Search - Tangerine Dream :: Rubycon

Rose clouds of metamorphosis

Andreas Faust | Tasmanian Autonomous Zone | 01/08/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Picking up where 'Phaedra' left off, but attaining an even greater level of expressiveness, is Tangerine Dream's 1975 opus 'Rubycon'.



The same alien life forms which could be heard crying for their lost ancestors on 'Phaedra' have now begun soaring gracefully up into rose pink gas clouds, while summer thaws the cold, blue dreamscapes of the former album. Then evening descends. We turn from the observation deck, and move to the pilot's chamber as the craft sets out into the unknown. The voyage begins in earnest...



Part two brings a completely different spacescape...dark, magnetic, dangerous, and cold. 'Mountains' loom up, vertical pillars of energy which part around the craft as it continues deep into uncharted waters, following a subtle, threadlike current. Thinking to have traced this current to its origin, we now leave the craft, only to find...nothing. Just a barren valley fllled with rocks and water. But over the crest of the hill, pink foliage blooms. We appear to be back in the land of the rose clouds. But is it really the same?



Your own visualisations will be different to mine, of course, and that's the beauty of it. Every listen reveals something new."