mellotron morning

waking up in the morning to brilliant sunshine is a real treat. this morning i did something that i've done since i was a child - watched shadows play across the ceiling. as birds fly by or a window somewhere reflects the light, so the lines and shapes move across the painted white sky.

downstairs now i'm listening to my favourite edgar froese disc - epsilon in malaysian pale. this is one of those pieces of music that sounds equally good played forwards or backwards. by hook and by crook i have acquired a backwards version of this lovely piece of music which i’ll be hearing shortly. with epsilon in malaysian pale, froese created a piece of music that while dense with associations for me, remains a timeless piece of music. to paraphrase kilgore's famous line from apocalypse now, i love the sound of mellotron in the morning.

most of epsilon was played on a mellotron - and yes you have definitely heard what a mellotron sounds like at some time even if you've no idea what it is. the moody blues and the beatles used it famously on nights in white satin and strawberry fields forever respectively. genesis used the mellotron to great effect across a number of their albums, as did froese on his albums and those he did with tangerine dream.

from the vaults of pathe newsreels comes this outstanding if not a bit cheesy documentary about the very beginning of the mellotron . . .


tangerine dream on their 1974 disc phaedra (an album that made no. 15 on the british album charts that year!) made extensive use of the choral and string elements of the mellotron . . .

and used it to great effect on their 1976 release stratosfear . . . a word about this one - the accompanying video is ropey so i’d be inclined to walk away and listen to the music without the accompanying distracting images!

for more tangerine dream related interests, you should visit their very colourful and comprehensive website.