SYNTHS ON ICE.

Depending on where you are in the world and what time you’re reading this, you might too be experiencing vicious cold temperatures like Uncle T.

Right now I’m staring at a frozen sheet of ice through my whole backyard and even my treehouse looks like a scene from 1982’s The Thing. This was usually the time of year when I turn to music in hopes of escapism by listening to something that makes me think of warmer days. Afternoons spent driving with the windows down, the beach, palm trees, poolside lounging, Van Halen on the boombox, etc.

However in recent years I’ve been fully embracing (and at times, obsessing) over all four seasons and the environments that come with them, good or bad.

I enjoy getting into that headspace as I look outside and the climate somewhat coincides with music. I’ve also been on an absolute tear of Tangerine Dream as of late. Digging into this band’s seemingly endless catalogue of albums and rediscovering the eerie mysticism of this band has been a blast. The 1983 live album ‘Poland’ has always been a stand out recording as it contains some of the strongest, most hypnotic electronic landscapes the band ever created. It also feels ICE COLD which I’m not sure was intentional but given what went down with the setting of this concert makes you wonder..

As the story goes, in December of 1983 Tangerine Dream played two shows in Poland at the Warsaw Ice Stadium. The music performed was under extreme weather conditions, with sub-zero temperatures erasing the band’s equipment memory banks several times. Band members Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Johannes Schmoelling played the concert wearing wool gloves with the fingertips cut off in order to feel the keys. The glass roof of the arena was covered in over six feet of snow. The concert was interrupted five times by the power cutting out.

What develops from this chilling show is some of TD’s most highly regarded music by fans. Once again the band played exclusively unreleased material for ‘Poland’, a trend they would continue on several live albums. Four brand new, longform tracks featuring sweeping synths, rigid sequencing, drum machines and soloing into the stratosphere.

By this time in 1983 the band had already released a string of successful albums. They had a strong following and were coming off soundtracking major motion pictures such as Risky Business, Sorcerer, Thief and Firestarter.

While I discovered TD as a kid after watching Risky Business at 1:00am in my living room and hearing the first sounds of electronic music, the band’s non-soundtrack albums have minds of their own, which allows them to be even more intriguing. The impressive thing about these albums is just how massive and cinematic they are delivered — without having the visuals, storyline and characters to be constantly reminded of. Instead, I can’t help letting my imagination to soar and glide over vast landscapes. They have a way of sequencing sounds and melodies that conjure up feelings of nostalgia, romance, power, triumph, impending doom and psychosis all contained inside a 20 – 40 minute side of a record. A pure journey. It’s fucking remarkable.