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Jerome Froese, Johannes Schmoelling (both ex-TANGERINE DREAM) & Robert Waters, and this is the trio’s 2012 debut release – a classic live double album!
‘Scored’ went out-of-print early in 2014 and was nearly gone forever – which would have been a travesty - but the band decided to do a small re-press :-) We are due to have it back in stock again early in July 2014, so if you don’t have this magnificent double album in your EM collection, now’s you chance to rectify that!
On Disc 1 this album is focused around Johannes Schmoelling’s melodic/symphonic style of playing and more geared towards melody that I though it might be. Disc 2 however sees the guitar start to emerge much stronger in the mix, slowly building the band’s performance to an electrifying climax.
The album captures the trio ‘live’ at the legendary E-Live Festival in Holland on October 15th 2011. The set incorporates tracks composed by Johannes Schmoelling and Jerome Froese, plus a selection of covers of TANGERINE DREAM material.
Opening with Schmoelling on piano for: ‘Palace Of Dreams’ the concert gets of to a beautifully melodic start and almost exactly what you would expect from JS. A dreamy synthscape introduces ‘Modulation Agents’, with faint choral textures hovering around the main core, before a synth rhythm kicks in with fluid, echoed effects floating all around. This track has a more improvised feel as melodies are added to the rhythmic run and a sound that gradually becomes more formed as the piece progresses. A long fade brings the sun down over a misty sea of soft electronic sounds to reveal ‘La Marche’, a tracks that opens in atmospheric territory with synth flutes and a river of cosmic textures until a restrained sequencer strikes up. Later a drum adds to the rhythmic flow and high register synth melodies soar and fly on top on a bad of soft, symphonic synth sounds until a stronger sense of power takes over and the synths and percussion really let rip with a grandiose, pulsating passage that is built to thrill.
As ‘La Marche’ closes with a haunting section of melodic synthscaping: ‘Catwalk’ runs in on a choppy, rhythmic undercurrent with rich, melodious tones playing over the top. The percussive elements expand amongst swathes of guitar and keyboard effects with Schmoelling in tuneful control, and as the track draws to a close you get the feeling that this is the nearest thee trio have come to sounding like TD so far.
Speaking of which, a track from their ‘Flashpoint’ soundtrack ‘Going West’ is covered next, with Schmoelling’s rich, melodic synth textures sounding almost like Vangelis meets Edgar Froese.
Next is a beautiful and sparkling rendition of the fantastic: ‘Matjora Is Still Alive’ from Schmoelling’s debut solo album ‘Wuivend Riet’. The rich, soaring theme of this track was great then and even better now performed in a ‘live’ setting with sweeping string-synth backdrop. If you’re a melody man, you’ll love this!
‘A Room In The House Closed To The Public’ opens with atmospheric chorister samples over a sea of hazy synthesizer textures, then a shuffling rhythm joins in and the track flows through a sea of spacey sounds and textures until a fuzzed guitar comes in to lift the melody line up on high and generates a lot of exciting sounds in doing so.
A sombre melody line intro’s: ‘A Long Way Home’ where Schmoelling’s piano takes the lead melody to fantastic effect over a backdrop of guitar textures, distant choral voices and a shuffling ambient percussion sounds.
Schmoelling opens ‘Abacus’ with a piano busts then it mover very quickly over to a huge, riveting high-reg synth work that is very late 70’s / 80’s in style. The keyboards really takes hold of the theme and fly with it over a background of ethereal synth textures and modern electro percussive sounds – Fantastic track that is again built to thrill lovers of melodic 70’s / 80’s synth music and much appreciated by this audience.
‘Crystal Red’ closes Disc 1 and is intro’d by Jerome’s shifting guitars and effects before starting in a riffed-up mix of guitars and electro percussion. Another strong, melodic synth solo cuts its way in, as does an array of choral samples and a host of other sounds, samples and effects that make for a really vibrant piece of synth music that, like the tracks that have gone before, retain a quality that is second to none for a ‘live’ performance.
‘Circles’ opens Disc 2 with another beautiful piano piece from Schmoelling and again emphasises the pure quality of the man’s compositional and keyboard skills.
TANGERINE DREAM’s ‘Towards The Evening Star’ comes next with the main melody line coolly negotiating a collaboration of gargantuan guitar riffs, driving drums and percussion. All manner of synth sounds then dance across the soundstage in a procession of melodic variations of the main theme, before running seamlessly into the grandiose symphonic opening flow of: ‘Rise Of The Smooth Automaton’, where you get a real feeling for the emotion being injected into this music. At just under two minutes into the piece a concoction of percussive elements breaks the heady symphonic flow, but when it reaches the four-minute point, the mix of synths and streaming guitar textures becomes quite staggering is its scope.
‘My Reality At 52 Degrees Of Latitude’ opens with all manner of sounds and effects set over a pulsating rhythmic background and becomes a showcase for Jerome’s guitar work as the instrument is steered through a vast wall of electronic sounds.
‘Cartoony Universe’ comes in on a bouncy sequencer line and stereo jumping swishing synth sounds that move from channel to channel and develop into a passage of samples, guitar and synths that eventually converge into a melodic mass that builds and shuffles over the soundstage like some convoy of arriving war vehicles making ready for battle. Jerome really gets a chance to let rip here with some pretty fiercesome guitar drenched music that would make his father proud.
After a linking passage of swishing space synths the band re-emerge with a superb cover of TD’s ‘White Eagle’
With the lead synth line set on a background of sweeping synth strings and gritty guitar chords, and again, this rendition goes down well with the enthusiastic crowd.
‘Beach Theme’ follows and delivers more late 70’s style TD sounds with some really nice string synths to start with, then slowly plodding drum sounds are later joined by searing melodic high register guitar playing from Jerome leading LOOM towards the climax of the main portion of their set with an emotion-fuelled performance and on towards the first of the three encores that were to follow.
‘Mellow Morning’ is the first of three and opens in a glorious celestial, cosmic landscape of keyboards and driving percussive rhythms, before Jerome takes up the main lead on his electric guitar.
‘Time & Tide’ is the 2nd LOOM encore and the clockwork percussion drives the track forward in regimental fashion as Schmoelling's regal synth melodies take the track on a powerful course where the keyboards and guitar share the limelight equally on a soaring theme with the volume controls on their amps turned up a few notches, bringing a whole new sense of building dynamics, power and excitement to the closing stages of the band’s set – this is how it’s done in Prog-Rock circles you know J.
‘Choronzon’ is the final track of the show and judging from the crowd reaction it seems like the band had to be brought back on stage for a second time to deliver this exciting slice of TD history. Right from the off the electro percussion creates a driving rhythm that Jerome and Johannes can take up arms and duel over, and they do it with a great deal of energetic prowess, blowing the audience away in their wake with an ear-bending performance they certainly won’t forget in a hurry.
‘LOOM’s ‘Scored’ is over two hours of very classy electronic music, and comes very much Highly Recommended!
LOOM: SCORED Track List:
Disc 1:
01. Palace Of Dreams (5:14)
02. Modulation Agents (7:16)
03. La Marche (8:10)
04. Catwalk (8:19)
05. Going West (5:39)
06. Matjora Is Still Alive (5:02)
07. Room In The House Closed To The Public (6:23)
08. Long Way Home (5:05)
09. Abacus (5:35)
10. Crystal Red (5:21)
TPT – 62:07
Disc 2:
01. Circles (3:54)
02. Towards The Evening Star (6:11)
03. Rise Of The Smooth Automaton (4:21)
04. My Reality At 52 Degrees Of Latitude (6:13)
05. Cartoony Universe (8:00)
06. White Eagle (5:31)
07. Beach Theme (9:12)
08. Mellow Morning [encore] (4:24)
09. Time & Tide [encore] (7:36)
10. Choronzon [encore] (6:37)
TPT – 62:01