A Winter Warmer
Steve Benner | Lancaster, UK | 04/09/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Winter in Hiroshima" is the fourth of Tangerine Dream's "Five Atomic Seasons", an on-going musical project undertaken in response to a commission from a Japanese business manager, identified only as "Mr HT". It continues HT's personal chronicle of the months following the atom-bomb attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945 and naturally continues from where "Autumn in Hiroshima" (rather abruptly) left off. It portrays a period of spiritual awakening and regrowth as a result of his time spent with a group of monks in a monastery near Hiroshima, followed by a time caring for survivors of the attack, together with a life-affirming event experienced in the aftermath of those events.
Like the other discs in the series, the music plays continuously over its 61-minute duration but is clearly organised into 9 distinct tracks. With this disc, there is more of a return to the high musical standard of the opening disc of the series ("Springtime in Nagasaki") with a greater cohesion and more satisfying musical structure than can be found on either of the subsequent parts, "Summer in Nagasaki" or "Autumn in Hiroshima". Not surprisingly, the disc will make most sense in the context of the earlier three parts, as many of the themes which permeate those discs are resolved here, or else reappear in more positive (or summary) versions, making this disc very much a rounding off of the narrative of HT's experiences of those times. That said, the disc stands perfectly well on its own, although prospective buyers should not expect much by way of drama or tension in the music here and many may find it directionless.
Stylistically, the music is much as one has come to expect from Tangerine Dream these days, mixing complex electronic textures and a steady pulse, with the ethereal vocals of Iris Camaa and guitar work by Bernhard Beibl. Various other guest musicians feature here also, although they are, as all too often occurs on TD's discs, poorly credited; suffice it to say that the disc is musically richer than can generally be expected of Edgar Froese alone. My copy does show some evidence of distortion in places, suggesting that the mastering may not be of the finest quality for this production but this is never bad enough to detract from the quality of the music-making.
The discs making up "The Five Atomic Seasons" are being made available as limited edition releases by Eastgate (Edgar Froese's publishing company) directly from their online music store but are otherwise in short supply. "Springtime in Nagasaki" was released in March 2007, with "Summer in Nagasaki" following in July of that year. "Autumn in Hiroshima" dates from October 2008, with this fourth part being released in August 2009. There remains no word at this time on the likely availability date for the concluding part."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1