Franke, Christopher

Artist: Christopher Franke
P: 1995
This CD is the first in the series, containing material from the 1994-1995 episodes. Fortunately, the album is not a mere compilation of "Babylon 5" tracks, most of which are very short. It's a fused fugue, and Franke spent much time recreating the atmosphere in a consistent manner, without unnecessary interruptions which once haunted his 1992 soundtrack release, "Universal Soldier". Therefore all five "compilation" albums from this series serve as standalone CDs, which can be listened to at will.

Artist: Christopher Franke
P: 1995
This CD is the first in the series, containing material from the 1994-1995 episodes. Fortunately, the album is not a mere compilation of "Babylon 5" tracks, most of which are very short. It's a fused fugue, and Franke spent much time recreating the atmosphere in a consistent manner, without unnecessary interruptions which once haunted his 1992 soundtrack release, "Universal Soldier". Therefore all five "compilation" albums from this series serve as standalone CDs, which can be listened to at will.

Artist: Christopher Franke
P: 1997
The most fantastic thing about Babylon 5 is its epic scope. The show was already planned out, and then some, for its five year run (and multiple TV movies) and though the 5th year music is somewhat missing on this CD (the final track, Voices of Authority, foreshadows the future opening title theme of Season 5), this collection of 8 tracks provides the listener with a musical explanation of the series. The 1st track, Main Title 1st Season (extended), gives us a sense of adventure; the first steps into a journey that will take us amazing places. It gives us the feeling of alien voices calling out from far away with its synthesized voices...but it also has a powerful "hero" tune giving Babylon 5 a heroic nature (that would be returned in Track 7) The second track, Messages From Earth, gives us clips from the episodes where Sheridan takes control and beats out the rebels going against him and Babylon 5. It has sounds of "oh no, we are gonna blow up" and then redemption music to close the track out confirming victory for the Babylon 5 heroes. The Main Title for the second season (Track 3) is mysterious...giving us a hint that "shadows" (no pun intended) will eventually show their face. The fourth track, Z'Ha'Dum is violent and bombastic, much like the violent turmoil that happens in the third season. The third season has many up and downs and the tone makes sense. The fifth track carries on Z'Ha'Dum's theme with very loud drum blasts and violent tones. The sixth track is the most haunting, starting out very slow and then pumping with energy and then ending with a creepy, what seems like, electronic piano, emphasizing the journey is far from over. It is by far the most beautiful on the CD and haunting. The wild guitars, strange clangs, and odd sounds are just a few of the sounds on this track. The seventh track, the Main Title for the 4th season, is both upbeat and disastrous (in tone, not composition...it is brilliantly composed) making us feel the triumph of Babylon 5 of President Clark and the loss of friends and gain of power. It is a great way to represent the sad and joyous 4th year. The final track foreshadows the 5th Season Main Title theme that would come after this soundtrack was produced. It is perhaps the second best track, being epic in scale (the first few minutes are amazing) and its abrupt ending making you want more...just like the show. Fortunately the 5th season was just around the corner. Christopher Franke, formerly of Tangerine Dream provides synthesized beauty, rocking beats, and epic tones and no one better would fit the same themes Babylon 5, the show, represented in story and character.

Artist: Christopher Franke
P: 1994
"Enchanting Nature"'s contents are mostly taken from Franke's first solo studio album, "Pacific Coast Highway". The new tracks (first and last two) are composed in a similar vein - light piano melodies with a misty air of soft synthesizer passages. Nevertheless, this is not average easy listening music - laws, no. It's classical in composition structure, perfectly executed, bearing the stigma of enormous compositional experience Franke had within Tangerine Dream.

Artist: Christopher Franke
P: 1999
Epic is the first "Best of" collection from Christopher Franke, a former member of Tangerine Dream. This compilation contains many of his classic new age and melodic electronic recordings interwoven with several eloquent and graceful soundtrack score compositions.
This CD also includes 2 new tracks only available on this CD.

Here the last copy!

Artist: Christopher Franke
P: 1995
"Klemania" is Chris Franke's second solo studio album, dating from 1995, some 8 years after his split from Tangerine Dream. If you were wondering were Tangerine Dream's 1980's sound went, you need look no further than here.
The opening track, `Scattered thoughts of a canyon flight', is precisely what it says on the tin: 22 minutes or so of very scattered thoughts, all highly reminiscent of Tangerine Dream's earlier release, "Canyon Dreams". This quite lengthy track starts out very promisingly, with some brooding synthesiser growls, grunts and clanks, which threaten to evolve into a something quite momentous. `Inside the morphing space', which follows, uses a series of cunningly shifting minimalist sequencer patterns - in the finest Tangerine Dream tradition - to underpin another twenty-minute track. Textures throughout are light and, once again, despite a brief grumbling, moody central section - one of the best bits of the disc - the excitement level is never in any danger of rising above `jolly'. Parts of it sound like some early Edgar Froese solo works and it even has some 10-year old Tangerine Dream musical quotes in it. The final 3-minute track, `Silent Waves', is another gentle perambulation through a Tangerine Dream soundworld of yesteryear. In some ways, this is the best work on the disc, having a simple but satisfying structure to it. It would (and no doubt does) make a fine encore piece. It certainly brings the disc to a nice close.

Artist: Christopher Franke
P: 1993
Having left Tangerine Dream in summer of 1987, Christopher Franke emigrated to America, where he settled in California, hoping to start a new career from scratch - a career of scoring motion pictures. As he admits in interviews, he needed a long break from the industry he lived in, as that was what Tangerine Dream was in the mid-80s. After more than a year, he signed up for several movies, and started to think of recording the soundtracks. To this end, he explored an idea he was toying with in the old times of Tangerine Dream, namely with orchestration of electronic music. Back in late 1986, the band released "Near Dark", a dark album with simulated orchestral sounds. In 1989, Franke decided to continue in that fashion, and he did. Instead of simply augmenting the texture of electronic music, he decided to make an additional move - to marry electronica with real orchestra. To this end, he founded Berlim Symphonic Film Orchestra, for which he composed music using real notes on sophisticated musical software.
The results exceeded all expectations. In 1989 and 1990, Franke scored three movies ("Eye of the Storm", "McBain" and "She Woke Up"), the music from which appeared on a compilation CD in 1993, issued by his own musical label, Sonic Images. This album, somewhat awkwardly entitled "New Music for Films Vol.1" is much like a set of bridges thrown between "Near Dark" as a symbol of electronic orchestration, the real acoustic classical orchestra, and pure ambient sound. Even if this music was not available until later, some limited edition promo singles were released much sooner than 1993, when Franke was already in full swing of his career. In addition, in 1989 he re-composed and re-recorded one of his old compositions, which was often used in Tangerine Dream gigs. His first official solo track, 'Vermillion Sands', was published in 1989 on a KLEM compilation CD, along with his old employer's Tangerine Dream's tune. The latter didn't stand up to comparison. 'Vermillion Sands' was superb, dynamic, arrpegiated and extremely sophisticated, a move forward, whereas the forgettable track of Tangerine Dream was like a throwaway hopeless track refused for publication during "Lily on the Beach" or "Destination Berlin" sessions. In 1989, we already knew that their paths diverged, and wondered what happened to Chris. With KLEM's compilation, I was happy again.
"New Music for Films Vol.1" is a very interesting CD, I dare claim a masterpiece, considering the high ambitions the composer had. It's of the highest class possible, comparable to the best music of Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, and all other classical composers who work for the film industry. If you are fond of the old days, if the movies like "Lawrence of Arabia" or other ones with Paul Newman, Orson Welles, Rita Heyworth are to your taste, then you should reach for this CD, whether or not you like Tangerine Dream or Franke himself. This music is universal, beautiful and touching. It's timeless. Just about an hour long, this album is very eclectic, since it contains numerous experiments with sound, from piano, electric piano, delicate electronica (later to be developed to perfection on "Pacific Coast Highway"), horns and oboes, to full-fledged orchestra, with violins, contra-bass, cellos, gongs - oh my, it's the audiophiliac's feast! The atmosphere of this music is sometimes so grave and scary, that I have cold sweat on my spine. Other times it is lyrical, with solitary violin or cello, or piano - jerking tears out of your eyes.
"New Music for Films Vol.1" is one of the best albums of Christopher Franke, and a must in the collection of anyone who loves high quality music, and/or who is very fond of soundtracks.

Artist: Christopher Franke
P: 1997
Soundtrack for the same named movie. The titles are very upbeat and fast.

Artist: Christopher Franke
P: 1991
This 1991 release was Chris Franke's first CD as a solo musician, after splitting from Tangerine Dream in 1988.
Recorded in January 1991, "Pacific Coast Highway" is the first studio album of Christopher Franke solo. Exactly at that time, Tangerine Dream burned out as an ensemble, and Franke has already tasted freedom from the band, having scored a few films on his own with the help of Berlin Symphonic Film Orchestra he founded. A studio album was due, and Chris was full of ideas as to where he might travel in the sound space. He was always associated with the heavier touch within Tangerine Dream - he was the man behind the rhythmic section, he operated the sequencers, he provided the arpeggiated pulsating background, and did much of the underlying compositional work in the 80s. Thus I am not exactly surprised that for his first album, an album by which he would be judged, he chose something completely different, undertook a different musical path - the lightness of touch. Indeed, "Pacific Coast Highway" is a very light album, almost easy listening, one might say. With an ossacional guitar and orchestral touch, this album is mostly a selection of light electric piano songs. Every song has its own soul, and is perfectly executed, and let's face it - pleasurable to listen to. Millions of Tangerine Dream fans bought this album either expecting him to continue where he broke off at Tangerine Dream (and thus failed in their assumption), or expecting him to create something new, explore new lands with his music; take a step further. "Pacific Coast Highway" does just that. It's a small beautiful album, which to this day is a sweet collection of light songs that brighten my life so much. It bears the compositional stigma of Christopher Franke, and yet it's completely new. When I first heard this album, and the following live album, "The London Concert", I felt close to getting wet. Great music is alive again.'Black Garden View' provides a short overview of the garden where Franke roams with his musical ideas. Excited, we move to 'Mountain Heights', which with a light touch of basso continuo, introduces us to the mysteries of the green land. The third composition, 'Lontano Mystery', is one of the most beautiful electronic ballads ever composed. Harpsichord-like oscillating melody, pulsating, but delicate bass, and electric violin synthesizer. 'Big Sur Romance' is a miniature for piano. Just piano. And I have always thought that only Schmoelling can compose small pearls for piano... I strongly associate this music with America - perhaps this was intended? Driving into Blue is another, syncopated piano tune, this time more cheerful and more dynamic, a classic Franke composition, which hints at his later exploration on "The Celestine Prophecy" of 1996. The sixth track, 'Purple Waves' is a comeback to the times of heavier compositions. In his concert later in the year, Purple Waves was expanded and augmented with a long dynamic arpeggio which tore at our hearts, and convinced the reich of Tangerine Dream fans that the music is alive, that Franke is in fact the sole carrier of Tangerine Dream tradition. 'Malibu Avenue' is another piano song, with electric flutes providing the rhythm. Franke is fond of dynamic piano songs, where like a butterfly, the sounds vibrate in the sunny air. 'Cinnamon City Cliff', recorded with the help of his orchestra, is a sad composition, which hints at his later soundtrack work (at the time we were unaware of his continuing efforts in this arena). Violins provide the desired suspense, and then the bass metronome measures the remaining time to the finale, just like on "Force Majeure" or "Near Dark". After that brief adventure with orchestration and the past, Franke delivers 'Wheels on Beach Park', another light piano song, this time accompanied by the delicate percussion rhythm. After two minutes of a dreaming variation on a theme, 'Sunset Destination', we are treated to 'Crystal Tree', a classic Franke composition, as it later turned out. This track summarizes what "Pacific Coast Highway" is about, and what Franke mostly wanted to achieve. Hinting at his electronic roots, not forgetting his inspirations of the past, he created something completely new, a concept album with a very bearable lightness of being, so to speak. A fascinating collection for summer listening. The album ends with 'Electric Becomes Eclectic', where a misty flute melody waves us goodbye, much like on Tangerine Dream's 1973 album "Phaedra".