Canyon Dreams

Canyon Dreams
1999 re-issue artwork
Soundtrack album by Tangerine Dream
Released	1991
Recorded	1986 Polygon Studios (Berlin), Eastgate Studios (Vienna)
Genre	Electronic Music, Soundtrack, New-age
Length	40:31
Label	Miramar (MPCD 2801)
Producer	Edgar Froese
Tangerine Dream chronology
Melrose (1990) Canyon Dreams (1991) Dead Solid Perfect (1991)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]

Canyon Dreams is the fourteenth soundtrack by Tangerine Dream and their fortieth overall. It was recorded in 1986 and released in 1991 on compact disc and compact cassette.^[2] In a sense it could be considered their unofficial thirtieth album since it was recorded right after Underwater Sunlight. The music is written as a sound accompaniment for the different scenic video scenes about the Grand Canyon in the film Canyon Dreams by Jan Nickman released by Miramar. The tracks are divided into various episodes and related to the titles of the cuts.

The distinctive quality of this disc is the Native American influence. The unique style of Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, and Paul Haslinger make them experts in creating sequenced atmospheric soundscapes, and this is exactly what they do here. They use a Native American pace and add native flutes to give the disc a feel of the American Southwest. The execution is however, unmistakably recognizable as the Berlin School of electronic music. This makes the album unique and the reason that Tangerine Dream received its first Grammy nomination with this album. The album is the start of a new direction using a combination of the group's progressive style and its current commercial leanings.

The music ambience relates to contemporary musicians such as Soulfood, Steve Roach, Matthias Gohl, and Michael Stearns.

Album history

In 1991 the soundtrack of the video release Canyon Dreams was released officially as the first TD album by the Seattle-based Miramar company, beginning the band's Seattle Years. In the USA Canyon Dreams was nominated for the Grammy as Best New Age Album 1991. Some months before a bootleg version of the soundtrack had already been released, titled The Canyon Dreams, featuring the music from the video. The music material on the official soundtrack was partially remixed, has slightly different running times and features the bonus track "Colorado Dawn" composed by Jerome Froese.

The 1999 re-release by TDI features one additional track, "Rocky Mountain Hawk", and an entirely redesigned booklet. The following sleeve notes about the Grand Canyon are included:

Two billion years of geological evidence of the earth's history is exposed in the canyon's rock walls, more than can be observed anywhere else in the world. Travelling The canyon's length requires a river journey of 277 miles, through canyons varying in distance from less than a half mile to more than eighteen miles apart, and through depths reaching nearly 600 feet. Early visitors named many of the large buttes after ancient gods. Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Venus, Vishnu, Deva, Shiva and Brahma have temples here, while Vulcan and Wotan have thrones named in their honor. The Paiute Indians believed the canyon had been created by the god Tavwoats to separate the world of the living from the lands beyond death. Havasupai and Hulapai Indians believed the river was the runoff from an earth-covering flood, much like the one Noah experienced.

In March 2009 the album was re-released with different cover design as part of an extensive digipack series (consisting of a total of more than 60 CD and DVD releases) by the Germany-based Membran record label.

Track listing

All tracks written by Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, Paul Haslinger except as noted. 

Personnel

• Edgar Froese
• Christopher Franke
• Paul Haslinger

References

Kohanov, Linda. "Canyon Dreams - Tangerine Dream". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 May 2012.