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Japanese Re-Issues With Original Cover Artwork

(Voices In The Net, August 2006)

 

In 2004 and 2005 the Japanese record labels Arcàngelo and Virgin/Toshiba re-released the early albums by Tangerine Dream in a special series with cardboard sleeves featuring reproductions of the original vinyl artwork. This series contains the albums Electronic Meditation, Alpha Centauri, Zeit, Atem, Phaedra, and Rubycon. All albums were released with an additional insert in Japanese language and an OBI stripe, similar to those of the Japanese vinyl releases

Scans of these albums are featured below. Please click on an image to open a new browser window with the artwork in original size.
 

Electronic Meditation


Outer cover
 

 


Inner cover
 

 


Insert with balloon
Tangerine Dream's debut album Electronic Meditation (1970) was re-released with the original German/English track listing and credits in German language on the inner cover. Note that Klaus Schulze's name is misspelled "Claus Schultze". A quite esoteric story by Hans-Ulrich Weigel, setting the five album tracks in a common context, is printed in German as well as in an English translation. Even an insert with a rubber balloon, similar to the one contained in the first pressings of the original album, was included in the package.

 

 


Disc
The cover backside shows an image of a human ear with the words "macht das [...] auf" (German for "open the [...]"), which was the slogan by the Ohr label ("Ohr" is the German word for "ear"). The disc itself lists the tracks only by their (more commonly known) English titles.

 

 



 

Alpha Centauri


Outer cover
 

 


Inner cover
 

 


Disc
Unlike most of its re-releases the front cover of the group's second album, Alpha Centauri (1971), does not mention the name Tangerine Dream at all. The backside cover of the digipack features photos of the then current line-up of Edgar Froese, Chris Franke and Steve Schroyder as well as a photo of Edgar's wife Monique Froese with their new-born son. Jerome, who would become a member of Tangerine Dream about 20 years later, was featured (on, in most cases, very small photos) as part of every album cover in the next years (see below). The inner cover shows an interesting excerpt of a diagram for the title track Alpha Centauri, illustrating the process of development of one the first real compositions by the group, regarding the fact that the material on Electronic Meditation was merely impovised and initially not intended for release.

 

 

This re-issue of Alpha Centauri additionally contains the first ever CD release of the original 7" vinyl single Ultima Thule as a 3" single CD. This CD is packed in a padded sleeve inside of a paper sleeve with the original artwork, which itself is well contained in a plastic bag. The disc lists the two tracks with their original German subtitles Teil 1 and Teil 2 instead of their more commonly known English subtitles Part 1 and Part 2.
 

 


Single sleeve front cover

Single sleeve back cover

Single disc

 

 



 

Zeit


Outer cover
 

 


Inner cover
 

 


First disc
The re-release of Tangerine Dream's third album Zeit (1972) features the spectacular, spacey outer artwork as well as the commonly much less known inner collagesque painting by Edgar Froese (with a very small Jerome at the vanishing point on the horizon). Note that the inner cover states "music material and titles by edgar froese" while on later releases of this album the compositions were credited to Chris Franke and Peter Baumann as well.

 

 


Second disc
The original vinyl double album was released on two CDs, providing this "largo in four movements" (see inner cover) in original length while on most other CD releases the last track is shortened by more than two minutes to fit the material on one disc.

 

 



 

Atem


Outer cover
 

 


Inner cover
 

 


Disc
The backside cover of TD's album Atem (1973) says "Quadrophonische Produktion / Nur STEREO und MONO abspielbar" ("Quadrophonic production / playable only as STEREO and MONO") which obviously is part of the original cover artwork: Atem was one of the few recordings available in that short-lived audio format (most audio equipment was not designed for quadrophonic playback). The strange, organic painting on the inner cover has no trace of Jerome, but most probably he is visible at a very exposed place on the front cover this time.

 

 



 

Phaedra


Outer cover
 

 


Inner cover
 

 


Disc
Phaedra (1974), TD's debut for Virgin Records, was re-released with its full cover artwork designed for its original gatefold cover as well. Many vinyl re-releases of this album were issued with a single sleeve cover, omitting the inner painting (which once more features a small photo of Jerome's face in the lower-right tile). The disc is designed similar to the Virgin vinyl labels of that time, but the track listing contains not less than three typing errors ("Stand" instead of "Strand", "Sepuent" instead of "Sequent", and the superfluous apostroph before the "C'") which were not present on the original release.

 

 



 

Rubycon


Outer cover
 

 


Inner cover
 

 


Disc
Tangerine Dream's Rubycon (1975) is the last album of this nice re-release series and, of course, it features the complete gatefold cover artwork (Jerome can be found on the right inner page again). The disc is designed similar to the one of Phaedra but it is printed multi-coloured, and it does not contain any typing error.

 


 

© 2006 by Michael Berling; scans by Allan Fredrickson and Michael Berling
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