''Zeit'' (English: ''Time'') is the third major release and third studio album by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

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 ...

. A double LP, it was released in August 1972, being the first release featuring

Peter Baumann Peter Baumann (born 29 January 1953) is a German musician. He formed the core line-up of the pioneering German electronic group Tangerine Dream with Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke in 1971. Baumann composed his first solo album in 1976, whi ...

, who joined then-current members

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 eventua ...

and

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 ...

. ''Zeit'' is subtitled ''Largo in Four Movements''.

Content

The style of this album is slower and more atmospheric than their previous albums.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote, "TD's purest expression of 'space music', this double album ebbs and flows effortlessly from one tone cluster to another. Almost classical in construction, the music is structured so as to evolve in sections as one theme literally melts into the next." Music critics often refer to ''Zeit'' as being one of the first (or perhaps the first) examples of dark ambient music.

Florian Fricke Florian Fricke (23 February 1944 – 29 December 2001) was a German musician who started his professional career with electronic music using the Moog synthesizer within the krautrock group Popol Vuh. His music and that of the band however soon e ...

from the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

-based group

Popol Vuh ''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Q ...

plays

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

on the record, and four cellists appear on the first track. The album cover depicts a

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six month ...

. As explained by Paul Russell for the 2002 reissue, "''Zeit'', which means 'time', was based on the philosophy that time was in fact motionless and only existed in our own minds."

Release

''Zeit'' was released in August 1972 by record label

Ohr ''Ohr'' ("Light" he, אור; plural: ''Ohros/Ohrot'' "Lights" ) is a central Kabbalistic term in the Jewish mystical tradition. The analogy of physical light is used as a way of describing metaphysical Divine emanations. ''Shefa'' ("Flow" an ...

. Before the 2002 reissue, there were two common releases on CD: a single CD release by

Castle Music Castle Communications, also known as Castle Music, was a British independent record label and home video distributor founded in 1983 by Terry Shand, Cliff Dane, and Jon Beecher. Its video imprint was called Castle Vision. The label's producti ...

and a double CD set. The double CD set from Relativity in 1987 is longer by a few seconds, mainly because of longer inter-track gaps. Relativity also put out a single cassette, with the following song timings: 20:00, 18:00, 20:12, 17:43. The double CD set has a light blue border on the front and back covers. The 2011 release includes a second CD with the 25 November 1972 Klangwald concert at

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

's WDR Sendesaal hall in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, previously released as ''

Tangerine Tree Tangerine Tree was a fan project operating from 2002 through 2006 with the goal of collecting, preserving and distributing unreleased concerts and other audio material by the band Tangerine Dream. The creators of the Tangerine Tree project received ...

52: Cologne 1972''. Zomba Music Publishers Limited had released five CD series back in 1996. They all had the same front geometrical lines cover but with different colors; the ''Zeit'' album had it in blue. Despite the sleeve notes and the CD containing the following song timings 20:00, 18:00, 20:12, 17:43, the real timings of track 4 ("Zeit") measured in any CD player at only 16:58 but the music starts with some extra 45 seconds of previously unheard music on all the other releases. If one may carefully mix-add these seconds to the beginning of the "Zeit" track from the any after-1996 releases, that would get about 17:30 full track. This also means, at a careful listening of the Zomba release, track 4 ends earlier than any of the after-1996 releases. (To add to the track timing confusions, a recently digitised copy of the original German Ohr label LP release from 1972, using a correctly calibrated Pro-Ject record deck, provides the following track timings, including track bands of several seconds on sides 1 to 3: 20:52; 20:35; 18:54; 18:46.)

Reception

In a retrospective review,

Julian Cope Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...

's Head Heritage website described ''Zeit'' as a "monolithic and gloomy double album" that "wanders through droning passages of emptiness as the origins and formation of the universe are charted ..It's the band at their most abstract and austere, their most difficult album."

Track listing

All titles written by

and

Personnel

;Tangerine Dream *

– audio generators,

gliss In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a glide from one pitch to another (). It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In some contexts, it is distinguished from the ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

– keyboards, cymbals,

VCS3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analog synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (London) Limited (EMS) in 1969. EMS release ...

analog synthesizer *

– organ,

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

, VCS3 analog synthesizer ;Former Tangerine Dream * Steve Schroyder – Organ outro on "Birth of Liquid Plejades" ;Additional musicians *

– Moog synthesizer on "Birth of Liquid Plejades" * The Cologne Cello Quartet — Cello intro on "Birth of Liquid Plejades" ** Christian Vallbracht ** Joachim von Grumbkow; credited as Jochen von Grumbcow; co-founder of

Hoelderlin Hoelderlin were a German progressive rock band that was formed in 1970 as Hölderlin by brothers Joachim and Christian von Grumbkow with Nanny de Ruig, whom Christian was married to. They were influenced by rock, jazz, and folk music. History ...

** Hans Joachim Brüne ** Johannes Lücke ;Credits *

Dieter Dierks Dieter Dierks (born 9 February 1943) is a German record producer, sound engineer, music publisher, studio owner and musician. He became well known as producer of the rock band Scorpions who were signed to him between 1975 and 1988. Before that ...

– recording engineer *

– cover art * Monique Froese – cover and sleeve photography

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1972 albums Krautrock albums Space music albums by German artists Tangerine Dream albums Ohr (record label) albums