Rubycon (album)



Rubycon is the sixth studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream, released in 1975. It is widely regarded as one of their best albums. Rubycon further develops the Berlin School sequencer-based sound they ushered in with the title track from Phaedra.

Although not quite matching the sales figures for Phaedra, Rubycon reached number 10 in a 14-week run, their highest-charting album in the UK.

Music
The album consists of two long tracks, each just over 17 minutes long. “Rubycon, Part One,” the A side of the LP, “ebbs and flows through tense washes of echo and Mellotron choirs, as primitive sequencer lines bubble to the surface”. The B side, “Rubycon, Part Two,” “opens in a wonderfully haunted way” before “the synthesizer arpeggios return to drive things along”.

Critical reception
Tom Moon includes Rubycon in his 2008 book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: "This voyaging vision of sound, ever-unfolding and not quite ever arriving, has been imitated endlessly since 1975. But somehow its admirers haven’t quite captured the openness and faraway grandeur of Tangerine Dream."

In his book Digital Gothic: A Critical Discography of Tangerine Dream, music journalist Paul Stump praises the album, noting: “Rubycon is simply a refinement of its predecessor—but to an acme of excellence, and demonstrates a mastery of primitive technology breathtaking in its audacity, tenacity and sheer artistic vision. It is probably the best album the band have made…”

Tour
Christopher Franke's Moog synthesizer was damaged in transit during a tour after the album was released, and Franke himself was nearly killed from an electrical shock.

Personnel

 * Edgar Froese
 * Peter Baumann
 * Christopher Franke

Production credits
 * Monique Froese – photography
 * Mick Glossop – engineer
 * Roland Paulick – technical assistance

Single
A single titled Extracts From "Rubycon" was released in March 1975.

Both tracks of this single were included as part of the compilation The Virgin Years 1974-1978 in 2011.