Solo (1974-1983) The Virgin Years

Though best known as the driving force behind the pioneering German synth-prog outfit Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese also maintained a flourishing and stylistically distinct solo career, releasing an impressive number of strikingly imaginative albums under his own name even while guiding Tangerine Dream to ever-greater levels of commercial and artistic success. Solo (1974—1983) The Virgin Years is as close to a definitive Froese collection as listeners are likely to get, though it doesn't include Froese’s third solo release on Brain (the forbiddingly minimal Macula Transfer) and passes over some of his soundtrack material. But Solo contains a wealth of remarkable recordings, including the entirety of the five Froese full-lengths distributed by Virgin between 1974 and 1983 and a handful of bonus tracks. The strongest material here comes from 1975’s Ypsilon in Malaysian Pale, a stark instrumental release that sports rich layers of synthesizer textures and long, intensely meditative compositions that would wield an enormous influence on ambient and new age music in the decades to come.