“Phaedra” Remastered

Tangerine Dream

I’ve never been able to decisively list my 10 favorite albums of all time. But I DO know that “Phaedra” by Tangerine Dream is somewhere on there. It came out in 1973, was maybe the first electronic/ambient album to break through to mainstream rock audiences (albeit in a very minor way), and kicked the door down in terms of what synthesizers were capable of doing. A newly remastered version comes out Friday from UMe-Virgin and, oh, how it sparkles darkly. Wanna know what it sounds like? What if a scientist found a way to conduct the electrical impulses in the brain of a terminally ill patient and, at the moment of death, you could see a glimpse beyond the grave? And instead of a heaven or hell, there’s just a heavy and pervasive sort of perpetual gloom and gray skies and sullen rain and somehow, you can see and feel and smell all of this from your coffin. But the weird part? You sort of like it. That’s “Phaedra,” and I love it!