Canyon Dreams
Encyclopedia
Canyon Dreams is an album by Tangerine Dream
, recorded in 1987 and released in 1991 on Compact Disc
and Compact Cassette
. The music is written as a sound accompaniment for the different scenic video scenes about the Grand Canyon
in the film "Canyon Dreams" by Jan Nickman
released by Miramar
. The tracks are divided into various episodes and related to the titles of the cuts.
The distinctive quality of this disc is the Native American
influence. The unique style of Edgar Froese
, Christopher Franke
, and Paul Haslinger
make them experts in creating sequenced atmospheric soundscapes, and this is exactly what they do here. They use a Native American pace and add native flutes to give the disc a feel of the American Southwest. The execution is however, unmistakably recognizable as the Berlin School of electronic music
. This makes the album unique and the reason that Tangerine Dream
received its first Grammy nomination with this album. The album is the start of a new direction using a combination of the group's progressive style and its current commercial leanings.
The music ambience relates to contemporary musicians such as Soulfood
, Steve Roach, Matthias Gohl
, and Michael Stearns
.
The 1999 re-release by TDI features one additional track, "Rocky Mountain Hawk", and an entirely redesigned booklet. The following sleeve notes about the Grand Canyon are included: "Two billion years of geological evidence of the earth's history is exposed in the canyon's rock walls, more than can be observed anywhere else in the world. Travelling The canyon's length requires a river journey of 277 miles, through canyons varying in distance from less than a half mile to more than eighteen miles apart, and through depths reaching nearly 600 feet. Early visitors named many of the large buttes after ancient gods. Jupiter
, Juno
, Apollo
, Venus
, Vishnu
, Deva
, Shiva
and Brahma
have temples here, while Vulcan
and Wotan
have thrones named in their honor. The Paiute
Indians believed the canyon had been created by the god Tavwoats to separate the world of the living from the lands beyond death. Havasupai and Hulapai
Indians believed the river was the runoff from an earth-covering flood, much like the one Noah experienced."
In March 2009 the album was re-released with different cover design as part of an extensive digipack series (consisting of a total of more than 60 CD and DVD releases) by the Germany based Membran record label.
, Chris Franke
and Paul Haslinger
(1) Composed by Jerome Froese
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
, recorded in 1987 and released in 1991 on Compact Disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
and Compact Cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
. The music is written as a sound accompaniment for the different scenic video scenes about the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
in the film "Canyon Dreams" by Jan Nickman
Jan Nickman
Jan Nickman is an American film and television director, producer, cinematographer and writer. As the co-founder of Miramar Images, Inc. and Sacred Earth Pictures, Nickman's career in film and television spans three decades...
released by Miramar
Miramar
Miramar is a place name of Spanish origin. It means "sea-view" or "sea sight" from mira and mar .-Places:Asia*Miramar, Panaji, GoaEurope*Miramar, a hamlet in the commune of Théoule-sur-Mer, France...
. The tracks are divided into various episodes and related to the titles of the cuts.
The distinctive quality of this disc is the Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
influence. The unique style of Edgar Froese
Edgar Froese
Edgar Wilmar Froese is a German artist and electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group, Tangerine Dream. Although his solo and group recordings prior to 2003 name him as "Edgar Froese", his solo albums from 2003 onward bear the artist name "Edgar W. Froese".Froese...
, Christopher Franke
Christopher Franke
Christopher Franke is a German musician and composer. From 1971 to 1988 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...
, and Paul Haslinger
Paul Haslinger
Paul Haslinger is an Austrian-born composer and musician currently based in Los Angeles, California.- Life and career :...
make them experts in creating sequenced atmospheric soundscapes, and this is exactly what they do here. They use a Native American pace and add native flutes to give the disc a feel of the American Southwest. The execution is however, unmistakably recognizable as the Berlin School of electronic music
Berlin School of electronic music
The Berlin School of electronic music, or just Berlin School, was a development of electronic music in the 1970s, shaped by Berlin-based artists like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Ashra....
. This makes the album unique and the reason that Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
received its first Grammy nomination with this album. The album is the start of a new direction using a combination of the group's progressive style and its current commercial leanings.
The music ambience relates to contemporary musicians such as Soulfood
Soulfood
Soulfood Music Distribution GmbH is a German company distributing music and computer games as well as related merchandise products. The company's distribution deals usually cover Germany, Austria and Switzerland .-History:...
, Steve Roach, Matthias Gohl
Matthias Gohl
Matthias Gohl is a Swiss musical producer/director/supervisor/composer of film scores and stage productions.He produced most of Elliot Goldenthal's film scores as well others...
, and Michael Stearns
Michael Stearns
Michael Stearns is a United States musician and composer of ambient music. He is also known as a film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for large format films, theatrical films, documentaries, commercials, and themed attractions....
.
Album History
In 1991 the soundtrack of the video release Canyon Dreams was released officially as the first TD album by the Seattle based Miramar company, beginning the band's 'Seattle Years'. In the USA Canyon Dreams was nominated for the Grammy as "Best New Age Album 1991". Some months before a bootleg version of the soundtrack had already been released, titled The Canyon Dreams, featuring the music from the video. The music material on the official soundtrack was partially remixed, has slightly different running times and features the bonus track Colorado Dawn composed by Jerome Froese.The 1999 re-release by TDI features one additional track, "Rocky Mountain Hawk", and an entirely redesigned booklet. The following sleeve notes about the Grand Canyon are included: "Two billion years of geological evidence of the earth's history is exposed in the canyon's rock walls, more than can be observed anywhere else in the world. Travelling The canyon's length requires a river journey of 277 miles, through canyons varying in distance from less than a half mile to more than eighteen miles apart, and through depths reaching nearly 600 feet. Early visitors named many of the large buttes after ancient gods. Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, Juno
Juno (mythology)
Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...
, Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
, Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
, Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
, Deva
Deva (Hinduism)
' is the Sanskrit word for god or deity, its related feminine term is devi. In modern Hinduism, it can be loosely interpreted as any benevolent supernatural beings. The devs in Hinduism, also called Suras, are often juxtaposed to the Asuras, their half brothers. Devs are also the maintainers of...
, Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
and Brahma
Brahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
have temples here, while Vulcan
Vulcan (mythology)
Vulcan , aka Mulciber, is the god of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes in ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism. Vulcan is usually depicted with a thunderbolt. He is known as Sethlans in Etruscan mythology...
and Wotan
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
have thrones named in their honor. The Paiute
Paiute
Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...
Indians believed the canyon had been created by the god Tavwoats to separate the world of the living from the lands beyond death. Havasupai and Hulapai
Hualapai
The Hualapai or Walapai are a tribe of Native Americans who live in the mountains of northwestern Arizona, United States. The name is derived from "hwa:l," the Hualapai word for ponderosa pine, "Hualapai" meaning "people of the ponderosa pine"...
Indians believed the river was the runoff from an earth-covering flood, much like the one Noah experienced."
In March 2009 the album was re-released with different cover design as part of an extensive digipack series (consisting of a total of more than 60 CD and DVD releases) by the Germany based Membran record label.
Track listing
All Tracks Composed, Arranged and Performed by Edgar FroeseEdgar Froese
Edgar Wilmar Froese is a German artist and electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group, Tangerine Dream. Although his solo and group recordings prior to 2003 name him as "Edgar Froese", his solo albums from 2003 onward bear the artist name "Edgar W. Froese".Froese...
, Chris Franke
Chris Franke
Chris Franke is an experimental poet from Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. His work includes concrete poetry, sound poetry, performance poetry, and various forms of conventional poetry. He has performed as a member of the Endangered Species Trio as a reader of his poetry to harp and flute...
and Paul Haslinger
Paul Haslinger
Paul Haslinger is an Austrian-born composer and musician currently based in Los Angeles, California.- Life and career :...
- Shadow Flyer - 5:47
- Canyon Carver - 4:20
- Water's Gift - 5:27
- Canyon Voices - 4:28
- Sudden Revelation - 4:48
- A Matter of Time - 8:56
- Purple Nightfall - 2:08
- Colorado Dawn (1) - 4:28
(1) Composed by Jerome Froese
Jerome Froese
Jerome Froese is a musician who, in 1990, officially joined his father, Edgar Froese in the band Tangerine Dream. He remained a member until 2006; currently he is working on several other projects...