Guitarist From Tangerine Dream Dies aged 70.
Edgar Froese founder member of Tangerine Dream died suddenly in Vienna on 20 January 2015 from a pulmonary embolism. He played a multitude of instruments including Piano, synthesizer, guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, mellotron, organ, horn and mellophonium. Edgar Willmar Froese born 6 June 1944 was a German artist and electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group Tangerine Dream. Although his solo and group recordings prior to 2003 name him as “Edgar Froese”, his solo albums from 2003 onward bear the artist name “Edgar W. Froese”.
Froese was born in Tilsit, East Prussia, on D-Day during the Second World War; members of his family, including his father, had been killed by the Nazis and his mother and surviving family settled in West Berlin after the war. He took piano lessons from the age of 12, and started playing guitar at 15. After showing an early aptitude for art, Froese enrolled at the Academy of the Arts inWest Berlin to study painting and sculpture. In 1965, he formed a band called The Ones, which played psychedelic rock, and some rock and R&B standards. While playing in Spain, The Ones were invited to perform at Salvador Dalí’s villa in Cadaqués. Froese’s encounter with Dalí was highly influential, inspiring him to pursue more experimental directions with his music. The Ones disbanded in 1967, having released only one single (“Lady Greengrass” / “Love of Mine”).
After returning to Berlin, Froese began recruiting musicians for the free-rock band that would become Tangerine Dream. Froese’s composition “Stuntman” has been used as the opening theme music for “Mabat Sheni” (“Second Look”), an investigative news program from Channel One television in Israel, since the 1980s.
Edgar Froese declared himself to be vegetarian, teetotal and a non-smoker; he also did not take drugs. Froese was married to artist and photographer Monique Froese from 1974 until her death in 2000. Their son Jerome Froese was a member of Tangerine Dream from 1990 through 2006. Edgar Froese remarried to artist and musician Bianca Acquaye.
http://youtu.be/gGHyPgkMMUQ