Peter Baumann (born 29 January 1953) is a German musician. He formed the core line-up of the pioneering German electronic group

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup ...

with

Edgar Froese 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 ...

and

Christopher Franke Christopher Franke (born 6 April 1953) is a German musician and composer. From 1971 to 1987, he was a member of the electronic group Tangerine Dream. Initially a drummer with The Agitation, later renamed Agitation Free, his primary focus eventu ...

in 1971. Baumann composed his first solo album in 1976, while still touring with the band, and embarked on a solo career in 1977. He founded the record label

Private Music Private Music was an American independent record label founded in 1984 by musician Peter Baumann as a "home for instrumental music". Baumann signed Ravi Shankar, Yanni, Suzanne Ciani, Andy Summers, Patrick O'Hearn, Leo Kottke, and his former ...

. Since the early 2000s, Baumann has devoted his time to studying and promoting initiatives in science and philosophy that shed light on the

human condition The human condition is all of the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed fr ...

Background

Peter Baumann was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, in 1953, his father a composer, his mother an actress. When he was eight, the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

was built, and Baumann entered the American/German Community School in

, where he learned English and was first exposed to American culture. At age 14, Peter joined a

cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. Ne ...

and performed at G.I. clubs. Then, in 1971, at age 18, he met

, and ended up joining

as a replacement for their former organist Steve Schroyder. Two years later, Tangerine Dream signed with

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

and their first album on the label, ''

Phaedra Phaedra may refer to: Mythology * Phaedra (mythology), Cretan princess, daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, wife of Theseus Arts and entertainment * ''Phaedra'' (Alexandre Cabanel), an 1880 painting Film * ''Phaedra'' (film), a 1962 film by ...

'', became a Top 10 seller on the

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

charts. As a result of this and other recording successes, Tangerine Dream toured the world for eight years. They also made successful forays into film scoring. Baumann had temporarily left Tangerine Dream twice, first in 1973 (returning in time for Franke & Froese to shelf their current work on ''

Green Desert ''Green Desert'' is the twenty-seventh major release and the fifteenth studio album by Electronic music, electronic artists Tangerine Dream. The music was recorded in Berlin in 1973, during a period when Peter Baumann had temporarily left Germany ...

'' and the three to start anew on what was to become ''Phaedra''), and again in 1975, leaving

Michael Hoenig Michael Hoenig (born 4 January 1952) is a German composer who has composed music for several films and games, in addition to two solo albums, including the highly acclaimed 1978 album '' Departure from the Northern Wasteland''. In 1997, he was ...

as a temporary substitute for an Australian tour. His departure in 1977, shortly after the completion of the band's first U.S. tour, was final and led to a brief solo career. During the 1980s, he founded a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

, specializing in instrumental music in a style popularly referred to as

new-age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

. Artists signed to the label included

Yanni Yiannis Chryssomallis ( el, Γιάννης Χρυσομάλλης; born November 14, 1954), known professionally as Yanni ( ), is a Greek-American composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer. Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand ...

, Patrick O'Hearn,

Jerry Goodman Jerry Goodman (born March 16, 1949) is an American violinist who played electric violin with The Flock and the jazz fusion ensemble Mahavishnu Orchestra. Career Jerry Goodman was born on March 16, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were ...

Suzanne Ciani Suzanne Ciani (; born June 4, 1946) is an American musician, sound designer, composer, and record label executive who found early success in the 1970s with her electronic music and sound effects for films and television commercials. Her career ha ...

, and former bandmates

. In 1996, the label was sold to

Windham Hill Records Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The label was ...

' parent company, BMG, who continue to distribute some of the back catalogue of its more successful artists.

The Baumann Foundation

Following his music career, Peter Baumann moved to San Francisco, where in 2009 he founded the Baumann Foundation: a think-tank that explores the experience of being human in the context of cognitive science, evolutionary theory and philosophy. The foundation pursues its fundamental mission, to foster greater clarity about the human condition, by organizing initiatives that facilitate scientific research and promote discussions between scientists, contemplatives, and the public. The Baumann Foundation's main initiative is ''Beinghuman.org,'' a social website designed to spark a global conversation about how current developments in fields like behavioral economics, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, genetics, anthropology, and philosophy can help people make sense of their experiences. In 2012 the foundation sponsored Being Human 2012, an interdisciplinary conference held in San Francisco’s

Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to ...

that brought together neuroscientists, philosophers, evolutionary theorists and meditation experts to hold a public dialogue about the nature of humanity. Baumann is the co-author, with Michael W. Taft, of the 2011 book ''Ego: The Fall of the Twin Towers and the Rise of an Enlightened Humanity.'' The book draws on new research in neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and other scientific fields to examine the origin and history of the human ego and the evolutionary implications of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

Personal life

Baumann has been married to Alison Baumann since 1983, and has three children. He is the director of several real estate and natural resource companies. In addition to creating the Baumann Foundation, he is on the board of directors of the

California Institute of Integral Studies California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is a private university in San Francisco, California.Otterman, Sharon. "Merging Spirituality and Clinical Psychology at Columbia". ''New York Times'', Aug. 9, 2012Aanstoos, C. Serlin, I., & Greenin ...

and is a fellow of the

Mind and Life Institute The Mind & Life Institute is a US-registered, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1991 to establish the field of contemplative sciences. Based in Charlottesville, Va., the institute “brings science and contemplative wisdom togeth ...

Discography

As a member of Tangerine Dream

Albums

* '' Zeit'' (1972) * '' Atem'' (1973) * ''

'' (1974) * '' Rubycon'' (1975) * ''

Ricochet A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...

'' (1975) * '' Stratosfear'' (1976) * ''

Sorcerer (soundtrack) ''Sorcerer'' (1977) is the ninth major release and first soundtrack album by the German band Tangerine Dream. It is the soundtrack for the film '' Sorcerer''. It reached No.25 on the UK Albums Chart in a 7-week run, to become Tangerine Dream's ...

'' (1977) * ''

Encore An encore is an additional performance given by performers after the planned show has ended, usually in response to extended applause from the audience.Lalange Cochrane, in ''Oxford Companion to Music'', Alison Latham, ed., Oxford University Pres ...

'' (1977)

Solo career

Albums

* ''Romance '76'' (1976) (LP) * ''Trans Harmonic Nights'' (1979) (LP) * ''Repeat Repeat'' (1981) (LP) * ''Strangers In The Night'' (1983) (LP) * ''Blue Room'' (promo cassette with

Paul Haslinger Paul Haslinger (born 11 December 1962) is an Austrian musician and composer. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life and career Early life Haslinger was born and raised in Linz, Austria. He attended high school at Kollegium Aloisi ...

& John Baxter) (1991) * ''Phase by Phase: A Retrospective '76 - '81'' (1996) (CD) * ''Machines of Desire'' (2016) (CD) * ''Neuland'' (with

) (2019) (CD, LP)

EP

* ''Bicentennial Present'' (7" single) (1976) * ''Biking Up The Strand'' (7" single) (1979) * ''Realtimes'' (7" single) (1981) * ''Daytime Logic (Extended Dance Mix)'' (12" single) (1981) * ''The Russians are Coming'' (12" single, with

Conrad Schnitzler Conrad "Conny" Schnitzler (17 March 1937 – 4 August 2011) was a prolific German experimental musician associated with West Germany's 1970s krautrock movement. A co-founder of West Berlin's Zodiak Free Arts Lab, he was an early member of Tangeri ...

) (1982)

Other appearances

* ''Welcome to Joyland'' (with Leda, as 'Hacoon Mail') (1978) * ''Grosses Wasser'' (co-producer on the

Cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Asteroid cluster, a small asteroid family * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study t ...

album) (1979)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baumann, Peter German electronic musicians 1953 births Living people Virgin Records artists Tangerine Dream members Private Music artists

Background

The Baumann Foundation

Personal life

Discography

As a member of Tangerine Dream

Albums

Solo career

Albums

EP

Other appearances

See also

References

External links