Ricochet (Tangerine Dream album)

Ricochet is the first live album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. The album was released in 1975. It consists of two long compositions mixed from taped recordings of the England and France portions of their fall 1975 European Tour. The sound of the album is similar to the group's other "Virgin Years" releases, relying heavily on synthesizers and sequencers to produce a dense ambient soundscape. Ricochet utilizes more percussion and electronic guitar than its predecessors Phaedra and Rubycon, bordering on electronic rock. The principal innovation on the album is its use of complex multi-layered rhythms, foreshadowing not only the band's own direction in the 80s, but also trance music and similar genres of electronic dance music.

Much of the raw material for Ricochet, in particular part 2, was recorded at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, London during Tangerine Dream's live performance there in October, 1975. The original, unedited version of this performance can be heard in set 3 of The Bootleg Box Set Vol. 1. No other source concerts have so far been identified.

After the Top 20 placings for Phaedra and Rubycon, Ricochet fared less well in sales terms, spending just four weeks on the UK album chart (all editions of the now defunct Guinness Book of British Hit Albums erroneously state only two), reaching number 40. In recent years however, Ricochet has outdone all other Baumann-era albums in popularity and...
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