STEVE JOLIFFE
Magical/Dream/A Beautiful Mystery/333 RSK ENTERTAINMENT Quartet of recent reissues from former Tangerine Dream man.
Steve Joliffe will forever be remembered by some as the English multiinstrumentalist who appeared mysteriously in Tangerine Dream after Peter Baumann’s departure. Despite the fact he had actually played in one of the German electronic pioneers’ earliest incarnations, striking up a friendship with leader Edgar Froese, Joliffe played on just one album – 1978’s Cyclone, in which the group briefly transformed into early King Crimson – before he departed for pastures new.
Since then, Joliffe has amassed a sizeable catalogue, spanning library music, soundtracks and collaborations with fellow ex-Dreamer Klaus Schulze. Joliffe and Froese’s relationship is explored on the earliest and most recommended of these four reissues, Magical. Originally released in the year of the latter’s death, and subtitled In Memory Of Edgar Froese 1944-2015, it’s a beautiful 53-minute requiem, featuring warm washes of sound and ambient diversions that were inspired by a dream Joliffe had where his former bandmate was wandering in his garden.
Dreaming is also a predominant theme on 2017’s self-explanatory Dream, which strays deep into steely electronica. Composed by Joliffe to decipher the complications that develop on human pathways, it alternates between dark throbs and unsettling lullabies. The soundscapes of A Beautiful Mystery (2018) grapple with weighty topics such as the mystery of the universe, the awe of our environment, and the idea of self and purpose. The sparing drop-ins of electric guitar add spice and variation to an accomplished improvisation. Joliffe’s most recent album, 2020’s 333, is the most upbeat of this batch, its trancelike tones expressing freedom, awareness and returning home.
Across this quartet of reissues, Joliffe evokes the work of the electronic music’s pioneers and, although beatfree, the successive generations too. And yet, throughout, he created something that is resolutely new.