"Zeit" was only Tangerine Dream's third album release and a more courageous popular music release would be difficult to imagine. I mean, what group nowadays would be likely to use an instrumental line-up of four cellos, organ, vibraphone and gliss guitar for its opening number? Or dare attempt a work of almost 80 minutes duration with not a single drumbeat, tune or melody, or even variation in pace from the deathly slow? No record company would surely release anything like this today! "Zeit" dates from 1972, but for many, this music remains completely outside of time and stands forever timeless (German speakers will note the pun!) [Ohr's faith in Tangerine Dream must have been enormous, given that this was a double album when released on black vinyl! I remember my (imported) copy, bought in my student days, cost almost a whole term's rent!]

Subtitled "largo in four movements", "Zeit" is, in fact, a single, large-scale work, intended to be experienced at one sitting and I would encourage you to play it this way. The pace is, as the title suggests, unremittingly slow. And the volume level is never high (indeed, there are times when it descends to levels barely audible). You can expect no excitement here. And yet, this music is never boring. From the moment the cellos begin their long drawn out groans, until the music's final dying gasp, the slow unfolding of magical musical ideas is always completely captivating and absolutely spell-binding with the power to hold one's attention throughout the whole 76 minutes. And although the disc's analogue origins are noticeable at times, they are never intrusive.

As I have already suggested, the sound world of "Zeit" is completely unlike any popular music release either before or since (not strictly true: there were a couple of German groups attempted to emulate the style shortly afterwards, but not with any degree of success) and it remains hard to categorise even now, but then one thing that this music opens to the mind to just how pointless it is to try! The movements' titles (and the cover's paintings) indicate a spacey theme to the music, suggested, I suppose, by the tranquil and meditative nature of the playing and also by the futuristic glissando tones that feature throughout, and gurglings and bubblings of early synth oscillator circuits (beautifully used). Ironically, anyone looking for similar material would do well to try the visionary organ works of Olivier Messiaen, or the works of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, both of whom will be filed away under the Classical music heading here on Amazon.

Whatever your normal musical tastes, I urge you to try this disc, as it is a thing of rare beauty. But beware: it may alter your whole life...

Zeit is a seminal work in electronic music and should be considered as a milestone, inspiring masses. The point of Zeit is not to entertain the listener, but to suck her into the black cosmic hole, to meditatize her so that she loses a sense of time and space. I claim that only those who really appreciate every sound in a given score, will achieve a state of mind that is synchronized with Zeit. I happen to loop the introductory track, "Birth of Liquid Pleiades" and enjoy. The level of enjoyment is as far from standard as possible. That is difficult to explain, but the first track is consistent with my own personality, my own brain waves. Hence I really feel relaxed, and abstracted out of current world. Highly recommended for meditation. No dancing. No rhythm. Just beauty, however demanding. One remark: do not try to persuade others to Zeit. It won't work. One must discover it himself. Hell, it really takes balls to get through this album if one is a starter.

In 1971, after Schroyder vanished from Tangerine Dream, they found Peter Baumann, a perfect complement for Franke and Froese. Free-spirited, adventure-oriented Baumann found Tangerine Dream to be a perfect world to live in. At least for some time. Zeit features even more electronic equipment than its predecessors. In particular, they invited a guest musician, Florian Fricke, who possessed a legendary Moog synthesizer. This move was necessary, as the band could not afford their own at that time.

Organs are muted. Gliss guitar is muted. Synthesizers are muted. Your MIND is muted. After bombastic intro of six cello symphonic performers, you enter the world of static time, the black hole of universe. Completely in tune with Tangerine Dream, you wake up in a different world of medieval alchemist's laboratory. The impressions you may have vary each time you listen to the second track, "Nebulous Dawn". Nebulous indeed. As an applied mathematician, or, in other words, a mathematized economist, I found the third title hilarious: "The Origin of Supernatural Probabilities". My Freud's omission suggested at first that the last word is spelled... pleasures. The same goes for the first track, which is even more funny. If you can play the game for over 70 minutes with Zeit's accompaniament, you will discover that this album is the work of gods. Nothing can fit better. Her? Either she'll love it, or she will dump it off the window, with you following the CD right afterwards. Tell you what, it's worth your risk.

One: Tangerine Dream's all-time classic record, and one of the top-five 'krautrock' records ever (given that 'Kraut' is German for 'herb' that's probably a double-meaning), 'Zeit' is German for 'Time', which is quite significant in some kind of deep way that I'm sure somebody else can probably cover better than me.

Two: Two discs, four tracks of droning electronic noise, best described as being 'oceanic'. It starts with some cellos droning away in an alien tuning, but beyond that it's hard to focus on it - it's the musical equivalent of those thousand-word speils for Internet Pyramid Selling Scams, in that it goes on for ages and after it's over you can't really describe it in detail. Track three has some echoey guitars.

Three: Predating Brian Eno's ambient music by several years, 'Zeit' album comes across as a dark, nasty, proto-'illbient' version of 'Music for Airports', and is probably Tangerine Dream's most timeless and enduring record.

Four: Listen to it at an impressionable period (as I did) and your brain will be forever changed, as you wonder how on earth something this strange can exist without people noticing it.

It took me a while to try anything from Tangerine Dream, because all I heard was their more mediocre recent releases being played on NPR. But once I got a hold of Stratosfear, figuring their 1970s material would be better, I was right, and wasn't disappointed with that album. I was only a matter of time before I came to this earlier release, Zeit, originally released in 1972 on Ohr. This is one truly bizarre album, and I remembered saying that about Pink Floyd's Ummagumma. The best way I can describe the music (if you can call it that) is imagine the middle part of Pink Floyd's "Echoes" from Meddle (you know, the wind sounds), but it's like that for four sides. Nothing in here that even remotely resembles music, as close to music as it gets is that killer Pink Floyd-like Hammond organ at the end of "Birth of Liquid Plejades". Mostly the album is nothing but four sides of electronic effects and creepy wind sounds. No drums. And just like Ummagumma, Zeit truly falls in the "love it or hate it" category. In other words, if you're expecting a more upbeat, sequencer heavy album, like Ricochet, or you like their more mediocre, new age-y albums released in the last 15 or so years, you'd probably won't like this album. Zeit also marks the debut of Peter Baumann as well. Previous member Steve Schroyder (who briefly joined Ash Ra Tempel) had only appeared on "Birth of Liquid Plejades" (apparently the band started recording with him in it, but he quickly left and Baumann came in). Everything about Zeit is so creepy, it's not for the faint of heart to say the least. I heard that Edgar Froese's son, Jerome Froese (the baby featured on Atem and many other TD albums, and a TD member for over 10 years now) hates this album, which is probably a big reason why their recent material is just so mediocre and why they will never return to their space rock roots. So if you want something off the wall and you don't want to hear music that plays it safe, give Zeit a try.

Zeit is a fantastic journey to unknow dimensions and planets in the third system !
Cellos that burn your brains gently deep... Moogs that evolves all sensations...Four long tracks that brings you an spacial atmosphere in an unbelieveble dreamy way...
I'll not describe the songs, i just can't do it !
If you liked Alpha Centauri, get Zeit ! Phaedra is another great album, but Zeit is more ""rustic"...it's like: Help me, i'm lost in that cave, in jupiter ! ... or whatever..."
Sounds that came from a fractal lake around Venus... or a lisergic trip to a volcano... I think that Zeit is a musical LSD... no psychoative substances needed ! Just enjoy It !