Autumn In Hiroshima is the third instalment in Tangerine Dream’s Five Atomic Seasons series. This 2008 release rejoins the musical narrative following the dropping of the first nuclear bomb in Hiroshima at the finale of the last album, ‘Summer In Nagasaki,’ reviewed here. For those unfamiliar with the Five Atomic Series, a brief introduction is provided at the beginning of the ‘Springtime In Nagasaki’ review here. Unlike the preceding instalments in the Five Atomic Seasons, this album features a larger number of tracks, dominated by 8 ‘teachings’ set to music.
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| Tangerine Dream: Autumn In Hiroshima |
This album opens with the seminal track ‘Trauma,’ one of the finest examples of electronic music of our time. As such, ‘Trauma’ has received a separate review here in order to cover the track in sufficient detail. The following track ‘Reset’ maintains the soundworld of trauma in a more ambient musical context which also gradually suggests partial optimism as the track progresses. This Ambient style of writing continues through ‘Awareness (1st Teaching),’ which makes extended use of western classical church-like vocal harmonies.
Moving on to the later track ‘Oracular World (4th Teaching),’ the ambient style of writing has been replaced with a more typical example of Tangerine Dream writing, supported by a steady, yet unintrusive, beat throughout. The later ‘Touching Truth’ in fact references the band’s earlier output during their so-called Blue Years. The way in which a large number go the tracks on this album transition smoothly between one another proves worth note as this in itself speaks volumes about the band’s production values. Seemingly paramount to this release is a sense of flow. This is particularly well achieved with reference to the music’s emotional subtext, smoothly segueing with the music to form a narrative of emotions and moods expressed by the music to echo the narrative to this programmatic work.
In each of the releases in Tangerine Dream’s Five Atomic Seasons series, the penultimate and final tracks typically prove to be particularly interesting, providing an indication for the music which follows in the following instalment. When attention is paid to the final two tracks, ‘Omniscience (8th Teaching)’ and ‘Nothing And All’ respectively, a heavily sequence-led track is juxtaposed with an ambient successor, indicatory of uncertain times ahead, although the smoother ambient nature of writing induces a sense of calm in stark contrast to the beginning of the release here featured.
As ‘Nothing And All’ reaches its inevitable conclusion, the listener is plunged into silence once more in preparation for the following chapter in the series, ‘Winter In Hiroshima.’
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