Thorsten Quaeschning is a German composer, multi-instrumentalist, and musical director. We talk to him about his new album in collaboration with Steve Rothery, his role as the leader of the legendary electronic group Tangerine Dream, and his career more broadly. To listen / watch: Audio-only: click on the play button in the audio player above,...
The post Thorsten Quaeschning, Tangerine Dream / Bioscope / Picture Palace Music appeared first on The Keyboard Chronicles.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I was not so into that kind of music, to be honest.
So I learned everything about electronic music from Edgar himself.
you
Hello and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles podcast for keyboard players.
I'm your host, David Holloway, and I'm thrilled as always to be here with you.
(00:23):
And I'm also super thrilled to be joined by guest co-hosts.
Now, some of you that are long-term listeners or viewers of the show um may know MattGoodluck.
We've had the pleasure of having Matt on before.
How are you, Matt?
I'm great.
Thanks, David.
Thanks for inviting me on the show.
And for those who remember Matt is a massive prog rock fan and also a huge ambient musicfan.
(00:44):
And he's also happens to be the better looking part of the Echoes of Pink Floyd outfitthat Paul Bindig is part of.
And unlike Paul, he bothers to turn up.
Isn't that right, Matt?
That's right.
Yeah.
You didn't even have to pay me.
That's right.
So the reason Matt's here is it's a good one, Matt.
How about you introduce our guests for this episode?
(01:04):
Yeah, we're thrilled to have none other than.
Torsten Kvarshtning from Tangerine Dream on today's episode.
And he's just done a fantastic album with Merillian's Steve Rothery.
So we're going to talk about that.
Yeah, we're going to talk about that and a whole lot more.
For those that love gear talk and a bit of modular talk, let alone a bit of a goodcreative discussion, Torsten goes into quite some depth on a whole range of issues.
(01:31):
And unfortunately he did have to jump on a plane.
So we only had an hour of his time and we could have talked for six.
But there's lots to enjoy in here.
So yeah, we'll let you enjoy what he has to say and we'll talk to you after the show.
uh
(01:53):
It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.
So how are you this fine Tuesday morning?
Exactly.
Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, it's sunny, quite, I think 22 degrees something.
Yeah, nice morning in Berlin.
Excellent.
It's pleasure to have you in and you've proved your politeness by not pointing out it's aMonday, not a Tuesday.
(02:15):
So I appreciate that.
um So let's, let's jump into a chat first and foremost about this amazing new album you'vecompleted with Steve Rothery um Bioscope.
So I'm super excited to talk about this.
And I thought we'd just kick off with a little bit of um discussion on what was themomentum for actually um getting together with Steve in the first place.
(02:38):
So we played um a festival cruise in 2014 called Cruise to the Edge um after the Yes albumClose to the Edge.
Because Yes were the main act and there were bands like uh Saga, Steve Hackett,Queensryche, Stickman and also Tangerine Dream and Meridian.
(03:02):
But it just a small shed and we...
um
worked with the same booker after that years.
And so we met in 2018 in Berlin um before a marina concert just for coffee, just to talkand yeah, without any big task or master plan, just okay, let's meet, let's talk about
(03:30):
music and how we can get along together.
And so we,
planned a little session in my studio, actually in that room at that time, but it's not mystudio anymore.
um In February or March 19, it ah was four days and maybe less, and was the first guitarplayer who ever asked me for Omidikrop for his tremolo to be in sync with the sequences.
(04:04):
And I thought...
This is great.
This is perfect.
then normally it took more than one year.
I think I had a couple of solo shows in the UK in 2020, February again.
(04:25):
So all my Modeler stuff and lots of synths were in the UK.
So we took the opportunity to record some sessions in the Marion studio called the RecordClub, Mid-England.
And after that, we thought about let's work together on something.
If it's an EP, it's an album, it's just some collection of music or pieces is fine too.
(04:50):
And we regularly met in December because of our touring schedules and um Marion and Tenderand Dream never
third in December.
Don't know why but it's like that.
So, was one week normally in Berlin in my other studio, the main studio.
(05:13):
um Yeah, and last year we were close to finish, throw that bad word, but we thought aboutjust this is an album.
But then before a program,
like more techno-esque groups and uh more like, yeah, modular percussion.
(05:36):
It was very electronica.
And we talked about adding a human drummer to it and we watched a lot of YouTube videos.
And Alex Reeves from Elbow, he also played with uh people like Nick um Cave as well.
And so it's good for all words.
(05:58):
and he was an unbelievable drummer.
We recorded his tracks and contributions in February this year.
Only two days, one and a half days, editing on top in his studio in London, so I fly overto the UK.
It worked very well, I guess.
It was growing things together in a way.
(06:19):
Torsten, I know that the album takes a lot of its inspiration from the development of themoving image throughout the ages.
I'm just wondering if you can briefly take us through each of the tracks and give uslittle bit of insight into the compositional approach and the themes for those songs.
(06:42):
Most of them were...
I don't like the idea of an improvisation um because it's sometimes connected to musclememory playing.
And so I like more the idea or the concept of real-time composition, wizard.
(07:02):
Probably the same for some people, but it's a very big difference in my head at least.
um
because maybe with a goal on the horizon or a shape of things instead of just feeling themoment by itself.
And it was created more in the moment with the idea to have concepts.
(07:27):
I applied three concerts with Steve while the Tendren Dream Tour.
And I think it was quite an unusual experience for him because
we have 40 some something between 30 and 15 minutes each concert, which was called sessionand this is free form.
(07:49):
And so he played this sessions to and there's sometimes it feels like there's lots of roomlots of space, but don't fill it with many notes.
And so I think it's both
(08:09):
even the idea of very long form music, which is very strange talking about progressiverock bands.
Normally, they are the people with all the unbelievable long pieces.
But if you play with Tenron Dream, this is a different page.
um So even our last album was the first vinyl, it was double vinyl, the first
(08:36):
Winer 1, site A was one piece and Winer 2, site B was also only one piece.
So it's always some 20 minutes, 40 minutes, something like that.
Probably with less signal parts in it.
So the evolving structure of morphing things from one part to another without having abreak that works like a signal to
(09:06):
get to the next part is probably very different from the supposed plate in the moment andthen just recorded half hour then take one piece of it just sorry to bar 64 something and
work in kind of controlled studio environments on it.
(09:32):
This was also probably a very good thing that we always sat in the same room.
um think there's so many aspects of it.
So it sounds esoteric, but it isn't.
You have the idea of hearing with the ears of the other person in same room, because youtry to please.
(09:55):
I sometimes sitting arranging and it's...
scripting little lines in the panoramas.
So I know there's a movement from left 60 to left 452.
Probably the other person in the room wouldn't recognize this.
(10:18):
so maybe you make a little bit more, maybe you change it more classically because there'sa second person.
And I think that is good sometimes for the music because
It's great to have very minimalistic details, but the idea that, so I'm sitting here onehour and it's moving slightly over their left.
(10:40):
So what are you thinking I'm doing?
even the, m like the look in the eye check while doing drastically effect things or m
looping his guitar and at one point enforcing a sequence, filter bank, a moat filter, orkind of the hard side of granulazentesis to make it all grainy.
(11:14):
It's easier to look him into the eyes and look, I'm doing this, and okay, he's smiling.
Instead of doing this, making rough mix and dropbox and waiting two days for a response,which is maybe oh what it did to my guitars.
(11:38):
So this was great.
um I'm not so good in naming folders.
This is one I learned from Steve.
Normally it's just the date.
And the last song of the album is called Kaleidoscope.
(11:59):
It a Friday evening after dinner and Steve came up with that rock riff in a good way.
And probably would never have done something like that ever, but it works.
(12:20):
And so I know that don't maybe because of the day of the name Friday on my folder.
So I thought this should sound like the cure and enjoy the vision.
So I played all the, the soluna stuff.
have the MK.
Three, two, three, three, is okay.
(12:43):
But it's, it's, it's a key chronic.
So I can, it's my time to.
to talk about that.
It's not three, it's different.
On four, you have a tiny LED on it, on the modulation button on three.
yeah, okay.
sometimes my Serena decides which notes are in plane because of temperatures, because ofthe full phonic thing.
(13:08):
But on that day, that, yeah, I think it was D major, it worked in that key.
Sometimes we even started with a
middle part and edit the another part before after half a year, probably not half a year,three years later.
So there's not like a continuum working process per piece of music.
(13:35):
After all, it's not more than two months, I guess, together in the studio.
And maybe
two weeks editing and maybe tweaking, recording things.
Steve in his studio and some Modular overdubs which was slightly detuned or spreaddetuned.
(14:02):
You can do bit of a melody but it's not the same.
So try to find a sound close to that or different pads.
Probably even recorded little drier when it comes to reverb because that's I usually use alot of three verbs and and and the end final mix is Very for me.
(14:32):
It's very dry.
I mean, it's there's there's space on it, but it's not normally just doing the It's a lot.
I love
replica and the night sky, big sky and what's the name?
Starlap and the modulus.
Yeah, and just doing the big something on it.
(14:55):
um Yeah, so...
Yeah, that and look, is, it's an absolutely amazing sounding album.
And I'm fascinated obviously, Torsten, what were the key pieces of gear?
And you've mentioned some of the effects and some of the stuff you've used, but what wassome of the standout instruments to you that you used in that album that, you know, you're
(15:18):
so pleased that you use?
mean, you've mentioned the Selena, but just what was, what were your key go-toinstruments?
So my model is very important to me.
it's a good way, normally I'm just probably with editing or changing sounds until the end,which I'm doing when I'm doing soundtrack work because of the idea of soundtrack work and
(15:40):
something, some scenes are missing on the day before the picture lock.
But um if you work with the model system, you are forced to
press record at one point because you can't save any preset and for me it's a good thing.
(16:01):
There's a mixture of Eurorack and Marienberg which is a 5 unit which is a really goodsounding and uh lots of mogs.
If it's too nerdy, em please say that.
uh It's even three different voyages.
(16:22):
Wow.
Yeah, but they're sounding different.
So even the oscillator inside the voyage are sounding so different.
um there's this one of the select white ash things.
really like more for if it comes to um soloing, which the warm shine and tradesdiamond-esque thing.
(16:46):
um The sparkle black.
I think it's three years younger.
It's much better for basses, don't know why.
live, because two keyboard mocks on stage, it's a problem I have.
I'm using RME and it's even a bit different and like also to use the Minitor, also a whiteBlackBone and the Serene for...
(17:20):
some crunch, more crunchy, not for basses but it's also very one, so it doesn't sound likeanything else I think.
So for pets sometimes classics, Jupiter 8, Prophet 8 as well, 5.8, sparklings from
(17:49):
Quantum Baldo without using the compress and sense range.
um So I try to avoid the typical 80s, 90s sometimes um on that project or band.
I think there's no GBA 800, no wave stage, no M1, no D50.
(18:16):
um
It's Z1.
It's on the PET.
The big rise of the prophecy.
um And it's good.
Recent for some pets too.
But the first version, I don't like the GT1.
I think the first version is more great.
(18:39):
Sometimes a mixture of everything.
with the Mellotron, I'm using the mannequin electronic Memoton.
um
Real life is 7.4 seconds without a loop and like lead sounds, moke as well.
Sometimes op 6 for the crispy ones.
(19:02):
I really like the peak as well from Navation and the Modular Argon 8.
For granular, I have the GR1 from Tasty Ships and this is small but it works quite well.
has a very different sound to the granular engine from the um quantum.
(19:26):
Mostly that.
There's not so many plugins on it.
um I don't think they are the piano sound.
okay, yeah, that's yeah, I don't like making a piano or like the grand piano as well assome sample sounds.
(19:48):
To be honest,
It's sounding good and it's one of the Olafur Arnald's um thing and I really like hissound that you hear the hammer on the string more and you can adjust the amount of that.
(20:08):
Player's noise is something I don't use to make fun of the plug that you have a volumeamount of.
noises from the player like...
Don't know if I'm leading this.
Yeah, and lots of effects.
(20:29):
using some lots of pedals, Spryman, also the Magneto, the timeline, the Mobius, themoderation thing and the sunset.
things for the bit crunchy things, um what's the name of the M stripe, iridium as well.
(20:56):
and some strange kind of modelations with stuff from other brands.
Yeah, I think that's nearly it.
Probably I forgot some things.
MS-20, yeah, through, yeah.
oh
(21:16):
always through the distortion pedal.
Torsten, I think it was an inspired collaboration to do something with Steve.
think his melodic style really suits your playing very well.
And I it's a great album.
Do you think we can see further collaborations between you and Steve in the future?
Absolutely.
So, um, so there's a second album is planned as well.
(21:38):
And hopefully it wouldn't take as long as six years for doing this.
Um, we're going on tour on, in, um, December on only five shows to Netherlands, toGermany, one in Poland.
But I think it will work, um, to grow as a band.
as we wrote that album, there was no drama in mind because there was some
(22:03):
very sometimes fall on the floor on it.
um Some even remained uh of the fall on the floor things.
um But do I have the...
If you know that there will be a drummer would change things as well, think.
um we are very keen on, yes, that's right, on album four, four, a little bitstraightforward.
(22:32):
Probably it's ambient prop.
having that organic element really helps to add something different to an electronicalbum.
Absolutely.
So sometimes his guitar playing or metal device has a function of a singer.
(22:55):
And it's unbelievable how fast he can create melody lines out of nowhere to sometimesmaybe not so um common chord sequences.
And he's very
very much love for in detail for sound as well.
(23:18):
So there was in his studio, there was so many amps he can switch to and I played I think,I don't know, 40 minutes and he was only playing one note all the time.
And I thought, I probably hate what I'm doing.
But he just tried to find the exactly right sound and then it was all there.
(23:42):
it was
um But there, so probably it's sometimes maybe the same feeling for him when I'm standinglike 60, 80 minutes for the Modular system and patching things.
So in this environment where you can change like that top to this speaker and probablyeven something in between and that microphone setting.
(24:10):
So it's everything there.
this, yeah.
I think it's fair to say, Torsten, you're both veteran musicians and I'm sure you've bothspent time looking at each other, admiring what you're doing.
And I do want to sort of take a bit of a step back, if I can, to when you weren't aveteran musician, what was your start in music, Torsten?
What was your musical upbringing that led you to, you know, in this amazing career thatyou're in?
(24:34):
So I learned, I started as a violin player in the youth radio station in the 80s.
And then I always played flute and like baroque flute and piano.
I played in the 90s drums in a swing band and always played piano and violin.
(24:56):
My first band was actually as a violin player, was close to Newell Army.
And, but it was...
to...
It was the 90s and was acoustic violin and I'm half new, okay, maybe Ponte, but there wasno chance to get to electric violin for me and the microphones.
(25:22):
And I young, so I played since in that band.
It was kind of more than goth rock.
And then from goth rock, someone gave me a lot of progressive rock music.
Most of them, now probably one third, were meridian.
So for reasons, was a nursery crime, selling him by the pound, Foxtrot, trick of the tale.
(25:51):
Don't know why, because Lemstrum Boy weren't on that thing.
But misplaced childhood, seasons end, holiday need, and...
and Fugazi and King Trimson called him Trimson King.
(26:12):
From that, I started to dive into the progressive rock music, Genesis, Meridian, sometimesyes, but more King Trimson and mostly from the graph generator.
I think that was the connection between Gothic rock and progressive rock because thephonographed in radio, Peter A.
(26:36):
Hamer is quite dark guy and there's some spooky things in it.
So I was learning um classical music beside everything and tried to make that.
um yeah, I played in a lot of bands and studied composing and piano.
(26:56):
um
And yeah, I think 2003, I got a phone call from someone from Tendent Dreams office.
um And that was, he was working for foreign affairs in the office from Edgar.
And um he was the singer of a Gothic metal band called Progressive Supergamentis.
And there was known, also played a lot of strange dark metal, like it's now called extrememetal, like dead metal, black metal.
(27:25):
things like that because I a lot of sampling and even in 90s and had not the archive.
had two of the A3000 from Yamaha, but you had 128 megabytes on it.
So it's not 32.
So it took think six and a half minutes to load the unbelievable huge Squier sound in thattime.
(27:56):
And, um and extreme metal was keyboard wise in that it's all about Springs choirs, Frenchhorn, and doing 35 second intro.
And so uh I played a lot of black and death metal things as well.
that was the reason um the guy from Subquamentus knew me and um said
(28:22):
Edgar asked for someone, do you know Cuba Bay?
And they asked three people, guess.
And there was a very detailed to do list um for m do you know that?
It was unbelievable.
I was always was a Cubase guy because I came from Atari.
(28:44):
So if I had used logic, I wouldn't be here now.
You have to use
UBase and not only for one week and that.
And there was even a studio sampler and we called Giga Sampler.
It designated um PC only for a sampler.
(29:05):
um And we worked with that and had luck that I played a lot of cork things in that time.
it was Prophecy, WaveStation, EX, T1 because of the
keys, not for the sound, things like that.
And JD-800, things like that were more important to him than knowing a modular system, tobe honest.
(29:35):
I didn't know.
I never patched a modular system or programmed a step sequence like before, Joint, Tender,and Dream.
And that is very strange.
was the normal keyboard guy playing it live and pads, melodies, things like that.
So I came to his studio in Vienna, and Tenere Green Studio, they were just composing fororchestra and bands.
(30:05):
It was Dante Aggeri's Divine Comedy Poblatorium.
And the Paradiso was the connection of both.
And because of my classic composing study background, I probably also got the job becauseI can write.
scores and the notes and transpose things for the trumpets.
(30:27):
And after one and a half years sitting on Edgar's side in the studio and just I learnedeverything about electronic music because okay, I heard a little bit of Prodigy, Nine
Shnails, but not I was not so into that kind of music to be honest.
(30:48):
um
So I learned everything about electronic music from Edgar himself.
So probably the best teacher ever.
And there are so many rules for music, tenor dream-esque music that he elaborated in 40,50 years.
Even the number of steps um repeating the idea of um uneven intervals or step
(31:18):
Or there's like 15th again, 16th again, so can use that like the fourth and the seventh inintervals to make it more tense and then the release of keeping rolling and there are
strict rules for everything and states in tendon-degenerating.
And so I had one and a half year learning this and it was so interesting and it was sodifferent word and in 2004,
(31:47):
We started to compose the first album together, together with the son in that time calledChandak was released in 2005.
And since 2005, I'm Yeah.
I think it's more than 70 hours, something like that.
We recorded a lot.
So we composed door to door in his house in Vienna and sometimes in Berlin.
(32:13):
There was a big studio and yeah.
And Tosin, I need to ask you, obviously Edgar, um and you worked well together.
What do you feel was the sign that that relationship was going so well?
I mean, obviously the QBase issue was one part of it, but what worked so well to theextent that obviously after Edgar's unfortunate passing and so on, that the mantle was
(32:39):
handed to you.
What was the secret of the success of that relationship?
um We both like to work.
um strange.
um So Edgar's one of the most hardworking guys I ever met.
So there was some Dropbox invitation for a new track on Christmas Eve.
uh he said, maybe I should think about 27th and things like that.
(33:06):
But in the first weeks, he asked me if I ever were in the garden.
And they are, there's a garden.
Yeah, there's also a big pool.
Oh, great.
uh Really, never was...
uh Well, there's a terrace and there's a big, garden behind it.
Never was in studio the last three weeks.
(33:28):
So, and I like to work.
I love sitting on music and spending my time.
But sometimes it's like, it's not, I have to do music, forgive me if I don't do music.
um So if you spend three days without playing, that doesn't feel right.
(33:50):
And I think that attitude was very important and what is the most important thing.
And this is not hard to describe because you can't force it.
um You have to find a common language about music when it came to atmosphere.
(34:13):
to like the dynamic envelopes and even sounds.
So, um Tendron Dream sounds are not related to instruments that normally physically exist.
So, it's not...
So, but if you listen to Tomita, um that sounds like a bowl.
(34:39):
a bowie or this like a clarinet, there's a string, there's a trumpet.
uh Tenor and rim is more surrealistic.
um The envelopes and filter movements are not connected to this is a harp sound.
like harp maybe is pizzicato would be even close but the idea to have very long involvingthings um and talking about that kind of sounds.
(35:09):
without doing strange noises with your mouth.
Just describing the idea behind it and why do you
even the idea of resonance or peak, you think MS-Bandy-wise, um it's related to the keybecause there's a notch in it.
(35:38):
so it's um gaining one frequency and things like that for some musicians.
It's great, for some musicians.
No, I like the Pio sound.
No, no, but it's a wrong note inside the resonance.
I think to find a common language and to not to ask why this is 15 minutes um and try tofind new sounds and try to find maybe there is no new chord sequence anymore.
(36:20):
I think it's not impossible but to find a not so much used, often used chord sequence andtry to find the different sounds on it and then just try to involve that idea.
And Torsten, you've raised a really great point.
just want to butt in there about new sounds because I know since you've been involved withTangerine Dream, the sound has obviously continued to development.
(36:44):
feels like it's been respectful to the original catalog during the seventies and eighties,but you've also modernized the sound.
um Is that a weight on your shoulders, the legacy that's been handed onto you and how doyou deal with that and keep modernizing?
that's a lot of pressure.
Yeah.
And you can't please anyone.
there was no moment um when people didn't say it, that doesn't sound like Tender Dreamanymore.
(37:13):
um So I'm used to that.
Now, the strange thing is Edgar had a kind of a problem with analog and old gear in 2000.
because he was so bored about the detuning of it.
And he was so happy to, I'm using that and this is just a very tune stable plug-in orthings like that.
(37:39):
And I tried to bring them back um and yeah, to record them very much in tune.
And um it's quite hard.
tried to cameras close to his original recordings.
Because there is a lot of compositions, so I have to play those.
(38:02):
I wouldn't improvise on a composition from someone else.
it's not my type of thing.
it must sound homogonic in a way if you play concerts.
And this is a hard part.
So sometimes it's a mixture, so it's not.
(38:26):
not everything is live, some epigiators and the drums are synced with the um audio MTC, sothe sequences are starting every time at the same point.
So I can change presets and the sequences came through the Modular and some mini towers,some the RME.
(38:48):
um So it's always the same bass, live.
ah Because it's running through that.
um And my mother's system has two DI boxes, sorry, 10 DI boxes.
The one thing that I, it's like having presets live.
So I have the CV MIDI converter, so I have like 10 presets in the modeler.
(39:18):
Tendril Dreamware, involving or progressing in a way every year.
five years.
So you can't please anyone.
So one of my favorite bands, well, they also are mastering our albums with Tendrin Dreamsand my solo album and even the Bioscope album because I really love the guys.
(39:39):
Sige Ros and I in Reykjavik, Iceland in a studio called Sundklavlin, which is a publicswimming pool in Icelandic.
They said they really liked Tendrin Dream before the sequences came in.
they are
big fan of Artam and Sight.
And by Fedra, it was, But they are right.
(40:05):
So if you love Sight, Fedra is totally sounding different to theirs two years after that.
if you listen to Exit, like 82 or Underwater Sunlight, 86, and then things from 90s, youprobably won't believe that's the same band.
completely different.
um
Yeah, so if you listen album to album, which is one week, something like that, um in time,you see a red line between that.
(40:36):
And I tried to not to do it to be very respectful to the old stuff, but don't make it amuseum.
Because that would be probably sometimes easier.
um But
If you're musician, um there is a need to, longing to create new music and the opportunityto have the great moments, anything moments, few.
(41:08):
I think that that's not bad, but you also can fail big.
That's a risk.
um But it's all about that, I guess, not playing just Federer, Rubicon, Tzotzi.
in three years' service.
And that's great, Torsten.
think, you know, you really illustrate the point that you're continuing to move forward asa musician, but you're still being very respectful to the past as well.
(41:38):
Following on from that, know, Tangerine Dream obviously has very distinct eras throughouttheir catalogue over the years.
You know, you've got the Virgin years and the Blue years and et cetera.
You're going through the quantum era.
How would you define that just beyond the personnel?
side of things, so aesthetically.
(41:59):
So the quantum era was the first that was named before the era itself.
um So it's hard to describe that.
So it was normally related to the record company, like the Virgin years.
And there was, I guess there was no very crystallized plan to say
(42:29):
after five years we will leave virtually.
So probably not.
But the quantum idea is that everything is connected to each other.
um That um things you play in the room are related even to the audience.
So I'm doing this as an introduction of every concept.
(42:53):
So I never spoke to the audience because
if you do instrumental music, um it's grounding.
The human voice is grounding things um very much.
But sometimes it seems for the audience very arrogant because of that.
And there were some harsh critics because of that.
(43:17):
So normally I said even not the name of Hoshiko and Paul, but it was appearing on the LEDwall.
behind me and even take a safe trip back home in the language um was in the language ofthe country on the LED wall.
But now I'm speaking a little bit before concert and we always play the session in theresonance tone or key of the room.
(43:46):
You always find some, you find difference, some
some lights are shaking and then the ground is shaking.
The Mube base is very huge.
I opened a door with it, I destroyed an exit sign light with it while the audience werethere just to show them.
(44:13):
And the exit...
um
So it's not esoteric, it's just physics.
can, with base sequence, you can let the room shake in a way.
And that's easy part of it, but to have an idea where everything is connected.
(44:34):
If I press that button, you will feel it in your stomach and your share will move.
And we will um react differently if you react differently.
It's all one, it's in the same room.
We see you, we feel you, we, sometimes you're clapping, sometimes not.
(44:56):
There's this country by the difference.
Sometimes we play something in some countries, we're playing opera houses, philharmonichalls, and they are used to just wait until the last note.
And sometimes you're, and you'll leave like three seconds space between some tracks andnothing is happening.
(45:18):
That is affecting the next track because are they hearing anything?
So everything is connected and that's the idea of quantum.
So it starts with Ulrich Schnauz in 2014.
played the last three concerts with Edgar as a four piece was Hodgko, Ulrich, Edgar andme.
(45:44):
We're in Australia, Melbourne.
town hall and then we played um the Sorcerer twice and the movie, the movie that we'reshown behind us and we played the soundtrack to it.
Strangely, the last um minutes were totally improvised and that was really improvisedbecause our version of the movie we rehearsed to was shorter.
(46:14):
So we have...
microphones on stage to talk to each other.
And I don't think that's right.
So I think at least four minutes, I have no clue.
Probably 24 pictures per second to 25 in Germany.
(46:36):
After one and a half hour, and then you're missing one picture.
It's enough for four minutes.
Yeah.
And so, and so, was the last music with Edgun Stage was kind of, okay, let's do some fiveminutes sorcerers in editing, just add some music to it.
(47:05):
And after that, that was a quantum era, because before there was a guitar player,percussion, saxophone and things like that.
And it worked good as Edgar's decision.
um But the idea was to come back to electronic sequence driven music to the core of tenorand dream, but with a kind of contemporary approach to it, sound wise and composition
(47:38):
wise.
um Then he sadly died.
and half months later and really unexpected.
it was like the last email was like, I bought new sound cards, see you next week inVienna.
um But Edgar was the most hardworking person and there were plans for everything.
(48:07):
was like strategies for that and when that happened.
And so I was never rising
and say, I will do this.
I probably won't have done this.
This was probably just another quest from my teacher and master oh for that kind of music.
(48:27):
So it was strange to turn the term music director, like I was composing many things andwas doing the concert preparations and things like that since 2011.
And so it was his idea and also the idea that the concept of Tindran Dream and thephilosophy behind it is stronger than anyone involved.
(48:56):
So it can last people.
I think there are 24 people, 25.
So that's not true, probably more.
So in 67, there was a time where I think everyone was in the band who joined the rehearsalspace for one day.
I think even there are six different lineups from 67 to early 68.
(49:22):
But it was only Edgar and no one else.
So it was a drummer, they had a singer and violin player.
They had a bass player with an unbelievable great name, Happy Dieter.
And then he met Conor Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze and the first recording was 1970 beforeit was...
(49:44):
complete different band.
After Ulrich left, um now Paul is playing.
I know Paul from the university.
He's two years younger, but we met, yeah, cafeteria and the soul.
It was the same university.
he's a very staccato-esque player, which is a good addition, I guess, um because um it'svery rhythmical and never will play
(50:13):
things like that.
You don't need to same person twice.
it's now, it's his sleeping room for things.
And that's also very much part of the progression um that there's more space in the music.
(50:35):
um And even we try to come back to the idea that one
seamless sound for a melody is enough.
So it's easy to stack things.
I think that's something I did not so good in the early 2000s, just stacking sounds,especially lead sounds.
(50:58):
have a bell, then adding a strange piano.
have some DX7, TG777, the bellish sounds, five together, something like that.
um But it's not brave to do that.
um And you don't hear the signal, the frequencies that are missing in that sound.
(51:23):
And that's a characteristic thing about it and the shamanic thing about it.
So try to have more confidence in sound.
I thought about saying the word melody, so but coming...
back to Steve.
Steve is first person who did something like a hook or melody, which I don't...
(51:47):
I'm using that term in a good way.
I like the idea of motifs, which are melody lines, but appears three times in 25 minutes.
I like the idea to have some, okay, that is kind of hookish, but a motif and not a melodyline.
um
So Steve is unbelievable doing this.
(52:09):
don't, I'm doing motives.
And so that's the idea why we like to go more single lines, more breathing stuff, for suresequences, because there's no, at the end of the day, it's not so many options.
(52:30):
have 16 or 32 steps, you can connect things, you know what I mean.
Yeah.
depends on the sequence.
I'm using the Schrittmacher for 16 step, you can connect each step to each other.
So even the transposition just move in like fourth and the others 15 to 16 and the 16thand you can do all the polyrhythm stuff with it.
(52:58):
And for other things, the polysec from the Polish company.
um
as well.
says 32 steps, 8 lines, so you have 2256 LEDs on it and you see what's happening.
(53:19):
sad thing on that is you don't see the node that is playing.
You have to press the button.
So that's the best thing about the Schrittmacher.
You see 16 nodes and you can change them and you see all 16.
I don't
Yeah, some sequences.
I don't get it to be honest.
Well, I like to see the notes and I really love Dieter Döpfer, but a sequence with likesemitones and it's one to ten.
(53:50):
Yeah, I'm using this for filter movements and it's unbelievable great.
But let's do at least 12.
Yes.
That's not,
OK, so sorry.
No, I think we're in agreement.
No, I think we're in agreement there, Torsten.
And so I know we've got to get you on a plane relatively soon.
(54:12):
So I'm going to ask you one last question, which is one that all our guests hate, which isthe desert island disk question.
So if you had to pick five albums to take to a desert island, what would they be?
Whoa.
So um the very arty answer would be there is an album on mini disc by um Brian Eno.
(54:34):
Because Brian Eno, uh the mini disc is the only medium where you don't have a buffer usingit because it's pre-buffering.
And it was cut in, I think, 16 bar pieces.
And if you press shuffle, you always hear a never ending new album.
(54:55):
But this probably no.
um Five leaves left, Nick Drake.
Will be smaller hours, Frank Sinatra.
um So Genesis, I can hear it in my head.
(55:18):
I listen to it.
thousand times.
So I probably don't need it physical.
So if I want to listen to first or fifth or surface radio, it's there.
So it's too easy.
Descincuration of the cure because of teenage related time reasons.
(55:40):
there's always um the concept of guilty pleasure is strange because you still like it andwhy it's a
I really like August and everything after, by counting crows.
You nice.
Yeah, because it's, I think, I'm missing a word in English.
(56:04):
What's the name on Seagulls?
It has to be Seagulls.
What was the name of the...
and
There's a word for it, yeah.
Yeah.
And because it's not easy to listen in my head because it's even not Icelandic, it's afantasy language like Hoplantic.
(56:32):
So it's very hard to get this note by note.
yeah, you can't learn the words.
You could just try to, yeah, sound like that.
But I think that's the reason it feels new.
if you listen to it again.
Absolutely.
Look, wonderful picks.
(56:53):
um And I think there was a wonderful pick made when you were chosen to be part ofTangerine Dream as well, let alone Steve's pick of you as a collaboration partner on this
amazing Bioscope album.
We can't thank you enough for your time with this has been an absolute pleasure.
We've barely scratched the surface, but I know you need to get on a plane and I knowyou've only recently been in Australia, but we look forward to seeing you down here again
(57:16):
in coming years.
Yeah.
And there we have it.
Matt, Torsten was an absolute font of knowledge on so many issues.
I think I said in the intro, we could have spoken for six hours and I don't think it's aword of a lie.
(57:36):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
What a pleasure to talk to someone like that.
Yeah.
It's an absolute honor and a privilege and we can't thank Torsten enough for his time.
And he literally was jumping on a plane.
I never thought to ask him who he was touring with.
I'm not sure whether Tangerine Dreamer doing more dates or whatever it is, but he was,he's certainly a busy man and we appreciate him taking the time.
(57:57):
And as always, we appreciate you taking the time to listen to us.
It's hugely appreciated.
And Matt could literally couldn't have done this one without you.
I'm a Tangerine Dream fan, but it's your knowledge that helped make this show what it was.
So thank you.
Oh, thank you, David.
I really appreciate you asking me along to this one.
And I'm sure it won't be the last.
You hear that bindi?
Do you hear that?
(58:21):
And we also need to call out to our gold and silver supporters.
So the amazing Tammy Katcher from Tammy's Musical Studio.
Thank you as always for your ongoing support.
Mike Wilcox at Midnight Mastering.
If you do create your own work and you need someone great to mix and master it, Mike isthe guy.
uh Dave Bryce and the team at themusicplayer.com forums.
Thank you as always.
And last but definitely not least, and Dewey, this is two episodes in a row.
(58:44):
I've made you last but not least.
Dewey Evans from the Sunnylander Wales.
Thank you sir for your support.
So we'll be back in a couple of weeks.
Thank you again, Matt.
And until then, keep on playing.
I was not so into that kind of music, to be honest.
So I learned everything about electronic music from Edgar himself.
you
Hello and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles podcast for keyboard players.
I'm your host, David Holloway, and I'm thrilled as always to be here with you.
(00:23):
And I'm also super thrilled to be joined by guest co-hosts.
Now, some of you that are long-term listeners or viewers of the show um may know MattGoodluck.
We've had the pleasure of having Matt on before.
How are you, Matt?
I'm great.
Thanks, David.
Thanks for inviting me on the show.
And for those who remember Matt is a massive prog rock fan and also a huge ambient musicfan.
(00:44):
And he's also happens to be the better looking part of the Echoes of Pink Floyd outfitthat Paul Bindig is part of.
And unlike Paul, he bothers to turn up.
Isn't that right, Matt?
That's right.
Yeah.
You didn't even have to pay me.
That's right.
So the reason Matt's here is it's a good one, Matt.
How about you introduce our guests for this episode?
(01:04):
Yeah, we're thrilled to have none other than.
Torsten Kvarshtning from Tangerine Dream on today's episode.
And he's just done a fantastic album with Merillian's Steve Rothery.
So we're going to talk about that.
Yeah, we're going to talk about that and a whole lot more.
For those that love gear talk and a bit of modular talk, let alone a bit of a goodcreative discussion, Torsten goes into quite some depth on a whole range of issues.
(01:31):
And unfortunately he did have to jump on a plane.
So we only had an hour of his time and we could have talked for six.
But there's lots to enjoy in here.
So yeah, we'll let you enjoy what he has to say and we'll talk to you after the show.
uh
(01:53):
It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.
So how are you this fine Tuesday morning?
Exactly.
Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, it's sunny, quite, I think 22 degrees something.
Yeah, nice morning in Berlin.
Excellent.
It's pleasure to have you in and you've proved your politeness by not pointing out it's aMonday, not a Tuesday.
(02:15):
So I appreciate that.
um So let's, let's jump into a chat first and foremost about this amazing new album you'vecompleted with Steve Rothery um Bioscope.
So I'm super excited to talk about this.
And I thought we'd just kick off with a little bit of um discussion on what was themomentum for actually um getting together with Steve in the first place.
(02:38):
So we played um a festival cruise in 2014 called Cruise to the Edge um after the Yes albumClose to the Edge.
Because Yes were the main act and there were bands like uh Saga, Steve Hackett,Queensryche, Stickman and also Tangerine Dream and Meridian.
(03:02):
But it just a small shed and we...
um
worked with the same booker after that years.
And so we met in 2018 in Berlin um before a marina concert just for coffee, just to talkand yeah, without any big task or master plan, just okay, let's meet, let's talk about
(03:30):
music and how we can get along together.
And so we,
planned a little session in my studio, actually in that room at that time, but it's not mystudio anymore.
um In February or March 19, it ah was four days and maybe less, and was the first guitarplayer who ever asked me for Omidikrop for his tremolo to be in sync with the sequences.
(04:04):
And I thought...
This is great.
This is perfect.
then normally it took more than one year.
I think I had a couple of solo shows in the UK in 2020, February again.
(04:25):
So all my Modeler stuff and lots of synths were in the UK.
So we took the opportunity to record some sessions in the Marion studio called the RecordClub, Mid-England.
And after that, we thought about let's work together on something.
If it's an EP, it's an album, it's just some collection of music or pieces is fine too.
(04:50):
And we regularly met in December because of our touring schedules and um Marion and Tenderand Dream never
third in December.
Don't know why but it's like that.
So, was one week normally in Berlin in my other studio, the main studio.
(05:13):
um Yeah, and last year we were close to finish, throw that bad word, but we thought aboutjust this is an album.
But then before a program,
like more techno-esque groups and uh more like, yeah, modular percussion.
(05:36):
It was very electronica.
And we talked about adding a human drummer to it and we watched a lot of YouTube videos.
And Alex Reeves from Elbow, he also played with uh people like Nick um Cave as well.
And so it's good for all words.
(05:58):
and he was an unbelievable drummer.
We recorded his tracks and contributions in February this year.
Only two days, one and a half days, editing on top in his studio in London, so I fly overto the UK.
It worked very well, I guess.
It was growing things together in a way.
(06:19):
Torsten, I know that the album takes a lot of its inspiration from the development of themoving image throughout the ages.
I'm just wondering if you can briefly take us through each of the tracks and give uslittle bit of insight into the compositional approach and the themes for those songs.
(06:42):
Most of them were...
I don't like the idea of an improvisation um because it's sometimes connected to musclememory playing.
And so I like more the idea or the concept of real-time composition, wizard.
(07:02):
Probably the same for some people, but it's a very big difference in my head at least.
um
because maybe with a goal on the horizon or a shape of things instead of just feeling themoment by itself.
And it was created more in the moment with the idea to have concepts.
(07:27):
I applied three concerts with Steve while the Tendren Dream Tour.
And I think it was quite an unusual experience for him because
we have 40 some something between 30 and 15 minutes each concert, which was called sessionand this is free form.
(07:49):
And so he played this sessions to and there's sometimes it feels like there's lots of roomlots of space, but don't fill it with many notes.
And so I think it's both
(08:09):
even the idea of very long form music, which is very strange talking about progressiverock bands.
Normally, they are the people with all the unbelievable long pieces.
But if you play with Tenron Dream, this is a different page.
um So even our last album was the first vinyl, it was double vinyl, the first
(08:36):
Winer 1, site A was one piece and Winer 2, site B was also only one piece.
So it's always some 20 minutes, 40 minutes, something like that.
Probably with less signal parts in it.
So the evolving structure of morphing things from one part to another without having abreak that works like a signal to
(09:06):
get to the next part is probably very different from the supposed plate in the moment andthen just recorded half hour then take one piece of it just sorry to bar 64 something and
work in kind of controlled studio environments on it.
(09:32):
This was also probably a very good thing that we always sat in the same room.
um think there's so many aspects of it.
So it sounds esoteric, but it isn't.
You have the idea of hearing with the ears of the other person in same room, because youtry to please.
(09:55):
I sometimes sitting arranging and it's...
scripting little lines in the panoramas.
So I know there's a movement from left 60 to left 452.
Probably the other person in the room wouldn't recognize this.
(10:18):
so maybe you make a little bit more, maybe you change it more classically because there'sa second person.
And I think that is good sometimes for the music because
It's great to have very minimalistic details, but the idea that, so I'm sitting here onehour and it's moving slightly over their left.
(10:40):
So what are you thinking I'm doing?
even the, m like the look in the eye check while doing drastically effect things or m
looping his guitar and at one point enforcing a sequence, filter bank, a moat filter, orkind of the hard side of granulazentesis to make it all grainy.
(11:14):
It's easier to look him into the eyes and look, I'm doing this, and okay, he's smiling.
Instead of doing this, making rough mix and dropbox and waiting two days for a response,which is maybe oh what it did to my guitars.
(11:38):
So this was great.
um I'm not so good in naming folders.
This is one I learned from Steve.
Normally it's just the date.
And the last song of the album is called Kaleidoscope.
(11:59):
It a Friday evening after dinner and Steve came up with that rock riff in a good way.
And probably would never have done something like that ever, but it works.
(12:20):
And so I know that don't maybe because of the day of the name Friday on my folder.
So I thought this should sound like the cure and enjoy the vision.
So I played all the, the soluna stuff.
have the MK.
Three, two, three, three, is okay.
(12:43):
But it's, it's, it's a key chronic.
So I can, it's my time to.
to talk about that.
It's not three, it's different.
On four, you have a tiny LED on it, on the modulation button on three.
yeah, okay.
sometimes my Serena decides which notes are in plane because of temperatures, because ofthe full phonic thing.
(13:08):
But on that day, that, yeah, I think it was D major, it worked in that key.
Sometimes we even started with a
middle part and edit the another part before after half a year, probably not half a year,three years later.
So there's not like a continuum working process per piece of music.
(13:35):
After all, it's not more than two months, I guess, together in the studio.
And maybe
two weeks editing and maybe tweaking, recording things.
Steve in his studio and some Modular overdubs which was slightly detuned or spreaddetuned.
(14:02):
You can do bit of a melody but it's not the same.
So try to find a sound close to that or different pads.
Probably even recorded little drier when it comes to reverb because that's I usually use alot of three verbs and and and the end final mix is Very for me.
(14:32):
It's very dry.
I mean, it's there's there's space on it, but it's not normally just doing the It's a lot.
I love
replica and the night sky, big sky and what's the name?
Starlap and the modulus.
Yeah, and just doing the big something on it.
(14:55):
um Yeah, so...
Yeah, that and look, is, it's an absolutely amazing sounding album.
And I'm fascinated obviously, Torsten, what were the key pieces of gear?
And you've mentioned some of the effects and some of the stuff you've used, but what wassome of the standout instruments to you that you used in that album that, you know, you're
(15:18):
so pleased that you use?
mean, you've mentioned the Selena, but just what was, what were your key go-toinstruments?
So my model is very important to me.
it's a good way, normally I'm just probably with editing or changing sounds until the end,which I'm doing when I'm doing soundtrack work because of the idea of soundtrack work and
(15:40):
something, some scenes are missing on the day before the picture lock.
But um if you work with the model system, you are forced to
press record at one point because you can't save any preset and for me it's a good thing.
(16:01):
There's a mixture of Eurorack and Marienberg which is a 5 unit which is a really goodsounding and uh lots of mogs.
If it's too nerdy, em please say that.
uh It's even three different voyages.
(16:22):
Wow.
Yeah, but they're sounding different.
So even the oscillator inside the voyage are sounding so different.
um there's this one of the select white ash things.
really like more for if it comes to um soloing, which the warm shine and tradesdiamond-esque thing.
(16:46):
um The sparkle black.
I think it's three years younger.
It's much better for basses, don't know why.
live, because two keyboard mocks on stage, it's a problem I have.
I'm using RME and it's even a bit different and like also to use the Minitor, also a whiteBlackBone and the Serene for...
(17:20):
some crunch, more crunchy, not for basses but it's also very one, so it doesn't sound likeanything else I think.
So for pets sometimes classics, Jupiter 8, Prophet 8 as well, 5.8, sparklings from
(17:49):
Quantum Baldo without using the compress and sense range.
um So I try to avoid the typical 80s, 90s sometimes um on that project or band.
I think there's no GBA 800, no wave stage, no M1, no D50.
(18:16):
um
It's Z1.
It's on the PET.
The big rise of the prophecy.
um And it's good.
Recent for some pets too.
But the first version, I don't like the GT1.
I think the first version is more great.
(18:39):
Sometimes a mixture of everything.
with the Mellotron, I'm using the mannequin electronic Memoton.
um
Real life is 7.4 seconds without a loop and like lead sounds, moke as well.
Sometimes op 6 for the crispy ones.
(19:02):
I really like the peak as well from Navation and the Modular Argon 8.
For granular, I have the GR1 from Tasty Ships and this is small but it works quite well.
has a very different sound to the granular engine from the um quantum.
(19:26):
Mostly that.
There's not so many plugins on it.
um I don't think they are the piano sound.
okay, yeah, that's yeah, I don't like making a piano or like the grand piano as well assome sample sounds.
(19:48):
To be honest,
It's sounding good and it's one of the Olafur Arnald's um thing and I really like hissound that you hear the hammer on the string more and you can adjust the amount of that.
(20:08):
Player's noise is something I don't use to make fun of the plug that you have a volumeamount of.
noises from the player like...
Don't know if I'm leading this.
Yeah, and lots of effects.
(20:29):
using some lots of pedals, Spryman, also the Magneto, the timeline, the Mobius, themoderation thing and the sunset.
things for the bit crunchy things, um what's the name of the M stripe, iridium as well.
(20:56):
and some strange kind of modelations with stuff from other brands.
Yeah, I think that's nearly it.
Probably I forgot some things.
MS-20, yeah, through, yeah.
oh
(21:16):
always through the distortion pedal.
Torsten, I think it was an inspired collaboration to do something with Steve.
think his melodic style really suits your playing very well.
And I it's a great album.
Do you think we can see further collaborations between you and Steve in the future?
Absolutely.
So, um, so there's a second album is planned as well.
(21:38):
And hopefully it wouldn't take as long as six years for doing this.
Um, we're going on tour on, in, um, December on only five shows to Netherlands, toGermany, one in Poland.
But I think it will work, um, to grow as a band.
as we wrote that album, there was no drama in mind because there was some
(22:03):
very sometimes fall on the floor on it.
um Some even remained uh of the fall on the floor things.
um But do I have the...
If you know that there will be a drummer would change things as well, think.
um we are very keen on, yes, that's right, on album four, four, a little bitstraightforward.
(22:32):
Probably it's ambient prop.
having that organic element really helps to add something different to an electronicalbum.
Absolutely.
So sometimes his guitar playing or metal device has a function of a singer.
(22:55):
And it's unbelievable how fast he can create melody lines out of nowhere to sometimesmaybe not so um common chord sequences.
And he's very
very much love for in detail for sound as well.
(23:18):
So there was in his studio, there was so many amps he can switch to and I played I think,I don't know, 40 minutes and he was only playing one note all the time.
And I thought, I probably hate what I'm doing.
But he just tried to find the exactly right sound and then it was all there.
(23:42):
it was
um But there, so probably it's sometimes maybe the same feeling for him when I'm standinglike 60, 80 minutes for the Modular system and patching things.
So in this environment where you can change like that top to this speaker and probablyeven something in between and that microphone setting.
(24:10):
So it's everything there.
this, yeah.
I think it's fair to say, Torsten, you're both veteran musicians and I'm sure you've bothspent time looking at each other, admiring what you're doing.
And I do want to sort of take a bit of a step back, if I can, to when you weren't aveteran musician, what was your start in music, Torsten?
What was your musical upbringing that led you to, you know, in this amazing career thatyou're in?
(24:34):
So I learned, I started as a violin player in the youth radio station in the 80s.
And then I always played flute and like baroque flute and piano.
I played in the 90s drums in a swing band and always played piano and violin.
(24:56):
My first band was actually as a violin player, was close to Newell Army.
And, but it was...
to...
It was the 90s and was acoustic violin and I'm half new, okay, maybe Ponte, but there wasno chance to get to electric violin for me and the microphones.
(25:22):
And I young, so I played since in that band.
It was kind of more than goth rock.
And then from goth rock, someone gave me a lot of progressive rock music.
Most of them, now probably one third, were meridian.
So for reasons, was a nursery crime, selling him by the pound, Foxtrot, trick of the tale.
(25:51):
Don't know why, because Lemstrum Boy weren't on that thing.
But misplaced childhood, seasons end, holiday need, and...
and Fugazi and King Trimson called him Trimson King.
(26:12):
From that, I started to dive into the progressive rock music, Genesis, Meridian, sometimesyes, but more King Trimson and mostly from the graph generator.
I think that was the connection between Gothic rock and progressive rock because thephonographed in radio, Peter A.
(26:36):
Hamer is quite dark guy and there's some spooky things in it.
So I was learning um classical music beside everything and tried to make that.
um yeah, I played in a lot of bands and studied composing and piano.
(26:56):
um
And yeah, I think 2003, I got a phone call from someone from Tendent Dreams office.
um And that was, he was working for foreign affairs in the office from Edgar.
And um he was the singer of a Gothic metal band called Progressive Supergamentis.
And there was known, also played a lot of strange dark metal, like it's now called extrememetal, like dead metal, black metal.
(27:25):
things like that because I a lot of sampling and even in 90s and had not the archive.
had two of the A3000 from Yamaha, but you had 128 megabytes on it.
So it's not 32.
So it took think six and a half minutes to load the unbelievable huge Squier sound in thattime.
(27:56):
And, um and extreme metal was keyboard wise in that it's all about Springs choirs, Frenchhorn, and doing 35 second intro.
And so uh I played a lot of black and death metal things as well.
that was the reason um the guy from Subquamentus knew me and um said
(28:22):
Edgar asked for someone, do you know Cuba Bay?
And they asked three people, guess.
And there was a very detailed to do list um for m do you know that?
It was unbelievable.
I was always was a Cubase guy because I came from Atari.
(28:44):
So if I had used logic, I wouldn't be here now.
You have to use
UBase and not only for one week and that.
And there was even a studio sampler and we called Giga Sampler.
It designated um PC only for a sampler.
(29:05):
um And we worked with that and had luck that I played a lot of cork things in that time.
it was Prophecy, WaveStation, EX, T1 because of the
keys, not for the sound, things like that.
And JD-800, things like that were more important to him than knowing a modular system, tobe honest.
(29:35):
I didn't know.
I never patched a modular system or programmed a step sequence like before, Joint, Tender,and Dream.
And that is very strange.
was the normal keyboard guy playing it live and pads, melodies, things like that.
So I came to his studio in Vienna, and Tenere Green Studio, they were just composing fororchestra and bands.
(30:05):
It was Dante Aggeri's Divine Comedy Poblatorium.
And the Paradiso was the connection of both.
And because of my classic composing study background, I probably also got the job becauseI can write.
scores and the notes and transpose things for the trumpets.
(30:27):
And after one and a half years sitting on Edgar's side in the studio and just I learnedeverything about electronic music because okay, I heard a little bit of Prodigy, Nine
Shnails, but not I was not so into that kind of music to be honest.
(30:48):
um
So I learned everything about electronic music from Edgar himself.
So probably the best teacher ever.
And there are so many rules for music, tenor dream-esque music that he elaborated in 40,50 years.
Even the number of steps um repeating the idea of um uneven intervals or step
(31:18):
Or there's like 15th again, 16th again, so can use that like the fourth and the seventh inintervals to make it more tense and then the release of keeping rolling and there are
strict rules for everything and states in tendon-degenerating.
And so I had one and a half year learning this and it was so interesting and it was sodifferent word and in 2004,
(31:47):
We started to compose the first album together, together with the son in that time calledChandak was released in 2005.
And since 2005, I'm Yeah.
I think it's more than 70 hours, something like that.
We recorded a lot.
So we composed door to door in his house in Vienna and sometimes in Berlin.
(32:13):
There was a big studio and yeah.
And Tosin, I need to ask you, obviously Edgar, um and you worked well together.
What do you feel was the sign that that relationship was going so well?
I mean, obviously the QBase issue was one part of it, but what worked so well to theextent that obviously after Edgar's unfortunate passing and so on, that the mantle was
(32:39):
handed to you.
What was the secret of the success of that relationship?
um We both like to work.
um strange.
um So Edgar's one of the most hardworking guys I ever met.
So there was some Dropbox invitation for a new track on Christmas Eve.
uh he said, maybe I should think about 27th and things like that.
(33:06):
But in the first weeks, he asked me if I ever were in the garden.
And they are, there's a garden.
Yeah, there's also a big pool.
Oh, great.
uh Really, never was...
uh Well, there's a terrace and there's a big, garden behind it.
Never was in studio the last three weeks.
(33:28):
So, and I like to work.
I love sitting on music and spending my time.
But sometimes it's like, it's not, I have to do music, forgive me if I don't do music.
um So if you spend three days without playing, that doesn't feel right.
(33:50):
And I think that attitude was very important and what is the most important thing.
And this is not hard to describe because you can't force it.
um You have to find a common language about music when it came to atmosphere.
(34:13):
to like the dynamic envelopes and even sounds.
So, um Tendron Dream sounds are not related to instruments that normally physically exist.
So, it's not...
So, but if you listen to Tomita, um that sounds like a bowl.
(34:39):
a bowie or this like a clarinet, there's a string, there's a trumpet.
uh Tenor and rim is more surrealistic.
um The envelopes and filter movements are not connected to this is a harp sound.
like harp maybe is pizzicato would be even close but the idea to have very long involvingthings um and talking about that kind of sounds.
(35:09):
without doing strange noises with your mouth.
Just describing the idea behind it and why do you
even the idea of resonance or peak, you think MS-Bandy-wise, um it's related to the keybecause there's a notch in it.
(35:38):
so it's um gaining one frequency and things like that for some musicians.
It's great, for some musicians.
No, I like the Pio sound.
No, no, but it's a wrong note inside the resonance.
I think to find a common language and to not to ask why this is 15 minutes um and try tofind new sounds and try to find maybe there is no new chord sequence anymore.
(36:20):
I think it's not impossible but to find a not so much used, often used chord sequence andtry to find the different sounds on it and then just try to involve that idea.
And Torsten, you've raised a really great point.
just want to butt in there about new sounds because I know since you've been involved withTangerine Dream, the sound has obviously continued to development.
(36:44):
feels like it's been respectful to the original catalog during the seventies and eighties,but you've also modernized the sound.
um Is that a weight on your shoulders, the legacy that's been handed onto you and how doyou deal with that and keep modernizing?
that's a lot of pressure.
Yeah.
And you can't please anyone.
there was no moment um when people didn't say it, that doesn't sound like Tender Dreamanymore.
(37:13):
um So I'm used to that.
Now, the strange thing is Edgar had a kind of a problem with analog and old gear in 2000.
because he was so bored about the detuning of it.
And he was so happy to, I'm using that and this is just a very tune stable plug-in orthings like that.
(37:39):
And I tried to bring them back um and yeah, to record them very much in tune.
And um it's quite hard.
tried to cameras close to his original recordings.
Because there is a lot of compositions, so I have to play those.
(38:02):
I wouldn't improvise on a composition from someone else.
it's not my type of thing.
it must sound homogonic in a way if you play concerts.
And this is a hard part.
So sometimes it's a mixture, so it's not.
(38:26):
not everything is live, some epigiators and the drums are synced with the um audio MTC, sothe sequences are starting every time at the same point.
So I can change presets and the sequences came through the Modular and some mini towers,some the RME.
(38:48):
um So it's always the same bass, live.
ah Because it's running through that.
um And my mother's system has two DI boxes, sorry, 10 DI boxes.
The one thing that I, it's like having presets live.
So I have the CV MIDI converter, so I have like 10 presets in the modeler.
(39:18):
Tendril Dreamware, involving or progressing in a way every year.
five years.
So you can't please anyone.
So one of my favorite bands, well, they also are mastering our albums with Tendrin Dreamsand my solo album and even the Bioscope album because I really love the guys.
(39:39):
Sige Ros and I in Reykjavik, Iceland in a studio called Sundklavlin, which is a publicswimming pool in Icelandic.
They said they really liked Tendrin Dream before the sequences came in.
they are
big fan of Artam and Sight.
And by Fedra, it was, But they are right.
(40:05):
So if you love Sight, Fedra is totally sounding different to theirs two years after that.
if you listen to Exit, like 82 or Underwater Sunlight, 86, and then things from 90s, youprobably won't believe that's the same band.
completely different.
um
Yeah, so if you listen album to album, which is one week, something like that, um in time,you see a red line between that.
(40:36):
And I tried to not to do it to be very respectful to the old stuff, but don't make it amuseum.
Because that would be probably sometimes easier.
um But
If you're musician, um there is a need to, longing to create new music and the opportunityto have the great moments, anything moments, few.
(41:08):
I think that that's not bad, but you also can fail big.
That's a risk.
um But it's all about that, I guess, not playing just Federer, Rubicon, Tzotzi.
in three years' service.
And that's great, Torsten.
think, you know, you really illustrate the point that you're continuing to move forward asa musician, but you're still being very respectful to the past as well.
(41:38):
Following on from that, know, Tangerine Dream obviously has very distinct eras throughouttheir catalogue over the years.
You know, you've got the Virgin years and the Blue years and et cetera.
You're going through the quantum era.
How would you define that just beyond the personnel?
side of things, so aesthetically.
(41:59):
So the quantum era was the first that was named before the era itself.
um So it's hard to describe that.
So it was normally related to the record company, like the Virgin years.
And there was, I guess there was no very crystallized plan to say
(42:29):
after five years we will leave virtually.
So probably not.
But the quantum idea is that everything is connected to each other.
um That um things you play in the room are related even to the audience.
So I'm doing this as an introduction of every concept.
(42:53):
So I never spoke to the audience because
if you do instrumental music, um it's grounding.
The human voice is grounding things um very much.
But sometimes it seems for the audience very arrogant because of that.
And there were some harsh critics because of that.
(43:17):
So normally I said even not the name of Hoshiko and Paul, but it was appearing on the LEDwall.
behind me and even take a safe trip back home in the language um was in the language ofthe country on the LED wall.
But now I'm speaking a little bit before concert and we always play the session in theresonance tone or key of the room.
(43:46):
You always find some, you find difference, some
some lights are shaking and then the ground is shaking.
The Mube base is very huge.
I opened a door with it, I destroyed an exit sign light with it while the audience werethere just to show them.
(44:13):
And the exit...
um
So it's not esoteric, it's just physics.
can, with base sequence, you can let the room shake in a way.
And that's easy part of it, but to have an idea where everything is connected.
(44:34):
If I press that button, you will feel it in your stomach and your share will move.
And we will um react differently if you react differently.
It's all one, it's in the same room.
We see you, we feel you, we, sometimes you're clapping, sometimes not.
(44:56):
There's this country by the difference.
Sometimes we play something in some countries, we're playing opera houses, philharmonichalls, and they are used to just wait until the last note.
And sometimes you're, and you'll leave like three seconds space between some tracks andnothing is happening.
(45:18):
That is affecting the next track because are they hearing anything?
So everything is connected and that's the idea of quantum.
So it starts with Ulrich Schnauz in 2014.
played the last three concerts with Edgar as a four piece was Hodgko, Ulrich, Edgar andme.
(45:44):
We're in Australia, Melbourne.
town hall and then we played um the Sorcerer twice and the movie, the movie that we'reshown behind us and we played the soundtrack to it.
Strangely, the last um minutes were totally improvised and that was really improvisedbecause our version of the movie we rehearsed to was shorter.
(46:14):
So we have...
microphones on stage to talk to each other.
And I don't think that's right.
So I think at least four minutes, I have no clue.
Probably 24 pictures per second to 25 in Germany.
(46:36):
After one and a half hour, and then you're missing one picture.
It's enough for four minutes.
Yeah.
And so, and so, was the last music with Edgun Stage was kind of, okay, let's do some fiveminutes sorcerers in editing, just add some music to it.
(47:05):
And after that, that was a quantum era, because before there was a guitar player,percussion, saxophone and things like that.
And it worked good as Edgar's decision.
um But the idea was to come back to electronic sequence driven music to the core of tenorand dream, but with a kind of contemporary approach to it, sound wise and composition
(47:38):
wise.
um Then he sadly died.
and half months later and really unexpected.
it was like the last email was like, I bought new sound cards, see you next week inVienna.
um But Edgar was the most hardworking person and there were plans for everything.
(48:07):
was like strategies for that and when that happened.
And so I was never rising
and say, I will do this.
I probably won't have done this.
This was probably just another quest from my teacher and master oh for that kind of music.
(48:27):
So it was strange to turn the term music director, like I was composing many things andwas doing the concert preparations and things like that since 2011.
And so it was his idea and also the idea that the concept of Tindran Dream and thephilosophy behind it is stronger than anyone involved.
(48:56):
So it can last people.
I think there are 24 people, 25.
So that's not true, probably more.
So in 67, there was a time where I think everyone was in the band who joined the rehearsalspace for one day.
I think even there are six different lineups from 67 to early 68.
(49:22):
But it was only Edgar and no one else.
So it was a drummer, they had a singer and violin player.
They had a bass player with an unbelievable great name, Happy Dieter.
And then he met Conor Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze and the first recording was 1970 beforeit was...
(49:44):
complete different band.
After Ulrich left, um now Paul is playing.
I know Paul from the university.
He's two years younger, but we met, yeah, cafeteria and the soul.
It was the same university.
he's a very staccato-esque player, which is a good addition, I guess, um because um it'svery rhythmical and never will play
(50:13):
things like that.
You don't need to same person twice.
it's now, it's his sleeping room for things.
And that's also very much part of the progression um that there's more space in the music.
(50:35):
um And even we try to come back to the idea that one
seamless sound for a melody is enough.
So it's easy to stack things.
I think that's something I did not so good in the early 2000s, just stacking sounds,especially lead sounds.
(50:58):
have a bell, then adding a strange piano.
have some DX7, TG777, the bellish sounds, five together, something like that.
um But it's not brave to do that.
um And you don't hear the signal, the frequencies that are missing in that sound.
(51:23):
And that's a characteristic thing about it and the shamanic thing about it.
So try to have more confidence in sound.
I thought about saying the word melody, so but coming...
back to Steve.
Steve is first person who did something like a hook or melody, which I don't...
(51:47):
I'm using that term in a good way.
I like the idea of motifs, which are melody lines, but appears three times in 25 minutes.
I like the idea to have some, okay, that is kind of hookish, but a motif and not a melodyline.
um
So Steve is unbelievable doing this.
(52:09):
don't, I'm doing motives.
And so that's the idea why we like to go more single lines, more breathing stuff, for suresequences, because there's no, at the end of the day, it's not so many options.
(52:30):
have 16 or 32 steps, you can connect things, you know what I mean.
Yeah.
depends on the sequence.
I'm using the Schrittmacher for 16 step, you can connect each step to each other.
So even the transposition just move in like fourth and the others 15 to 16 and the 16thand you can do all the polyrhythm stuff with it.
(52:58):
And for other things, the polysec from the Polish company.
um
as well.
says 32 steps, 8 lines, so you have 2256 LEDs on it and you see what's happening.
(53:19):
sad thing on that is you don't see the node that is playing.
You have to press the button.
So that's the best thing about the Schrittmacher.
You see 16 nodes and you can change them and you see all 16.
I don't
Yeah, some sequences.
I don't get it to be honest.
Well, I like to see the notes and I really love Dieter Döpfer, but a sequence with likesemitones and it's one to ten.
(53:50):
Yeah, I'm using this for filter movements and it's unbelievable great.
But let's do at least 12.
Yes.
That's not,
OK, so sorry.
No, I think we're in agreement.
No, I think we're in agreement there, Torsten.
And so I know we've got to get you on a plane relatively soon.
(54:12):
So I'm going to ask you one last question, which is one that all our guests hate, which isthe desert island disk question.
So if you had to pick five albums to take to a desert island, what would they be?
Whoa.
So um the very arty answer would be there is an album on mini disc by um Brian Eno.
(54:34):
Because Brian Eno, uh the mini disc is the only medium where you don't have a buffer usingit because it's pre-buffering.
And it was cut in, I think, 16 bar pieces.
And if you press shuffle, you always hear a never ending new album.
(54:55):
But this probably no.
um Five leaves left, Nick Drake.
Will be smaller hours, Frank Sinatra.
um So Genesis, I can hear it in my head.
(55:18):
I listen to it.
thousand times.
So I probably don't need it physical.
So if I want to listen to first or fifth or surface radio, it's there.
So it's too easy.
Descincuration of the cure because of teenage related time reasons.
(55:40):
there's always um the concept of guilty pleasure is strange because you still like it andwhy it's a
I really like August and everything after, by counting crows.
You nice.
Yeah, because it's, I think, I'm missing a word in English.
(56:04):
What's the name on Seagulls?
It has to be Seagulls.
What was the name of the...
and
There's a word for it, yeah.
Yeah.
And because it's not easy to listen in my head because it's even not Icelandic, it's afantasy language like Hoplantic.
(56:32):
So it's very hard to get this note by note.
yeah, you can't learn the words.
You could just try to, yeah, sound like that.
But I think that's the reason it feels new.
if you listen to it again.
Absolutely.
Look, wonderful picks.
(56:53):
um And I think there was a wonderful pick made when you were chosen to be part ofTangerine Dream as well, let alone Steve's pick of you as a collaboration partner on this
amazing Bioscope album.
We can't thank you enough for your time with this has been an absolute pleasure.
We've barely scratched the surface, but I know you need to get on a plane and I knowyou've only recently been in Australia, but we look forward to seeing you down here again
(57:16):
in coming years.
Yeah.
And there we have it.
Matt, Torsten was an absolute font of knowledge on so many issues.
I think I said in the intro, we could have spoken for six hours and I don't think it's aword of a lie.
(57:36):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
What a pleasure to talk to someone like that.
Yeah.
It's an absolute honor and a privilege and we can't thank Torsten enough for his time.
And he literally was jumping on a plane.
I never thought to ask him who he was touring with.
I'm not sure whether Tangerine Dreamer doing more dates or whatever it is, but he was,he's certainly a busy man and we appreciate him taking the time.
(57:57):
And as always, we appreciate you taking the time to listen to us.
It's hugely appreciated.
And Matt could literally couldn't have done this one without you.
I'm a Tangerine Dream fan, but it's your knowledge that helped make this show what it was.
So thank you.
Oh, thank you, David.
I really appreciate you asking me along to this one.
And I'm sure it won't be the last.
You hear that bindi?
Do you hear that?
(58:21):
And we also need to call out to our gold and silver supporters.
So the amazing Tammy Katcher from Tammy's Musical Studio.
Thank you as always for your ongoing support.
Mike Wilcox at Midnight Mastering.
If you do create your own work and you need someone great to mix and master it, Mike isthe guy.
uh Dave Bryce and the team at themusicplayer.com forums.
Thank you as always.
And last but definitely not least, and Dewey, this is two episodes in a row.
(58:44):
I've made you last but not least.
Dewey Evans from the Sunnylander Wales.
Thank you sir for your support.
So we'll be back in a couple of weeks.
Thank you again, Matt.
And until then, keep on playing.
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