Zeit (Tangerine Dream album)

This article is about music album. For other uses, see Zeit (Tangerine Dream album) (disambiguation).

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Zeit (English: Time) is the third album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. A double LP, it was released in August 1972, being the first release featuring Peter Baumann, who joined then-current members Christopher Franke and Edgar Froese. Zeit is subtitled Largo in Four Movements.

Overview

The style of this album is slower and more atmospheric than their previous albums. Florian Fricke from the Munich-based group Popol Vuh, playing Moog synthesizer, and four cellists appear on the first track. The album cover depicts a solar eclipse.

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." And concluding, "Without doubt Zeit is a Krautrock master work still capable of surprises without having to shock. The album which took the band to the edge of international recognition, still sounds timeless 30 years on."

Music critics often refer to Zeit as being one of the first (or perhaps the first) examples of dark ambient music.

Running times and releases

Before the 2002 reissue, there were two common releases on CD: a single CD release and a double CD set. The single CD release from Castle Music Ltd in 1999 has catalog number CMACD 555.

The double CD set from Relativity in 1987 has catalog number 88561-8070-2, and is longer by a few seconds, mainly because of longer inter-track gaps. Relativity also put out a single cassette, 88561-8070-4, with the following song timings: 20:00, 18:00, 20:12, 17:43.

The sound of the two releases is also strikingly different; the original Relativity release has a much brighter and more detailed sound. The Castle release was remastered from the original master tapes over a decade later and there seems to have been a deterioration in quality since then, as it exhibits a notably muddier and bottom-heavy sound. 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's WDR Sendesaal hall in West Germany, previously released as Tangerine Tree 52: Cologne 1972.

Zomba Music Publishers Limited had released five CD series, marked with numbers CTang 1 to 5, back in 1996. They all had the same front geometrical lines cover but with different colors. Zeit album had it in blue. Despite the sleeve notes and the CD contained the following song timings 20:00, 18:00, 20:12, 17:43, the real timings of Track 4 (Zeit) measured in any CD player had 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.

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Birth of Liquid Plejades"	19:54
2.	"Nebulous Dawn"	17:56
3.	"Origin of Supernatural Probabilities"	19:34
4.	"Zeit"	16:58

Personnel

• Edgar Froese – sound generators, guitar
• Peter Baumann – keyboards, vibraphone, VCS3
• Christopher Franke – keyboards, cymbals, VCS3
• Florian Fricke – Moog synthesizer on "Birth of Liquid Plejades"
• Steve Schroyder – Organ outro 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
  • Hans Joachim Brüne
  • Johannes Lücke
• Dieter Dierks – Recording engineer
• Edgar Froese – Cover art
• Monique Froese – Cover and sleeve photography