Zodiac - Forest Impressions

Artist: Rob Papen & Ron Boots
P: 2023
Live recording of the concert in Evergem.

Artist: Frank Klare & Ron Boots
P: 2004
Frank Klare is an experienced musician from Germany who already has a long career behind him in electronic music with band like Synco and Traumklang, numerous solo releases, many collaborations and a lot of appearances on compilation albums.
“Monumental Dreams” is dedicated to the “Tangerine Tree”-project, an initiate of Tangerine Dreams fans to release all kinds of live material from this legendary band. Not surprisingly, Frank’s music has traces of that of “TD”.
The sequences and melodies on “First Movement” and “Second Movement” could have come from a TD album out of the eighties (listen to these leading chords!).
Frank has a sound of his own. This can be heard very well in the sequences he uses. The one in “Third Movement”, for example, is excellent. “Fifth Movement” is a slow rhythmic affair with soft melodies. The highlight on the album is “Sixth Movement”; here Frank creates the best sequence on the cd and this, together with the typical TD-sounds, makes this track an absolute treat. After so many years of being around in electronic music, “Monumental Dreams” could mean the real breakthrough for Frank. And then the cover: again it is a fantastic surreal and futuristic masterpiece by the Argentine artist Pablo Magne. Within some tracks, Ron Boots joins the musician and gives all the special touch.

Artist: Frank Klare
P: 1996
It has to be said that ex SYNCO member Frank Klare released a brace of albums conspicuous by their blandness earlier in the year. The title, and the fact that four of the 6 track are specified as being improvisations, would suggest that there's room for optimism here though. 'Intro' opens brightly enough, with a heavy bass beat backed by a lively sequence. The melody is pleasant enough but after a while it becomes predictable and repetitive and consequently the track out-stays its welcome, even at only 5½ minutes. The four part 'Improvised Eternity' dominates the album, and thankfully proceedings take a marked turn for the better with the arrival of part 1. Choral refrains introduce the piece before a sequence slowly starts to take shape, backed by a foreboding drone. Simple drums and percussion also join the fray, building in intensity as the track progresses, and though variety is not the track's strong point it compensates with lots of atmosphere and imagery. Part 2 repeats the formula with a traditional style sequence underpinning choral synths straight from the Tangerine Dream archives. Part 3 confirms that Frank Klare has very much done on this album what he didn't achieve on his previous two: recapturing some of the form shown on the SYNCO 85-89 album. Overall this album does more right than it does wrong, and SYNCO fans I'm sure will welcome it. (GG)

Here the last copy!