After Froese and Schulze parted company in 1970, the band was lucky to find a replacement in Christopher Franke, an extremely talented musician, who will be one of the first people on earth to explore the power of synthesizers and translate technology into musical notes. From 1970 Franke and Froese will constitute a nucleus of the Tangerine Dream band, accompanied by more or less important temporary members. Unfortunately, after 18 years, their cooperation ended abruptly, with no particular benefit for what remained of Tangerine Dream.

Alpha Centauri, their second album, is a significant step forward in their career. The first change one notices immediately after turning the album on, is the quality of the sound. Unlike its predecessor, this album was not recorded in an old factory warehouse, but in a studio. Guitar is not a dominant sound anymore - it is messed into the musical texture that in turn consists of landscapes created by VCS3 synthesizer performed by Franke and "church-like" organs maneuvered by both Froese and Schroyder, the latter having a very temporary adventure with Tangerine Dream. Still, there is lots of experimental stuff in this recording. One does not have to look far - the whole "side B" of vinyl consists of a single, title track that does not possess a musical leading line. It is hard to digest only at the first trial or for "unaccustomed ears". Do not give up, however. Come back to Alpha Centauri every now and then and maybe, as I certainly hope, you will find a fly in a collision with Comas Sola somewhat attractive, even if pure historical reasons are not convincing for you at this time.

The second track is the most structured, which seems to be against their hitherto worshipped motto of complete freedom. Under heavy stratum of organs, we can dig the buried neoromantic tune - trying to catch it is by itself a pastime. Then they slowly progress with pompous symphonic schwung that culminates in hysteric looping of the tune and organs and blasted altogether with acoustic percussion solo by Christopher Franke. The whole album ends with German recitative. I love this language, although I understand as much as from Eskimo.

SUMMARY: buy if you like to experiment or if you are more and more into Tangerine Dream.

Beautiful find! Pieces of this album have been floating on various compilations since the late 80's, but the album itself is much older. Ranking up with "Phaedra" and "Zeit" in intensity and haunting athmosphere, this 1971 album was one of the first "space music" records ever produced. It is also a good example of early Tangerine Dream work, before Edgar Froese took complete control of the band.

Produced two years before Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon", "Alpha Centauri" is a very dense album, with many synthesizer tonalities bordering on the psychedelic. Kraftwerk was doing approximately the same thing on their first two albums. Tangerine Dream was experimenting electronic minimalism, and the three tracks of the record are the first sign they were on the right path. "Alpha Centauri" has a very precise idea of what dreams should sound like - "Sunrise in the Third System" sketches a hallucinating landscape, further detailed in "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola" (a rather corny name by today's standards), then destroyed and re-created in "Alpha Centauri". The tracks skillfuly increase their duration, but in the end the listener is left with a lingering feeling that the album deserved to be longer than 40 minutes.

I swear Alpha Centauri is the sequel to Pink Floyd's A Saucerful of Secrets. They sound so much alike it's not even funny right down to the psychedelic production and the atmospheric sounds and arrangements. Why this album hasn't been further discovered, examined and appreciated by music fans the world over is a great mystery.

Also worth noting- I picked up the 1991 CD version and despite being old, the sound quality is surprisingly terrific. I love it. Going with this version wouldn't be a bad idea at all, especially considering it's reasonably cheap at the moment.

Tangerine Dream manages to impress me even MORE. After Zeit, I didn't think it was possible for Tangerine Dream to floor me with an even crazier atmospheric psychedelic jam but... they sure did! I realize Zeit came out after this, but still... I heard Zeit first so that's where my impression of the bands atmospheric abilities lies.

The 22-minute title song is quite possibly the greatest song they ever made. It's not easy for me to just blurt out such an outrageous comment either. You're probably thinking "Come on! The GREATEST thing ever? Really dude?" Yup, for real! Tangerine Dream has its share of breathtakingly incredible songs in their humongous discography, but something about "Alpha Centauri" takes it to a whole new level of enjoyment.... and fear! The ultimate definition of adventurous ambience.

Without further delay I should mention that it took me plenty of replays to actually get into "Alpha Centauri". I had to hear it 8 times in a row to make *anything* out of it. That's not an easy obstacle right there- devoting 2 hours and 40 minutes to ONE song, haha. It's kind of funny looking back on it, but that's exactly what I had to do in order to appreciate it. I knew there was something appealing about all the sparse arrangements, otherwise I wouldn't have tortured myself the way I did.

Well tonight a few more listens turned out to be the confirmation I finally needed to declare that this is, unquestionably, the ultimate psychedelic jam. Obviously inspired by the late 60's spaced out (and drugged out) version of Pink Floyd, this manages to go one step beyond anything they ever did. What strikes me especially hard is that the 22-minute track manages to combine two crucial elements of what I consider absolute satisfaction in music. That being, combining pretty arrangements and spooky arrangements, and utilizing them *at the same time*.

The prettiness comes in the way of melodic and heavenly flute solos. I love those parts of the jam the most. The creepiness comes in the way of... everything else, haha. Imagine the darkest moments of Zeit with pretty flutes, and you'll have this. The organs absolutely TERRIFY me. They are played so depressingly and used just right for the perfect effect. WOW is it good!

The excitement doesn't end there. The 14-minute "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola" is equally as impressive, this time taking melodic flute solos and playing them over an organ for most of the track. It not only works, but reminds me of early psychedelic Pink Floyd almost instantly. It never drags either which is quite the incredible surprise.

I highly recommend Alpha Centauri after Zeit. It's worth it. I think it seriously might be a strong contender for best album Tangerine Dream ever created.

I like the older Albums that Tangerine Dream has made. The album Alpha Centauri is more of a experimental ambient-space album. The group took a chance and came up with a landmark album. When I heard this album I was very pleased with the atmosphere is manifested in my mind. I'm an artist and purchase albums based on how inspirational they are. Alpha Centauri is a extreamly inpirational album and was a must buy for me.

In their early years (1969-1973) Tangerine Dream never failed to produce works that were COMPLETELY WEIRD, while at the same time sounding totally awesome. Take the title track on this CD, for instance. Lots and lots of organ and pastoral flute, with the occaisonal synthesizer wash, and right when you're about to fall asleep, this voice comes in and a choir ends the work! Where'd they get that!?

Or take the track "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola" (fabulously cool title!). This is my 2nd favorite TD piece ever, next to Phaedra. The piece sounds like another drawn-out kosmische space track, but then at around 9:00 some drums start to creep up through the mix. At 10:38 they blast out over everything else with all the fury of a King Crimson jam.

I would recommend this disc to anyone who is familiar with TD's later, mid-70s work so they can hear the "other side" of the band. Or anyone who likes really spacey, ground-breaking stuff. Or anyone who likes really heavy organ pieces. A very good 2nd effort from an innovative band.