Tangerine Dream
Edgar Froese's ever-shifting ensemble, beginning as psychedelic experimentalists before becoming kosmische musik's primary exponents. Their Virgin Records albums Phaedra and Rubycon defined the space music aesthetic, built from sequenced Moog synthesizers that drifted in and out of tune as studios heated up, creating organic textures from unstable analog electronics. Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann joined for the classic period.
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Discography
Phaedra
First Virgin Records release, reaching UK Top 15. Its sequencer-driven textures and accidentally-recorded temperature-drift oscillators defined kosmische musik's ambient aesthetic. The title track was captured when the band forgot to turn off the tape machine while testing their new Moog—the drift in tuning as analog oscillators warmed up created organic quality they recognized as more interesting than precision. They kept the take as it was, temperature drift and all.
Rubycon
Follow-up to Phaedra reaching UK Top 20; two side-long pieces of sequenced synthesizers and Mellotron that essentially invented the new-age music template. The ambient drift aesthetic, built from unstable analog electronics and studio temperature fluctuations, established the sound that Brian Eno and others would develop throughout the late 1970s.