The music of Christopher Franke

Given how much we love Christopher Franke's music for B5, I wonder how many people here have gone out and listened to his work in Tangerine Dream, and what they think of it?

I must admit that I haven't, so I am curious if anyone else has.

Given how much we love Christopher Franke's music for B5, I wonder how many people here have gone out and listened to his work in Tangerine Dream, and what they think of it?

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I found Tangerine Dream's Atem (Breath, Breathing) at a sale a couple of months ago, and, well, I have only listened to it once and I'm not sure I'll do it again...

As I recall, it was not much music, more sound effects and perhaps breathing. It was only 60 SEK (about 8$ today) and it was NOT worth it.

I hope their other records are better. This one didn't make me feel like buying another one.

/IamS

It's kinda exceptional music. Or at least, you can't hear it nowadays anywhere. I have Antique Dreams album. It's kinda neat. House of The Rising Sun is maybe the best one on that CD. Risky Business album isn't that great. It's too generic. Lana is probably the best piece of music on that. Third album whitch is titled The Hollywood Years Volume 2, is pretty similar to the Antique Dreams. A lot of electronic music, it's kinda "new age" if I had to categorize it. And the last album that I have is titled Heartbreakers Original. It has pretty good ambient music on it, it's nothing too serious and you can listen to it while your driving or something like that. Maybe on work if you have that chance. It's very calm, meditative I would say.

All in all, Tangerine's music is heavely oriented to more electronical sounds. I personally like that kind of music in some degree... But when you compare this to Franke's own compositions, for example to Morphing Space, Illumination, Celtic Mist etc. Tangerine Dream is far away in quality from that. So if you're searching for good Chris Franke music I would suggest that you buy Enchanting nature, The Celestine Prophecy and Pacific Coast Highway. Those are very good albums imho. And they aren't too expensive. So my advice would be that leave Tangerine Dream and buy some Chris' own music.

Hope this was helpful in some respect.

I much prefer Christopher's solo work also. BTW, you can buy quite a bit of his work directly from his website:

Christopher Franke/Sonic Images

The prices are certainly better for the soundtracks than you'll find on Ebay even.

What did you folks think about the new music CF did for the S4 DVDs? I think it was the best ever.

Jan

What did you folks think about the new music CF did for the S4 DVDs? I think it was the best ever.

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No Surrender, No Retreat suite was excellent. It shows that Franke can truly make a wonderful music and when it's combined with B5.. Oh my... here we go.

I actually listened to Tangerine Dream several years before I got into B5, but it was only recently that I discovered CF was from TD.

It was so lonog ago that I had one of there albums (Sorcerer) on vinyl. My favourite was Near Dark (great movie too) but it sounds a bit dated now!

I love Franke's B5 music, but really have had no desire to buy any of his stuff with Tangerine Dream.

There is an NPR station in Detroit that used to play Tangerine Dream a lot years ago. I heard it there, and it wasn't bad, just not what appeals to me. It might be interesting to watch one of the feature films with music by Tangerine Dream, to see how it compares to Franke's work for B5.

Sorry if I've dug up an old thread but I was just interedsted in buying some of the soundtracks to babylon 5 and was wondering if anyone could give me some tips. There seems to be quite a large number of CD's available and i just don't know where to begin! Some are episodic releases whilst others are more general. The latter sounds like it might be the better option but there are some essential pieces that i must have, such as the build up to sheridens jump, his "surrender to tock", G'Kars revelation and of course the closing music for Sleeping in Light. So whats the best buy?

Sorry if I've dug up an old thread but I was just interedsted in buying some of the soundtracks to babylon 5 and was wondering if anyone could give me some tips. There seems to be quite a large number of CD's available and i just don't know where to begin! Some are episodic releases whilst others are more general. The latter sounds like it might be the better option but there are some essential pieces that i must have, such as the build up to sheridens jump, his "surrender to tock", G'Kars revelation and of course the closing music for Sleeping in Light. So whats the best buy?

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Sleeping in Light episodic is a *must* imo. Then Volume 1 and Volume 2 and the Best Of. I'm almost certain that will cover all of what you want. And you can get particularly good prices by buying them direct from Sonic Images. Sonic Images

I like the episodics because so often you can hear the story in the music. A Late Delivery is on that I play often.

HTH,
Jan

Franke was a member in TD from 1970 to 1988. Almost everything TD has released after that, are the work of the Edgar and Jerome Froese (Edgar was the one who actually started the band).

Anyways, the musical style of TD has changed much over the years. Here's a few examples...

1970-1974 it was very experimental, electronic sounds and minimal melodies to create a specific ambient background.

1974-1980 it was more rythmic and some might call Rubycon or Ricochet pre-trance or something like that.

1980-1985 the style is complitely different. There is a clear structure and the albums like Exit and Tangram are very melodic and not so dark anymore.

So, before you make hasty opinions about TD, try different albums from different decades. You might change your opinion. And believe me, I know. I have something like 40 albums from TD and almost everything Franke has released.

You need Realplayer to listen the samples but I recommend that you do before you buy anything: Tangerine Dream. You can find them from Discography.

Regards,
Marko Marin

I tought about this and if you want to get into the "TD-scene", there's a live album which is the last from the line-up Froese-Franke-Haslinger: Live Miles (1988). Altough it contains just two long tracks (about 30 minutes each), it's full of melodies and themes that aren't so much different from Franke's solo works. This album was the one that got me hooked.

Regards,
Marko Marin

Sleeping in Light episodic is a *must* imo. Then Volume 1 and Volume 2 and the Best Of. I'm almost certain that will cover all of what you want. And you can get particularly good prices by buying them direct from Sonic Images

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I have all of those CD's and I like them.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I've just now started to listen to some of Chris's work NOT from Babylon 5. I've had all of those CDs for years. I think the Klemania CD is the closest to babylon 5 without being babylon 5. I also enjoy his score to "Universal Soldier". I think I'm going to try some Tangerine Dream next.

TJ