many years. When it comes to sheer effect, it hasn't lost any of it's impact. Tangerine Dream made it's finest albums in the early seventies, and this is certainly one of their best; but it's also disturbing and a little freaky at times. When it comes to drifting away (with or without foreign substances in your system) I would recommend 'Phaedra' or 'Rubycon', both made in the same era.