I've never been a great fan of encores; or at least, not when they are taken out of context, as here. They're fine at the end of a concert, as a means of rounding off musical proceedings but I can't help feeling that a dozen of them strung end to end on a CD is more than just a little odd. After all, encores are, almost by definition, pieces after the affair: works designed to calm an audience down after the excitement of the main event itself and provide them with a sense of satisfaction and satiation, making them ready for home. And let's face it, few bands will be putting their all into their encores, will they?

The pieces in question here are drawn from Tangerine Dream concerts during the band's various North American and European tours during the period 1986 to 1997. Sadly, despite having 11 years worth of concert material to draw upon, this collection presents little that isn't already readily available elsewhere. Indeed, over half of the disc includes numbers virtually indistinguishable from their originals, all previously released on Tangerine Dream albums, mostly from their "Seattle Years". Some of these even have timings that are identical-down to the nearest second-to the originals, suggesting that digital sequencer technology is contributing more to these performances than anything the live musicians may be doing. Whilst this is no doubt acceptable to a concert audience at the end of an evening of live entertainment, I think it is a bit cheeky to try to market these on CD as something new.

In fact, only three of the tracks on this disc are of music unavailable elsewhere. And, to be perfectly honest, even the most ardent TD fan would be hard-pushed to argue that there would be anything lost to the world if these tracks remained unavailable! The longest, 'Order of the ginger guild' (Vienna, 1997), is over 9 minutes of aimless, meandering bopping that sounds more like a warm-up piece than an encore. 'Fort Worth runway one' (Budapest, 1997) starts out quite promising, with its introductory taped radio communications between a pilot and air traffic control, but it quickly loses its way once the synthesisers and sequencers enter-and goodness only knows where it is when it finally lands! And then we have 'Eleanor Rigby' (London, 1996)-a nostalgic nod to Tangerine Dream's earliest days when almost their entire repertoire consisted of Beatles covers? Thank goodness they moved on!

Two other works supposedly unavailable elsewhere are, in fact, merely reworkings of older material-although, ironically, these offer more of interest than the three new works! 'Thief Yang and the tangram seal' (London, 1996) is a famous TD encore piece consisting mostly of material from the "Tangram" album. (Gosh! Who'd have guessed?) 'Dominion' (London, 1986), on the other hand, is a live rendition of part of the "Logos" set (no surprises there, either) and is also well known to followers of the band as an encore piece. Tacked onto the end of this CD (almost as an encore to the encores!) this track-the oldest of the encores here-really points up how automated TD's encores have become!

Despite its 74-minute duration, this release is really very disappointing indeed. Considering just how much 'rare' Tangerine Dream encore material should be available for release (the band habitually tape and archive every single gig) it is difficult to see why 34 minutes of it should need to be identical to previously released and readily available tracks. Where, for instance, is 'Rarebird'? Or 'Loved by the Sun'? Or countless other encore pieces for which the concert-going fans have long clamoured? Could the phrase 'commercial exploitation' occur somewhere in the explanation, perhaps? No, no, of course not, silly me! Nevertheless, I suggest you save your money here, and spend it instead on the multi-CD collection, "The Real Dream Encores". (But you didn't hear that from me! OK? And, no, I can't tell you where to get a copy...)

"Dream Encores" is one of the four concert CDs that were dating from 1997. Actually, it's a concert compilation of material ranging anywhere from 1986 to 1997. This release is interesting from a few points of view. First of all, only the actual encores found its way to this album, which means that the CD is a curiosum, one of its kind. I never heard of any band, electronic or otherwise, which would decide to publish their encores, and encores only. Well, if in a concert the band plays numbers from their studio albums - and most rock and roll (largely defined) bands do just that - then such collection would be a little ridiculous, since there would be nothing that would distinguish a regular live album from encores! With Tangerine Dream, it's a bit different. In the distant past, the proper Tangerine Dream didn't really play encores, since their live performances consisted of one continuous improvisation! Later, with the 1980s and the advent of short form in their musical heritage, things changed, since their compositions steadily started to resemble regular melodies.

"Dream Encores" as a collection offers us if not exactly rarities, then curiosities, at least to some extent. Some of the featured tracks do not appear elsewhere, which is an innovation with respect to their practices in the 90s. What can I say - too many of recent albums feature the same material, mangled over and over. Sadly, this also concerns this album, thus I admit I have mixed emotions. At least here the idea is clear - these are encores. Sounds fine to me. The most interesting pieces on this long album are the covers of other artists' famous numbers. If you have listened to TD long enough, but are not a complete maniac, you will be surprised with what awaits you here. Well, the third track on "Dream Encores" is 'Eleanor Rigby' composed by no one else but The Beatles themselves. While no big fan of the latter, I admit that the Froeses did a decent job of electronizing the classic. Compared with other attempts at the same (see Artur Lason's electronic cover of 'Eleanor Rigby' with some vocal parts recorded a capella!), it sounds good. On another CD, the recent compilation of rarities, "Ancient Dreams", they included a cover of The Animals' 'House of the Rising Sun', which is also decent enough to be pleasurable. Another cover on "Dream Encores" is 'Purple Haze' by Jimi Hendrix. Froese senior and guest musician Zlatko Perica cut the mustard with this rock and roll classic, and it's much fun, really, considering that Edgar's style of playing always diverged from the usual, more often than not unrecognizably muted by synthesizers.

What else do we have here? Well, the second half of the album contains one classic composition, 'Dominion', which was a favorite encore back in 1982, in the age of sterile, clean music most of the band's followers are very fond of. Yes, this version from 1986 does not differ much from the original one featured on Logos of 1982. So what? It's too good to walk over, and it's always nice to listen to. That can't be said about the other two older tracks, though - 'The Midnight Trail' from "Optical Race" of 1988 and 'Rolling Down Cahuenga' from "Melrose" of 1990. They are almost identical to the studio versions, and compared to 'Dominion', they seem a little bland. For me, as for many fans, any concert recording from the years 1988-1991 is worth listening to, because in those years, the band didn't release a single concert album. Well, that's because it would hve been identical to the studio albums! they just replayed stuff from playback, I guess. If you are looking for a good album with more of these, buy "Ancient Dreams", where you will find a self-cover of 'Phaedra', entitled 'Phaedra of Nottingham'. It's superior to what you find here.

The rest of the album is not too special, although 'Fort Worth Runaway One' (the CD sleeve contains a typo!) is different from their output of the recent years, as hard as it is to believe. Not terribly engaging, but different enough, which I would like to emphasize, since many of their studio tracks are indistinguishable from one another. 'Order of the Ginger Guild' is a speedy techno track (yes, I know, these are hard times for us), but again better than their studio albums. Omitting the forgettable 'Oriental Haze', 'Story of the Brave', 'Catwalk' and 'Towards the Evening Star' (see my review of "Tournado"), let me focus on a long, remaining track, 'Thief Yang and the Tangram Seal'. Much in the spirit of order of the 'Ginger Guild', namely in the spirit of techno, it's another self-cover of their own old material, "Tangram" from 1980, and "Thief" from 1980. Although these albums were recorded in the same year, the former belongs to a completely different, Classic Era than the latter, which started The Hyperborean Era. I could wrinkle my nose at the sacrilege of using old pearls to create techno dance songs, as I did in many reviews, but really, considering that this is an encore, and that "Dream Encores" was accompanied by a regular, shallow live release of "Tournado", I think that all things considered, this is really fun. At least Jerome Froese tried to prepare something for a change - for the end of the gig. Perhaps to wake everyone up and thus give a hint that they should finally wake up and go home?

I really like Tangerine Dream and this album is some of their best. Great music for traveling in the car.

This CD has a fantastic reinterpretation of the Beatles classic "Eleanor Rigby". Good listening for sure!