Five Years Since Edgar Left...

Hello Everyone.  Dave Brewer here.

Wow.  It's been a fast 5 years since Maestro Froese passed on to his new
cosmic address.  I remember hearing about his passing as if it was
yesterday.

It was through Vic Rek (the Ricochet Dream director) that I read the news.
I'm a fan of older rock music (1960s through the '90s) so he wasn't the
first musician whose music I love to pass away.  But his death was the
first and only one thus far to really hit me hard.  I remember actually
feeling dizzy and having to prop myself up against a wall.  My body's
automatic response surprised me just as much as Edgar's death did.

A big part of the emotional hit was that his music created a profound
turning point in how I approached music in general.  By the late '80s I was
really getting tired of the shallow pop music that had dominated the
airwaves.  I craved for something different, something more engaging.

Ever since I was a small child in the '70s I appreciated the sounds
generated by electronic instruments.  I might not have known what the
instruments were called, but the unearthly soundwaves created by the
keyboards and drum machines captivated my young mind.  When the new wave
music took off in the early '80s, the electronic sounds were everywhere and
I ate it up.  I noticed electronics being used in film scores, and I got a
copy of Vangelis' Chariots of Fire theme.  I played that 45 to death!  I
also loved his music in Blade Runner, though I thought the film was
boring.  Hey, I was 9 years old and Star Wars was huge.  Just what was Han
Solo doing in that movie??

Anyway, my love of electronic sounds and the desire for something divergent
from pop music led me to Tangerine Dream.  I had heard of them for some
time, and even watched the Streethawk show without realizing who they
were.  But in 1989 I bought Optical Race and the Legend soundtrack, and my
musical world was never the same.

I already had an appreciation for classical music and jazz, but TD added
another non-pop facet that I desperately needed.  As I worked my way
backwards in time, I discovered the more ambient works of the '70s.  Some I
liked at first listen (like Rubycon), some took more time and effort.
Edgar and his various collaborators expanded my mind and led me to other
previously-unknown musical spheres.  As I graduated high school I graduated
into a larger world of sounds.

The other big part of the impact of Edgar's death was that he is one of my
big musical influences.  I started playing music in my elementary school
concert band, playing 3rd chair clarinet.  Yeah, I wasn't very good.  I was
given a cheap tiny Yamaha keyboard for Christmas in junior high and played
around with it a lot (still have it).  I tried learning keyboard parts of
songs from my tape collection and radio.  By the time I joined my high
school's jazz band, I felt I really hadn't improved with the clarinet.  I'm
sure the then-recently-deceased Benny Goodman writhed in his grave
everytime I blew that horn.  So I dropped it and started playing keys and
drums.  This was still a couple of years before I found TD.

Fast forwarding a bit, TD was a big part of the soundtrack of my life
through college.  My music gear set was very slowly growing and I was
writing and recording keyboard music on my own.  I also played drums in a
rock band.  Throughout those endeavors, Edgar's music (TD and solo)
continued to influence me.  My biggest heartache was that I didn't
personally know anyone who also enjoyed TD's music, so I just listened
alone.  However, the old Tadream mailing list helped me a lot in that realm.

It wasn't until some time after college that I finally got to meet a bunch
of other TD fans, thanks to Vic's first Ricochet Gathering in 2000.  They
were all friends I had interacted with on the mailing list, so it was
wonderful to finally put faces to those names.  I was fortunate to
participate in the gatherings through 2005.

At the risk of sounding like a gushing fool, none of this would've happened
to me without Edgar's music in my life.  And I could never thank him
enough.  I'm grateful I got to see TD in concert twice - in 1992 and 2005.
And it's cool that both specific shows I had attended were officially
documented - the Arizona CD and the Phaedra Shepherd's Bush DVD.

When Edgar passed, I was immediately moved to record a tribute to him.
It's an interpretation of Stuntman (one of my favorite songs) on piano with
mellotron sounds.  There was to be a tribute album which I was going to
give this music to, but the project fell through for some reason.

That was the last music I've recorded.  I haven't worked much on music
since then because of various life events that continue to this day.  I
hope to be able to start up again because I don't want to throw away that
which Edgar had contributed so much to, however unbeknownst to him.

TD has not been the same without Edgar.  I recognize and appreciate that
Thorsten, Ulrich and Hoshiko have been carrying on in his spirit with the
utmost heart and respect.  But I just have not been able to get into the
latest music.  Thankfully, I have over 150 CDs of TD's and Edgar's solo
music I can continue to enjoy until I myself return to the Lord's house.

Thank you Edgar Froese, for everything.  (I listened to Ages as I wrote
this.)

Kindest regards,
Dave Brewer