Edgar Willmar Froese (; 6 June 1944 – 20 January 2015) was a German musical artist and
electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group
Tangerine Dream in 1967. Froese was the only continuous member of the group until his death. Although his solo and group recordings prior to 2003 name him as "Edgar Froese", his later solo albums bear the name "Edgar W. Froese".
Biography
Froese was born in
Tilsit,
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
(now Sovetsk, Russia), on
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
during
World War II; members of his family, including his father, had been killed by the Nazis and after the war his mother and surviving family settled in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
.
He took piano lessons from the age of 12, and started playing guitar at 15. After showing an early aptitude for art, Froese enrolled at the
Academy of the Arts in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
to study painting and sculpture.
One of his most lucrative jobs was to design advertising posters for the Berlin buses. He started an evening degree in psychology and philosophy and received his doctorate on Kant's
categorical imperative. Since his interpretation was not in accordance with the academic way of thinking, he left the college with the remark: "The dust of the universities is like a shroud over the truth."
In 1965, he formed a band called The Ones, who played
psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...
, and some rock
R&B standards. While playing in Spain, The Ones were invited to perform at
Salvador Dalí's villa in
Cadaqués
Cadaqués () is a town in the Alt Empordà ''comarca'', in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It is on a bay in the middle of the Cap de Creus peninsula, near Cap de Creus cape, on the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean. It is two-and-a-quar ...
. Froese's encounter with Dalí was highly influential, inspiring him to pursue more experimental directions with his music. The Ones disbanded in 1967, having released only one single "Lady Greengrass" (b/w "Love of Mine") on Star-Club Records. After returning to Berlin, Froese began recruiting musicians for the free-rock band that would become
Tangerine Dream.
Personal life
Froese declared himself to be vegetarian,
teetotal, and a non-smoker; he also did not take drugs. Froese was married to artist and photographer Monika (Monique) Froese from 1974 until her death in 2000. Their son
Jerome Froese was a member of Tangerine Dream from 1990 through 2006. In 2002, Edgar Froese married artist and musician
Bianca Froese-Acquaye.
Froese died suddenly in
Vienna on 20 January 2015 from a
pulmonary embolism.
He was posthumously awarded the Schallwelle Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2015. He was quoted by the BBC as having once said: "there is no death, there is just a change of our cosmic address".
Froese was a friend of such artists as
David Bowie,
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...
,
Iggy Pop
James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...
,
George Moorse,
Volker Schlöndorff,
Alexander Hacke and
Friedrich Gulda. Pop and Bowie lived with Froese and his family at their home in
Schöneberg before moving to their apartment on Hauptstraße. Froese also helped Bowie with his recovery from drugs, and introduced him to the Berlin underground scene. Bowie named Froese's solo album ''
Epsilon in Malaysian Pale
''Epsilon in Malaysian Pale'', issued as ''Ypsilon in Malaysian Pale'' by Brain Records in Germany, is the second studio album by German recording artist Edgar Froese, released in 1975.
Recording and history
''Epsilon in Malaysian Pale'' was r ...
'' as a big influence and a soundtrack to his life in Berlin.
Solo discography
;Studio Albums
;Tangerine Dreams albums performed solely by Froese
;Compilations
Other appearances
Edgar Froese solo material as Tangerine Dream
''Tangents'' was a Tangerine Dream compilation album box set of five CDs issued in 1994, compiling music from their years with
Virgin Records, 1973 to 1983. Disc five consists entirely of "previously unreleased material": ten tracks, seven of which are credited only to Froese as the composer. No information is given as to where or when these tracks were recorded, or by which line-up of Tangerine Dream. Most Tangerine Dream tracks credit the line-up that recorded it as the composers, therefore these appear to be Froese solo tracks, released under the Tangerine Dream name, and may have been recorded for this album. Furthermore, five tracks on disc three are described as "re-recordings by Edgar Froese", while the remaining tracks on discs three and four are described as "re-mixed plus additional recordings by Edgar Froese". The tracks on discs one and two are also remixed and contain new overdubs, and Froese is credited as producer for the entire album.
Another compilation box set, the 6-CD ''I-Box'' (2001) contains further bonus tracks credited only to Froese: "Ivory Town", "Storm Seekers", "Cool Shibuya" and "Akash Deep". Several of Froese's tracks from ''Tangents'' are included as well.
The Tangerine Dream album ''Views from a Red Train'' (2008) was originally announced as an Edgar Froese solo album. It was eventually expanded with other band members performing, but the album remains composed entirely by Froese.
Books
*
*
See also
*
List of ambient music artists
References
External links
Official websiteTangerine Dream website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Froese, Edgar
1944 births
2015 deaths
People from Tilsit
Ambient musicians
German electronic musicians
Virgin Records artists
People from East Prussia
Tangerine Dream members
Deaths from pulmonary embolism
20th-century German musicians
Brain Records artists