Christopher Franke

Christopher Franke
Birth name	Christoph Franke[1]
Born	6 April 1953
Origin	Berlin, Germany
Genres	Electronic music
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Drums, keyboards, synthesizers
Associated acts	Tangerine Dream
Website	christopherfranke.com

Christopher Franke (born 6 April 1953, Berlin) is a German musician and composer. From 1971 to 1987 he was a member of the electronic group Tangerine Dream. Initially a drummer with The Agitation, later renamed Agitation Free, his primary focus eventually shifted to keyboards and synthesizers as the group moved away from its psychedelic rock origins. While he was not the first musician to use an analog sequencer, he was probably the first to turn it into a live performance instrument, thus laying the rhythmic foundation for classic Tangerine Dream pieces and indeed for the whole Berlin school sound.

After his departure from the group, he founded the Sonic Images record label, a new-age music label called Earthtone and the Berlin Symphonic Film Orchestra, and produced a number of solo music works. After leaving Tangerine Dream, his only live concert was on 9 October 1991 at the Astoria Theatre in London. He performed on stage with Edgar Rothermich (aka Richard E. Roth) who is also his producer and engineer on all his solo projects and film music after 1990.

Franke moved to Los Angeles in 1991 to pursue film work. In 1995 he scored the AFI short, Requiem. He may be best known for composing the music for the science fiction television series Babylon 5, as well as the score of the anime movie Tenchi Muyo! in Love and in 2005 the music for German musical Ludwig² (with Konstantin Wecker).

Solo discography

• Pacific Coast Highway (1991)
• Universal Soldier (1992)
• London Concert (1992)
• New Music for Films Vol. 1 (1993)
• The Tommyknockers (1993)
• Klemania (1993)
• Raven (1994)
• Night of the Running Man (1995)
• Babylon 5 (1995)
• Perry Rhodan – Pax Terra (1996)
• The Celestine Prophecy (1996)
• Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo! in Love (1996; rereleased in 2002)
• Enchanting Nature (1996)
• Babylon 5, volume 2: Messages from Earth (1997)
• Babylon 5: In the Beginning (1997)
• Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1997)
• Pacific Blue (1997)
• Transformation of Mind (1997)
• Babylon 5: River of Souls (1997)
• Epic (1999)
• Babylon 5: Episodic CDs – 24 CDs x 30 minutes per CD (1997–2000)
• New Music for Films Vol. 2 (2000)
• The Calling (2000)
• The Best of Babylon 5 (2001)
• Music for Films Vol. 3 (2003) CD-R
• What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004)
• Ludwig² – Das Musical (2005)
• Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (2007)

See also

• Perry Rhodan

References

1. Poland (inner sleeve of record two). Tangerine Dream. Jive Electro. 1984. HIP 22.

External links

• Christopher Franke official website
• Sonic Images official homepage
• Christopher Franke at AllMusic
• Christopher Franke at the Internet Movie Database