Tangerine Dream - Phaedra (50th Anniversary Edition) [2025] (5 x CDs)

TANGERINE DREAM

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra (50th Anniversary Edition) [2025] (5 x CDs)

Here’s a reissue that feels like a quiet celebration of mystery: Phaedra, Tangerine Dream’s 1974 breakthrough, turns 50, and Universal’s anniversary box set is a warm, immersive tribute to one of electronic music’s most spellbinding moments.

Back then, Phaedra was a revelation. It didn’t sound like anything else on the shelve, no drums, no vocals, just swirling Moogs, eerie Mellotrons, and sequenced pulses that felt like transmissions from another planet. It was the band’s first release for Virgin Records, and despite zero radio play, it climbed the UK charts purely on word-of-mouth. The album helped define the Berlin School sound and opened the door for ambient, synthwave, and countless experimental offshoots.

This 2025 edition spreads out across five CDs: the remastered album, Steven Wilson’s new stereo and surround mixes (he’s handled the material with real care), plus a treasure trove of studio outtakes from the original 1973 sessions. These sketches and alternate takes, some raw, some surprisingly polished, offer a rare glimpse into the band’s process, where improvisation and accident often led to magic.

Also included is a full live recording from Tangerine Dream’s first UK concert at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre in June 1974. It’s a hypnotic, exploratory set that captures the band in their early prim, unpredictable, unbound, and deeply atmospheric.

The packaging is thoughtful and understated, with a beautifully designed book featuring liner notes by archivist Wouter Bessels. His essay adds just the right amount of context, balancing technical insight with storytelling warmth. For those who missed the In Search of Hades box, this release makes much of that material available again, but in a more focused, album-centric format.

What makes Phaedra endure isn’t just its historical importance, it’s the feeling it evokes. There’s a sense of space, of time suspended, of something ancient and futuristic all at once. This reissue doesn’t try to explain it away; it simply invites you back into the dream.

Whether you’re revisiting it or discovering it for the first time, this edition is a gentle reminder of how strange and beautiful electronic music can be when it’s left to wander. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Tangerine Dream - Phaedra 17:41

02 Tangerine Dream - Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares 9:45

03 Tangerine Dream - Movements of a Visionary 7:58

04 Tangerine Dream - Sequent C' 2:24

05 Tangerine Dream - Phaedra (Steven Wilson 2018 stereo remix) 17:43

06 Tangerine Dream - Sequent C' (Steven Wilson 2018 stereo remix) 2:24

CD2

01 Tangerine Dream - 2nd Day 20:36

02 Tangerine Dream - Flute Organ Piece 11:00

03 Tangerine Dream - Phaedra Out-Take version 2A 20:37

CD3

01 Tangerine Dream - Phaedra Out-Take 1 11:47

02 Tangerine Dream - Phaedra Out-Take 2B 5:44

03 Tangerine Dream - 2nd Side Piece 1 13:05

04 Tangerine Dream - 2nd Side Piece 2 9:20

05 Tangerine Dream - Organ Piece 5:50

CD4

01 Tangerine Dream - The Victoria Palace Concert: Pt. 1 46:57

CD5

01 Tangerine Dream - The Victoria Palace Concert: Pt. 2 28:18

02 Tangerine Dream - The Victoria Palace Concert: Encore 13:01

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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