Alpha Centauri (album)

Alpha Centauri
1971 LP album cover
Studio album by Tangerine Dream
Released	March 1971
Recorded	January 1971, Dierks Studio
Genre	Space music, kosmische musik
Length	39:48
Label	Ohr
Producer	Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream chronology
Electronic Meditation (1970) Alpha Centauri (1971) Zeit (1972)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Pitchfork Media	(7.8/10)[2]

Alpha Centauri (1971) is the second album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream.^[3] The music on this album is quite different from Tangerine Dream’s first album Electronic Meditation, partly because of a heavier reliance on keyboards and electronic technology, although they still mostly remain in the background: the dominant instruments on the album are organ and flute. The other difference is that this album focuses on dark, spacey soundscapes as opposed to jam sessions. The shift in instrumentation resulted in an atmosphere dubbed by Edgar Froese himself as Kosmische musik.

This album sold 20,000 copies in their native Germany, nearly four times as many as their later classic Phaedra.

A nowadays extremely rare single "Ultima Thule" was released in the same year. Side 1 employs the same guitar riff as "Fly ...", but the single was at the time otherwise an unconnected release. Re-releases of Alpha Centauri in the 2000s have however included either or both parts of Ultima Thule as bonus tracks.

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Sunrise in the Third System"	4:21
2.	"Fly and Collision of Comas Sola"	13:23
3.	"Alpha Centauri"	22:04
4.	"Oszillator Planet Concert" (Sanctuary/Castle (2002), Arcàngelo (2004), Reactive/Esoteric (2011))	8:03
5.	"Ultima Thule, Part One (2000 remix)" (Arcàngelo (2004), Reactive/Esoteric (2011))	3:24
6.	"Ultima Thule, Part Two" (Reactive/Esoteric (2011))	4:24

Personnel

• Edgar Froese – guitar, organ, bass, coffee machine, composer
• Christopher Franke – drums, percussion, flute, zither, piano, VCS3
• Steve Schroyder – organ, voice, echo machines, iron stick
• Udo Dennebourg – flute, voice
• Roland Paulyck – synthesizer

References

1. Breece, Michael G. Alpha Centauri (album) at AllMusic
2. Leone, Dominique (6 February 2003). "Tangerine Dream: Electronic Meditation/Alpha Centauri". Pitchfork.
3. Berling, Michael (3 August 2014). "Alpha Centauri". Voices in the Net.

External links

• Alpha Centauri at Discogs (list of releases)