The short version
- Edgar Froese's autobiography, Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure, was published by Eastgate Music & Arts in Berlin on 29 September 2017, in German and in English.
- Pre-sales opened in January 2014. Froese died on 20 January 2015, and the book came out after his death.
- It is a large-format hardback: 394 pages in German, 381 in English, with additional texts by his wife, Bianca Froese-Acquaye.
- Read it a record at a time, with the record playing. It fills in what went on behind the albums.
In January 2014 the Tangerine Dream camp opened pre-orders for a book. It was called Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure - 1967-2014. Edgar Froese had been writing it for more than seven years, the announcement said, and it would appear in English and German, a big book of more than 500 pages. The pre-sale would pay for the printing and the English translation, and the book was due in December 2014 or early 2015. On 20 January 2015 Froese died in Vienna. The book came out on 29 September 2017.
Where it sits
The publisher calls it the first and only autobiography of Tangerine Dream, written by Froese himself. It is the one place where the man who founded the band tells its story at book length.
If you are new to the band, start with our Tangerine Dream starting guide. The book pays off once you know a few of the records. Its title is the same as the 1979 album Force Majeure.
It took a long time to arrive. In October 2016 the publisher's shop still carried a pre-order notice promising release that year. Pre-order customers got music as a thank-you: according to the official site, the first 500 received the album Light Flux, and later ones the Light Flux EP. The day after publication, 30 September 2017, there was a launch party in Berlin.
- German edition
- Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure: Autobiografie. 2017, Eastgate Music & Arts, Berlin. 394 pages, ISBN 978-3-00-056524-3
- English edition
- Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure: Autobiography. 2017, same publisher. 381 pages, ISBN 978-3-00-056525-0. Translated from the German by Paul Bonin
- Author
- Edgar Froese, with additional texts by Bianca Froese-Acquaye
- Published
- 29 September 2017 (publisher's date)
- Format
- hardback, 31 cm tall, illustrated. The publisher gives the weight as about 1.5 kg
The page count kept moving. The 2014 pre-sale notice promised more than 500 pages, and the October 2017 launch text more than 600. The publisher's shop now says about 400. The figures above are from the German National Library catalogue.
What is in it
The publisher sells it as the unusual adventures of a band and its founder, and lists the people who turn up: Salvador Dalí, David Bowie, Richard Branson, Andy Warhol, John Peel, Jimi Hendrix, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann. German Wikipedia notes that for all the "1967-2014" of its working title, the book concentrates on the seventies and eighties.
According to a 2020 review on the British site The Audiophile Man, there are 42 pages of colour photographs bound into the middle, and the book closes with a section of thoughts from friends, colleagues and fans, everyone from Jean-Michel Jarre to Bob Moog's daughter.
The extracts that have appeared in print give a sense of the writing. A 2024 feature in the British magazine Electronic Sound took a scene from the Phaedra sessions out of the book. At The Manor, Christopher Franke's Moog had misbehaved. While Franke retuned it, Froese was sitting in the kitchen when a sequencer pattern came through from the studio. In the book he writes: "I ran into the studio and grabbed Franke by both arms so that he couldn't alter any more settings."
The same feature quotes him on Richard Branson: "It was an obvious fact that Branson wasn't able to understand our music." In 2018 the magazine ran the book's account of the Reims Cathedral concert, a chapter that starts with a stranger calling from Paris at two in the morning.
Did he finish it?
The publisher says Froese wrote it over about seven years, pouring every free moment into it between film scores, albums and concerts. Whether the manuscript was complete is another matter, and the sources disagree. Electronic Sound wrote in 2018 that he was still writing it when he died. German Wikipedia says he finished it only shortly before his death. We found nothing that settles it. What is certain is that the book appeared without its author, and with texts by his wife alongside his own.
What reviewers said
The Audiophile Man called it an important story, well told. It found Froese detailed and uncompromising as a voice, honest in his observations and cutting in his conclusions. It also had complaints: the type looks a little large, the spacing a little generous, and there is no reason for the book to be so big. In 2021 the British webzine Freq, reviewing another book, called it a mammoth book that was obviously lovingly put together.
How to read it
- Keep the records next to you. When you reach the Phaedra pages, play Phaedra.
- You do not have to read it front to back. Start with a record you know.
- Read it at a desk. It is heavy and it is large. This is not a book to hold up in bed.
One track to go with it
Put on "Phaedra", 17:39, and keep one thing in mind. The sequence came out of a malfunctioning Moog, and Froese grabbed his bandmate by both arms to save it. The man who wrote that scene down did not live to see the book.
Where to get it
Both editions are sold through the publisher's online shop, Eastgate. A 1.5 kg book on the desk, and a record turning beside it.