The short version
- Tangerine Dream first played London's Royal Albert Hall on 2 April 1975. Thirty-five years later, on 1 April 2010, they came back for the Zeitgeist Concert.
- The band's website pointed out that their first LP turned 40 the same month, and pitched one concert to mark both anniversaries.
- The show came out that July as a three-CD live album with 34 tracks. The first one belongs to four cellists.
- "Rubycon", a full LP side in 1975, came back as a piece of just over 6 minutes. Of the three men who wrote it, only Edgar Froese was on stage.
In May 2009 a new line went up on the concert page of Tangerine Dream's old official website: 1 April 2010, the Royal Albert Hall, London, the "Zeitgeist Concert". The note underneath was built on two numbers. The band had first played the hall in April 1975, so April 2010 would be the 35th anniversary. Their first LP had come out in April 1970, which made the same month a 40th anniversary. So why not celebrate both with one of the most outstanding live concerts the band had ever given? Tickets would go on sale in about two weeks. The second number is the announcement's own count: MusicBrainz dates the first LP, Electronic Meditation, to June 1970.
The same hall, 35 years earlier
English Wikipedia calls the Royal Albert Hall concert of 2 April 1975 a milestone for the band. Rubycon had just come out: Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann, one piece to a side, two pieces of 17 minutes each. A recording of that night was released much later. MusicBrainz dates its first release to July 2002.
Marking anniversaries on stage was nothing new. According to English Wikipedia, for its 40th anniversary in 2007 the band played a single UK concert, at the London Astoria on 20 April. The same page that announced the 2010 show also listed a concert at the Paris Olympia on 28 March 2010, four days before London, postponed from 12 September 2009.
The 2010 concert wasn't billed as a re-run of the 1975 night. The website sold it on the anniversaries, and the show was called "Zeitgeist", the spirit of the times.
A night that opens on four cellos
The live album came out on Eastgate on 7 July that year, three CDs in all. The Discogs entry notes that it was recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall on 1 April 2010 and comes with a 16-page booklet. Disc one has 16 tracks, disc two 11, disc three 7: 34 in all.
Track one is "Cello Opening", and the credits list four cellists by name. Track two is a piano improvisation written by Linda Spa. The sequencer pulse doesn't arrive until track three, and track three is called "Rubycon 2010".
The band on stage that night was five people. By the Discogs credits, Froese played keyboards and guitars, Thorsten Quaeschning grand piano and keyboards, and Linda Spa grand piano, saxophone, flute and keyboards. Iris Camaa played electronic drums and percussion, and Bernhard Beibl electric guitar and electric violin. Quaeschning, Camaa and Beibl sang as well.
Seventeen minutes into six
Both sides of the 1975 Rubycon run past 17 minutes. "Rubycon 2010" runs just over 6. Disc one has two more pieces of the same kind: "Phaedra 2005" at 5 minutes and "Stratosfear '95" at about six and a half. The names of three albums from 1974 to 1976 became three tracks out of 34.
The credits give all three to the same three writers: Franke, Froese and Baumann, the men who made Rubycon. Of the five on stage in 2010, only Froese was one of them. Near the end of disc three there's the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood", and disc two has Erik Satie's "Gymnopédies".
London also had something Lisbon didn't. Introducing its video of a show in Lisbon, the band's current website says it was nearly the same show as the London Zeitgeist Concert, apart from three tracks played only in Lisbon. Lisbon, in turn, had to do without the second encore London got.
How to listen
Don't try all three discs at once. Play disc one. Four cellos fill the room first, a piano passes through, and on track three the sequencer comes in. Your breathing shifts right there. Then put on side one of the 1975 Rubycon, where a piece with the same name takes 17 minutes to find its shape. There are 35 years between the two records.
If you're new to the band, start with the Tangerine Dream guide. The 1975 record has its own Rubycon review.
If you send a friend one track, make it "Rubycon 2010". At just over 6 minutes they'll hear it to the end. After that, point them to the 17-minute original.
Same hall, same name, one man still on stage.
Where to get it
Zeitgeist Concert: Live at the Royal Albert Hall London 2010 first came out on Eastgate as a three-CD set in July 2010. MusicBrainz also lists a 2013 UK release.