Edgar Froese, founding member of influential German electronic music band Tangerine Dream, died Tuesday in Vienna, Austria, of a pulmonary embolism at age 70, according to the band's official website.
Inspired by the boundary-pushing '60s music of the Doors, the Grateful Dead and other rock groups, Froese assembled Tangerine Dream in 1967, at a time when electronic synthesizers were first finding their way into popular music. Along with Kraftwerk in the 1970s, Tangerine Dream experimented with electronic rock and dance music using analog and later digital synthesizers that laid a template for a generation of musicians and bands to come.
Their music was part of a movement that came to be called "krautrock," a term Froese hated. "I personally think it is one of the most silly and stupid descriptions the music media ever came up with," he told an Australian writer in November. "No idea what it's supposed to be." "Although often criticized," states the Encyclopedia of Popular Music's entry on Tangerine Dream, "the band was pivotal in refining a soundthat effectively pioneered new-age ambient electronic music more than a decade later. Their importance in this field should not be underestimated." Froese was the only regular member of the band's ever-shifting lineup, and he also released a string of solo albums under the name Edgar W. Froese. He scored music for films that included "Risky Business," "Legend" and "Firestarter," and more recently the band contributed music to the soundtrack of the "Grand Theft Auto V" videogame.
01. Movements Of A Visionary
02. Rubycon (Part 1)
03. Stratosfear
04. Cloudburst Flight
05. Tangram (Set 1)
06. Hyperborea
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