Zeit

Zeit (English: Time) is the third album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. A double LP, it was released in August 1972, being the first release featuring Peter Baumann, who joined then-current members Christopher Franke and Edgar Froese. Zeit is subtitled Largo in Four Movements.

Overview

The style of this album is slower and more atmospheric than their previous albums. Florian Fricke from the Munich-based group Popol Vuh, playing Moog synthesizer, and four cellists appear on the first track. The album cover depicts a solar eclipse.

As explained by Paul Russell for the 2002 reissue, "Zeit, which means 'time', was based on the philosophy that time was in fact motionless and only existed in our own minds." And concluding, "Without doubt Zeit is a Krautrock master work still capable of surprises without having to shock. The album which took the band to the edge of international recognition, still sounds timeless 30 years on."

Music critics often refer to Zeit as being one of the first (or perhaps the first) examples of dark ambient music.

Wolfgang Rihm

Wolfgang Rihm (born 13 March 1952 in Karlsruhe) is a German composer.

Rihm is musical director of the Institute of New Music and Media at the University of Music Karlsruhe and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He was honoured as Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2001. Most recently, he is the recipient of the 2015 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition sponsored by the University of Louisville for his orchestral work In-Schrift 2.

Career

Rihm finished both his school and his studies in music theory (with Hans H. Eggebrecht) in 1972, two years before the premiere of his early work Morphonie at the 1974 Donaueschingen Festival launched his career as a prominent figure in the European new music scene. Rihm's early work, combining contemporary techniques with the emotional volatility of Mahler and of Schoenberg's early expressionist period, was regarded by many as a revolt against the avant-garde generation of Boulez, Stockhausen (with whom he studied in 1972–73), and others, and led to a large number of commissions in the following years. In the late 1970s and early 1980s his name was associated with the movement called New Simplicity. His work still continues to plough expressionist furrows, though the influence of Luigi Nono, Helmut Lachenmann and Morton Feldman, amongst others, has affected his style significantly.