For all of you who like "New Age Music", "Electronic Music", "World Music'', or even "Techno", owe a huge debt of gratitude to this German rock band, who along with their fellow countrymen `Kraftwerk' pioneered a whole new age of musical genres.

Originally a straight ahead Rock band the founding members of Tangerine Dream soon discovered the many amazing sounds they could get out of their instruments, and with the technology developing around them they were riding the crest of a new and exciting musical wave.

'Force Majeure' was their big breakthrough album in 1979, their thirteenth album altogether, and second for Richard Branson's Virgin Record label. The Virgin team had already had enormous success by taking a chance and releasing Michael Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' to Platinum sales worldwide, after all the major labels would not touch it. So Virgin and Tangerine Dream made very suitable partners. The first album released on Virgin had been the controversial 'Cyclone' album, when the Band had played more like a traditional Rock band including vocals whilst forsaking some of the sweeping synthesizers and ambient sounds, much to the despair of their fans.

But it only made for a quick re-think and vocalist Steve Joliffe had left the band by the time they went back into the studio. The spacey Tangerine Dream sound was back, but better than ever, with even more adventurous effects and more structure to the songs. If songs is what you call these pieces of music. The shortest piece clocks in at seven minutes and twenty one seconds, while the opening title track is a massive eighteen and a half minutes. It opens the album in grand style, keyboards come sweeping in after the opening theme, building to a crashing climax with all instruments joining in one by one, layer upon layer, before settling down when the opening theme is reintroduced on acoustic guitar and the music takes of again at a more manageable pace. A grand piano takes you off on one of Tangerine's musical journeys into the unknown. Soon Edgar Froese's electric guitar comes into duel with the piano before jumping off at a different tangent, before being brought back into the song by the piano, allowing the keyboards to make themselves heard. So at ten minutes along you are finally into the real meat of the music. As the music takes a second to pause at the eleven minute mark, a ghost train huffs and puffs its way across your speakers, taking you into a far more sinister area of the Tangerine Dream mind, where the sounds of the mellotron, VCS3, organ, e-piano, synthesizers, and flute leave you with a feeling of being watched, whilst in the dark the sounds, emanating from the band, whisk from speaker to speaker. However, just before it gets too weird the keyboards come back in with the main theme of the song and before you know it, you are back in the musical sunshine, and all of the loose ends of the instruments tie together to bring the music to a gloriously satisfying conclusion.

'Cloudburst Flight', although the shortest piece in this collection, has the most infectious main riff with three minutes of pure genius from Edgar Foese on the six-string. He brings the song to a thundering finale with a guitar solo that has only ever been equaled by David Gilmour on the corresponding solo to the end of 'Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb". (Have a listen - it really is that good.)

'Thru Metamorphic Rock' gives you an insight into the direction in which Tangerine Dream were going in the future. For over fourteen minutes you are hit by a repetitive beat played out on both acoustic and electronic drums, whilst all the time, like two musical wizards, Froese and Franke cast musical spells to drag you deeper into their web. As the rhythms drive into your mind in almost a hypnotic manor, it leaves you wanting more once it finishes.

There are now more than fifty Tangerine albums to choose from, and that is not counting the hoards of Live albums and compilations. However, if you fancy a musical change or a step into another world, 'Force Majeure' is as good a place to start as any.

If on first listening any of the themes seem familiar, this is probably because all of them were used in the first movie to star Tom Cruise 'Risky Business'. The fantasy scene on the train being particularly memorable. This movie helped to push both, Tom Cruise and Tangerine Dream, from the second division into the major league.

These days there is still a band called Tangerine Dream with Guitarist Edgar Froese at the helm, but these days with a much more guitar based sound. Gad Zooks! The last Tangerine Dream Live album even had a sonic version of Hendrix's 'Purple Haze' on it. Meanwhile his old partner Chris Franke went on to have a very successful career as a solo artist, keeping the more traditional Tangerine Dream sound alive. Which ever way these two very talented artists are heading, they are well worth your attention.

Although all the music on 'Force Majeure' is quite magnificent, my one adverse comment would be that the whole thing clocks in at under forty minutes. In this day and age of CD's is this really value for money to pay? Could not the record label have found some out-takes, Live recordings, or the pieces from the Risky Business Soundtrack, to have given the paying punter more value for his hard earned buck. But a minor quibble when the standard of what you get is so good. Perhaps it's a case of "feel the quality not the width"

Edgar Froese and Christoph Franke - with some assistance from Klaus Kreiger on drums - manage to recapture some earlier Tangerine Dream magic with this 1979 album. And actually go one better! For from the opening clamour of the 18-minute title track, to the final dying gasp of overdriven flanger at the album's close, "Force Majeure" presents an altogether rawer and more powerful face to the band's music than is to be found on their earlier albums. The album has some very beautiful moments - like the mournful synthesiser call used to summon calming string washes from the opening chaos - as well as many unusual surprise elements - a stream train hauls through at one point, for example. Mostly, though, it is an album of powerful synthesised tunes and pounding sequencer rhythms of the type that Tangerine Dream have made uniquely their own.

Once it gets under way, the opening (title-)track turns into a classic TD pulsing romp, with pace changes aplenty. There are strong, eminently hummable tunes aplenty too, although, refreshingly, much use is made of noisier, unpitched sounds as well, all drifting easily from idea to idea in a seamless progression. In typical Tangerine Dream fashion, some stunningly intricate (as well as beautifully simple) sequencer patterns weave their hypnotic way through the almost mystical and, at times, majestic synthesiser melodies. Exquisite! And I defy anyone not to have this on the brain for days afterwards!

The shorter (7:27) 'Cloudburst Flight' begins with a quiet acoustic guitar opening but it is not long before another strong synthesiser tune calls things to order once more. A rising sequencer-and-drum pulse then leads into some wild, soaring, electric guitar playing in an altogether moodier and troubled number, although a calm and peaceful synth line arises in the end to sing it all to sleep. This is another strong track and it is interesting to note that Chris Franke was still incorporating a version of this in his solo concert tour of 1991.

The final track is another lengthy work: 'Thru Metamorphic Rocks' (14:30). Drum patterns dominate this track from the opening, where some fabulous electronic percussion voices clank and pound their way brutally through the gentle piano and synth intro (and the rather over-done hi-hat beat!) Froese's guitar playing is also notable here, with the opening section grinding its way ever more potently sky-wards until it suddenly evaporates some 5 minutes into the piece to be replaced by some inspired heavily flanged percussion, whose beat insistently permeates the whole of the rest of the track. In fact, the rest of this track is an absolute masterpiece of construction, growing moment by moment into an ever more powerful parade of synthesised sound. While the pace never lets up, and the ideas are developed but little (although constantly and subtly), new voices are thrown into the mix all the time and one just never has any opportunity for boredom. Rather like Ravel's "Bolero", raw, visceral and insistent, this track gets its hooks in early and hauls the listener along with it in the most merciless of manners. No wonder Michael Mann included it in the soundtrack for his film "Thief".

This disc's only drawback is its paltry 40-minute length, although in this case, even that isn't sufficient for me to feel able to withhold any stars! So, go on: treat yourself!

Shortly after recording the previous album, "Cyclone", the vocalist and multiinstrumentalist, Steve Joliffe, departed from the band, but fortunately, Tangerine Dream decided to retain the musical course it had undertaken. "Force Majeure" of 1979 is even more rock-oriented than its predecessor, although purely instrumental.

At that point Christopher Franke was the main contributor to the sound avant-garde represented by the band. After he left the band in 1987, he came back to the musical concepts of his baby-child, "Force Majeure" more than once. In many ways, he is the sole carrier of the early Tangerine musical tradition, although there still exists a band named Tangerine Dream. Thank heavens for that, and thank you, Chris.

Although there are quite a few guitar-driven albums of Tangerine Dream out there, "Force Majeure" is a bit of an exception. It's not that guitars were used here more than anywhere else. While on other al-bums Edgar's guitars simply augmented the texture of the compositions, or served as a main instrument - they were used conventionally, within the realm of a known musical territory. "Force Majeure" is in some sense Edgar Froese's personal album - for there he invented a new style, explored new ways to deal with the instrument, be it electric guitar of classic string acoustic guitar. We remember "Force Majeure" for its intelligent dialogues between the guitar and the keyboards.

The compositions on this album received the laurel for their complexity, innovation and ingenuity. Listening to this album again and again, we can't help thinking that themes, melodies, riffs and small pearls and jewels of compositions - merged into three tracks - could serve as a basis for 10 new albums, if extended, if improvised over, if copied and modified. Indeed, the album is quite dense, and requires your full concentration. However, it's also very appealing to many musical tastes, I believe, and if I were to introduce someone to Tangerine Dream, I would certainly play three or four albums, depending on the newcomer's background, and "Force Majeure" would be one of them.

Tangerine Dream or Chris Franke used the rich contents of "Force Majeure" later in their respective careers. They appear on quite many soundtracks, concerts, or even on select studio albums. It's a pity that there does not exist (to my knowledge) a full concert account of "Force Majeure". In late 1979 Tangerine dream was again down to the founding father, Edgar Froese, and the godfather of the sound trademark of this band, Christopher Franke. Klaus Krieger left the band and acoustic drums were never used again.

With the dawn of the 1980s, they started to signifi-cantly change their course of musical travel. For better or worse, the band never came back to the style represented on this album. This also contributes to its uniqueness.

Watch Risky Business with Tom Cruise, and the first "train" scene has this music in it. That's when I heard this for the first time. I went to Tower Records in San Diego and asked the guy what band did the soundtrack to that movie. He walked me over to the New Age section, handed me this album (yes, they recorded on vinyl in 1982), and I was hooked. When I converted to CDs in the early nineties, this was the second CD I bought (after Enya's Watermark)

I am a geology instructor, and I have this cool lesson I do with the last track "Through Metamorphic Rocks". I have the kids listen to the song and write a short essay comparing the song with the actual process. They actually can "hear" a similarity. Bizarre lesson, but the kids understand metamorphism now.

This CD is one of TDs 5 best, up there with Electronic Meditation, Hyperborea, Phaedra, and Tyranny of Beauty. I would recommend this CD to anyone who likes electronic music - its the stuff that everyone else tries to copy.

The rules for listening to this CD are simple...wait till' it's dark, switch off all the lights, find somewhere comfy to lay down, shut your eyes and listen to this through a 'decent' pair of headphones...and let this album 'travel' you to the stars!