Aqua
	Produced by Edgar Froese
	Released on 1974
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
VR 13-111 cover [high resolution photo]

L ong before Underwater Sunlight reached our ears, Edgar Froese went on an aquatic excursion of his own, the first of several ‘70s solo albums from the primary brain behind Tangerine Dream. Aqua is as much sound as music, designed (with the benefit of an “artifical head system” developed by Gunther Brushcen) to be experienced on headphones. In such a setting (which I haven’t tried since the days of the Stax electrostatic ear speakers), it’s easy to imagine the listener fully immersed in Froese’s waterworld. If electronic meditation is your bag and Klaus Schulze your green grocer, Aqua might be what you’re thirsting after. What occur here are soundscapes and linear journeys that suggest Tangerine Dream on a more intimate scale. Rather than three voices telling you what to watch out the window, there’s only Froese’s voice (although Chris Franke does add moog sounds on the tunneling “NGC 891”). The result may strike some as unambitious, creating individual worlds of sound rather than Phaedra’s universe. At least that’s how I felt when I used to hear this. Cluster’s “Grosses Wasser” seemed the grander water portrait, Peter Baumann’s Romance ’76 the louder declaration of independence. But Aqua didn’t need to make a big statement; after all, Froese had Tangerine Dream for that. Instead, the composer explores some avenues he might have entertained along the way, from an electronic interpretation of nature (“Aqua”) to experiments in King Crimson’s contained energy (“Panorphelia”). Phaedra and Rubycon are the better albums, but Aqua could otherwise be seen as an introsopective cousin to those works. If their later albums (White Eagle et cetera) didn’t float your boat, a return to Aqua may be in order. Also recommeneded to anyone who was tickled pink over Meddle’s “Echoes.”

VR 13-111 inner gatefold	VR 13-111 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. AQUA    16:58
2. PANORPHELIA    9:38
3. NGC 891    14:50
4. UPLAND    6:31
   
   All songs written by Edgar Froese
   

CREDITS

EDGAR FROESE -- instruments
Chris Franke -- Moog sounds (3)
Gunther Brushcen -- artificial head system
Monique Froese -- cover design and photography

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