Tag: Jerome Froese (Page 1 of 2)

2025 END OF YEAR REVIEW

14 December 2025 /

50 years from KRAFTWERK appearing on the BBC’s ‘Tomorrow’s World’ to perform ‘Autobahn’ and demonstrate the future of music, as Ralf Hütter remarked at the start of the 21st Century, “electro is everywhere” and can now be made on your mobile phone!

And while the KRAFTWERK brand continues to be fronted by the 79 year old Hütter with an extensive UK tour pencilled in next year, 2025 saw the sad passing of Synth Britannia heroes Dave Ball and Stephen Luscombe, while there was also the loss of COVENANT associate Andreas Catjar-Danielsson, NITZER EBB frontman Douglas J McCarthy and Gary Numan’s brother / former live band member John Webb. Outside of the genre, cult film director David Lynch, BLONDIE drummer Clem Burke, veteran diva Marianne Faithfull, The Prince Of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne and Head Beach Boy Brian Wilson were among those who left this mortal coil.

Musically in 2025, Mari Kattman became the alluring gothic club queen she always had the potential to be on her best album yet ‘Year Of The Katt’. She headed a strong feast of feisty releases from Ela Minus, Marie Davidson, Zanias, Jennifer Touch, Charly Haze, Ani Glass, Emmon, Minuit Machine and Compute alongside those by the female fronted DLINA VOLNY, CAUSEWAY, DINA SUMMER, AUSTRA, NNHMN and PARADOX OBSCUR.

Among the new talent making a good impression were Spike, Shears and Hannah Hu who is currently working on her first album with Dean Honer of I MONSTER. Having already released a couple of albums, on the ascendancy was self-styled Californian “retro electro artist” Sophie Grey who was joined by Trevor Horn during her live cover of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ while supporting Sting at the London Forum.

On the gentler side of electronics, Patricia Wolf and Loula Yorke came up with their fabulous respective instrumental offerings ‘Hrafnamynd’ and ‘Time Is A Succession Of Such Shapes’. There was also the return of LADYTRON as well as Alison Goldfrapp, Claudia Brücken and Kim Wilde. Going back to glitzy electropop on her new record ‘Mayhem’, Lady Gaga did an impression of Taylor Swift doing YAZOO on one of its highlights ‘How Bad Do U Want Me?’; meanwhile Taylor herself appeared to have turned into Los Angeles trio CANNONS on ‘The Fate Of Ophelia’, the synthy opening song of her 12th album ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’.

Photo by Oliver Blair

Swedish producer Johan Agebjörn proved to have one of the most prolific years in his music career with not only collaborations with R.MISSING on ‘Fakesnow’ and NINA on ‘Hush Hush Baby’ but also a new SALLY SHAPIRO album ‘Ready To Live A Lie’ and a solo long player ‘Southern Forest’; all this while holding down his day job as a psychotherapist! Another releasing two albums in 2025 was Paul Statham although one was a collection of archive recordings for what could have been the intended 1982 debut album by B-MOVIE entitled ‘Lost Treasures’; the other was a second record from his dark country project THE DARK FLOWERS featuring Jim Kerr of SIMPLE MINDS whose most recent single ‘Your Name In Lights’ had been co-written by Statham.

Impressively, SPARKS got ‘MAD!’ and then ‘MADDER!’ while undertaking a huge world tour with Ron Mael still tap dancing at 80 years of age during the drum solo of ‘No1 Song In Heaven’ and Russell Mael able to hit many of those high notes at 77. As ERASURE made a tentative return with a series of special UK fan club shows to celebrate their 40th anniversary, Andy Bell toured his solo album ‘Ten Crowns’ with KNIGHT$ not doing himself any harm being the opening act on the German leg ahead of a new album ‘Supernatural Lover’ out in early 2026.

After a few years of recorded absence, former TANGERINE DREAM members released long awaited albums with Peter Baumann from the classic line-up issuing the esoteric ‘Nightfall’ while Jerome Froese, son of co-founder Edgar, came up with the guitartronica of ‘Sunsets In Stereo’. Playing with the atonal atmospheres of early TANGERINE DREAM in places, the dark cerebral concept of ‘The Ray Bradbury Chronicles’ by Levente was worthy of investigation.

With their keyboard player Christian Berg now something of a modern day Rick Wakeman, KITE established themselves as a major world force with a spectacular show on ice at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena which saw special guest Nina Persson of THE CARDIGANS skating with the Helsinki Rockettes while singing their mighty collaboration ‘Heartless Places’.

Tom Shear released one of his most impressive and on-point albums as ASSEMBLAGE 23 in ‘Null’ while UNIFY SEPARATE didn’t mince their words on their ‘Heavy Meta’ EP. While Tobias Bernstrup kept the dark Italo flame alive with ‘Shadow Dancer’, Berlin continued to remain a force in underground club culture with two of its leading exponents Franz Scala and Kalipo presenting well-received long players that worked on the home hi-fi as well as on dancefloors. On the more poptronica front, Eddie Bengtsson finally stopped trying to “Numanise” his sound and came up with ‘Inget Motstånd’, a record in the more classic PAGE vein.

While synthwave appeared to be dead (as the controversial blog Iron Skullet declared in 2019), the influx of generic darkwave was a major blight on electronic music in 2025. The major label supported Mareux and his second album ‘Nonstop Romance’ had any potential painfully ruined by overused deliberate distortion to make it sound like it was recorded down a drainpipe.

Meanwhile PORCELAIN DANCER seemed to be the Rob Newman parody of Robert Smith as seen on ‘The Mary Whitehouse Experience’ resurrected only several octaves lower; his live performance provoked unintentional laughter from those who arrived early to see KORINE in London!

DEPECHE MODE released 4 songs that were originally deemed not good enough to put on their 2023 album ‘Memento Bori’ to append the live album accompanying their Mexico City concert film ‘M’. But 2025 was notable for a number of figures in the British DM fan community who were coming out with particularly repugnant far right views, seemingly oblivious to the decades of lyrical messages from the two remaining mixed race band members!

But there was hope in the darker side of synth with A THOUSAND MAD THINGS; with his haunted demeanour while navigating young manhood as a tortured outsider, William Barradale’s doomed romantic delivery reminiscent of Billy MacKenzie and Trevor Herion made him undoubtedly the most promising UK act since MIRRORS; his debut 5 song EP ‘Cry & Dance’ was one of 2025’s best bodies of work. This more than made up for ‘Dance Called Memory’, the extremely dull fourth album from NATION OF LANGUAGE which was anything but memorable…

After looking back at 1981, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were pleased to be return to the variously compiled podcast ‘Back To NOW’ to discuss the ‘NOW 1982 Yearbook’ with genial host Iain McDermott and Ian Wade, author of ‘1984: The Year Pop Went Queer’. While general music and culture podcasts such as ‘Back To NOW’, ‘Word In Your Ear’, ‘The Rest Is Entertainment’, ‘The Rockonteurs’, ‘SoundPower’ and Miranda Sawyer’s new offering ‘Talk 90s To Me’ were highly engaging listens, specific broadcasts focussed on synth and electronic music were usually weak, suffering from poor hosting and ham-fisted background research. But when a professional presenter was involved, synth-oriented chats could be enlightening as the appearance of John Foxx on ‘The Adam Buxton Podcast’ proved, despite the annoying jingles that accompanied it.

Featuring commentary from PET SHOP BOYS’ Neil Tennant, the BBC’s retrospective look at the collapse of EMI called ‘Music Money & Mayhem’ showed once again that when those who know nothing about music get involved in the music business, it will end in tears. Looking at the story of the history of Beggars Banquet label in its first series and featuring Gary Numan in its opening episode, ‘States Of Independence’ documented how creative enthusiasm from the heart can actually thrive.

So where are the audiences for live electronic music these days? Certainly, if the full houses for Marie Davidson, Geneva Jacuzzi, Loscil and KITE in London’s club-sized venues were anything to go by, the crowds are out there. This was not the case for some other acts on the circuit at new, cult and one-hit wonder level who were struggling to get above half capacity or had downsized considerably since their perceived highest profile. However, new music night Release Me managed to get very good attendances for their evenings in 2025 with the premise that all acts must perform previously unreleased material; this focus on their events being about the music with announced requests to not talk during sets was a fresh and very welcome approach.

Photo by Tom Casey

Elsewhere, the retro business did prosper with reunions, exhibitions, summer hits shows, classic album tours, deluxe reissues of albums that were never that good in the first place and notable records re-released in yet another expanded set for the 5th or 6th time! There were those trying to exploit the fading nostalgia of those heady romantic times, writing memoirs that left out so many important facts omitted that there were grounds for inclusion in the “fiction” section.

Then there were others releasing overlong collections with an average track length of between 6-8 minutes that no-one asked for nor desired… filtering and editing is such an important aspect to producing music so there was no excuse for these veterans! Some even sent out unmastered music files to review outlets, blissfully unaware that the sound quality might actually be mentioned, only to get stupidly angry about it when highlighted due to their own numbskull promotional abilities; it’s a funny old entitled world…

The positive and negative of modern day music consumption is growth CAN happen organically in its own internet powered niche. But with the fragmentation of promotion with social media actually being a choice despite wider protestations, even the AXS newsletter listing the acts soon to be playing the 20,000 capacity O2 arena in London provoked cries of “WHO?”; but that is how it is now and it needs to be accepted. Why should a Boomer or Gen X-er know about the bright young thing headlining Glastonbury?

However, you CAN create your own musical universe today, not listen to radio, create your own playlists and exclude as appropriate. After all, as Nick Rhodes from DURAN DURAN once remarked: “Good taste is exclusive” –  nobody should have to like what you like and neither should what somebody else likes appeal to you… niche interests are fine.

There is no doubt fandom has become more tribal and is now akin to away game support for football teams. But as a result, it has therefore got more toxic, with some fans getting ridiculously angry on socials about old less-than-positive reviews that David Hepworth, Mark Ellen, Ian Cranna, Dave Rimmer, Tom Hibbert or Neil Tennant might have written for Smash Hits 43 YEARS AGO!! “Bet he regrets that…” someone will quip smugly but the reality is, if there is a review that a writer will regret, from the experience of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, it will usually be the one that is too gushing with praise!

The gist of Smash Hits during its imperial phase that coincided with Neil Tennant’s tenure as Assistant Editor was it was a magazine which treated “pop” as the most “important” thing in the world while simultaneously highlighting how “ridiculous” it was too, with references to “the dumper”, “summer colds” and the “tongue sarnie”… often dismissed as a “teen mag”, a good number of teenagers could see through the up-itself pretentions of the NME so relished the more amusing and knowing “scribblings” of the Smash Hits team!

The wider public forgets that it might likely have the benefit of 4 decades of hindsight as well as weekly if not daily plays of a record in the first few years of its possession. While it has always been associated with “free speech”, “opinion” or “freedom of expression”, one of the problems with social media is the narcissistic self-seeking of validation as part of the main character syndrome that afflicts many in this modern world…

With tours in 2026 for KRAFTWERK, OMD, PET SHOP BOYS, CHINA CRISIS, HEAVEN 17, THOMPSON TWINS’ Tom Bailey, BLANCMANGE and Midge Ure among many, there is certainly plenty to keep people busy. Just don’t think everyone else will necessarily share in your passion; as time goes on, there will be a lot more of those who won’t have a clue what you are going on about…

U2 once asked “how long must we sing this song?”; so to end a divisive year where evil men with racist views have been casually normalised, the message outlined in 1981 by a trio of philosophers from South Yorkshire must continue to be repeated loud and clear: WE DON’T NEED THIS FASCIST GROOVE THANG! #FuckFarage #FuckReformUK #FuckTommyRobinson #FuckFlagshaggers #FuckTrump

A Time Called Then: ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s Oh 2025 Playlist is at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1xXptdmcHAvXnXni6hjVnA

Text by Chi Ming Lai
14th December 2025

A Short Conversation with JEROME FROESE

24 November 2025 /

Photo by Anja Kathmann

Jerome Froese is back with a new album ‘Sunsets in Stereo’.

Hailed as “The Sound Architect Between Electronics, Guitar, and Emotion”, Jerome is the son of the late TANGERINE DREAM co-founder Edgar Froese and was a member from 1990 to 2006. Known for his distinctive fusion of electronic textures and guitar-driven soundscapes, he has carved out his own distinct niche in ambient rock.

Defying traditional genre labels, his signature “Guitartronica” style has served him well across his various solo albums and collaborations including LOOM with another former TANGERINE DREAM member Johannes Schmoelling as well as an album ‘Beginn’ with Claudia Brücken.

While no longer active in TANGERINE DREAM, Jerome Froese serves as the curator of their official photo and video archive, preserving over 10,000 images and extensive historical film material documenting every era of the band. Much of the visual archive was created by his mother, Monika Froese, who photographed the group for decades. As the only individual to have witnessed all major TANGERINE DREAM periods including the classic line-up of Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann, he is uniquely positioned to safeguard and carry forward this cultural legacy.

Meanwhile in ‘Sunsets In Stereo’, Jerome Froese bridges the past and the future with this cinematic and deeply personal album. Providing a combination of noisier guitar-derived textures and brighter electronic soundscapes, this is a record that will be appreciated by those who prefer their ambient on the rockier spectrum.

Jerome Froese stopped by to talk to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK for a conversation about ‘Sunsets in Stereo’ and a lot more…

It’s been 4 years since ‘Asymetric’ while ‘Beginn’ with Claudia Brücken was in 2018, how did you decide it was time for a new solo creation, what inspires your creative muse?

I’ve actually been working on my solo album for longer than I originally planned. That’s partly because I scrapped an almost finished version about two years ago and started over almost from scratch. Since production tools and techniques are evolving so rapidly, new ideas and inspirations keep emerging, and it’s tempting to keep adding them to one piece or another. At some point, though, you have to discipline yourself and draw a line in order to finally reach a result. The pandemic, fortunately, played a rather positive role in that process. The general slowdown gave me the time and space to focus productively on things that normally get neglected in everyday life.

Inspiration can come from just about anything – a good conversation, an intriguing sound, a positive or even a negative experience. An external impulse isn’t always necessary, but it’s usually very helpful.

So does ‘Sunsets In Stereo’ have a concept as such?

There wasn’t really a strict concept behind the album, but it was important to me that it carries an overall positive vibe. Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time traveling around Europe, picking up inspiration from all sorts of random situations along the way. I’ve always been fascinated by different social environments, so wherever I go, I like to explore the spots most tourists would probably skip.

In a city like London, for example, I’d much rather grab a coffee somewhere out in Tube Zone 7 or 8 and just watch people and the surroundings than hang around at Big Ben. Once, a few years back, I stumbled across this butcher’s shop that, weirdly enough, also rented out horror DVDs – right there in the same room, across from the counter with all the steaks and offal. Stuff like that just makes my day.

Talking of stereo, there is a fashion now for re-releases of classic records remixed in Surround Sound 5.1 and Dolby Atmos, are these audio formats something which you personally are interested in?

From a technical perspective, that’s certainly interesting, but I see little point in investing in specialized equipment just for certain ways of listening to music. Music I like always works; bad music mostly remains bad, no matter what you listen to it on.

The ‘Sunsets In Stereo’ album has influences from post-rock and dreampop, were there any particular artists or tracks that shaped your “guitartronica” approach?

I enjoy blending the raw, instrumentally unconventional aspects of post-rock with the melancholic and sometimes sweet elements of dream pop. A good example of this is the track ‘Feel Your Ghosts’ on ‘Sunsets In Stereo’. It aims to translate, purely instrumentally, a therapeutic session dealing with the intangible thoughts and feelings in someone’s mind. For this reason, the track deliberately moves between extremes of harshness and harmony.

My guitar playing is often inspired by artists who might not be immediately on everyone’s radar, such as Donald ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser or Eric Johnson. While they haven’t fundamentally shaped my playing style, their work contains small or larger elements that have influenced or challenged my approach to my own ideas.

When I share my music with friends, colleagues, or acquaintances, I often hear: “No matter what you produce, it always sounds like Froese” ; I take this as a compliment, but also as a recognition that my musical identity – both its strengths and quirks – are difficult to hide. Some have also mentioned that my style or certain melodies occasionally remind them, in a positive way, of children’s songs.

Whereas ‘Asymetric’ was only in the digital domain, ‘Sunsets In Stereo’ gets issued on CD although not vinyl LP, how do you decide on your release formats? Is it economically dictated?

First off, I should say that, like a lot of other artists, I’ve never really been a fan of streaming services. A few years back, I even pulled off almost all of my music from them. The reasons are probably pretty obvious.

Now that we’re back working with a distributor that operates internationally, I’m figuring out how I want to handle things going forward. SIS, for example, will be on all digital platforms. But it’s not uncommon for whole albums to vanish when contracts expire or licensing issues pop up. A situation that Claudia Brücken and I are currently experiencing with the ‘Beginn’ album, for example. Most of my fans don’t want to risk that, which is why they still prefer physical copies like CDs.

Vinyl is a bit of a tricky one. Around the turn of the millennium, I was doing some DJ stuff exclusively on vinyl. Small runs barely sold, simply because nobody really wanted it back then. We originally planned a vinyl version of ‘Sunsets In Stereo’, but then the questions started: how do you fit the entire album on one record? Do you cut tracks? Multiple records felt complicated and expensive, which would push the price up for fans, and I didn’t want that.

Even today, the so-called “vinyl revival” looks impressive in percentages, but in reality, we’re still talking pretty small numbers. That said, who knows – maybe we’ll do something spontaneous for RSD 2026.

One of the album highlights is ‘The Clock That Forgot Time’, how did that build up from its initial composition to recording?

This song actually came about quite spontaneously and, as the title suggests, was meant to be a homage to my childhood, and to the people around me who shaped it, both personally and musically.

Since my mother had already given me her entire visual archive during her lifetime, I thought it would be a great idea to support the track with some striking images. So, over the past few weeks, I spent quite some time putting together suitable material for a YouTube video clip. Honestly, I could have edited a hundred different versions of it without repeating a single image. Narrowing it all down to five and a half minutes was quite a challenge.

For the music, I even used a few original vintage synthesizers to capture an authentic sound. Some TANGERINE DREAM fans might think that Edgar and myself lost the inspiration or the ability to create songs in the classic TD tradition, but that’s not true. We could have done that at any time. It’s just that we’ve always been guided by what lay ahead of us, by what we were musically curious about and excited to explore.

That’s why, with TANGERINE DREAM, fans have always come and gone – and that was perfectly fine.

You are using a female voice on ‘Hope’ and ‘A Game of Hearts, Played with Fire’, did you use a singer or is this a sample or VST?

It’s got a bit of all that, but, like the rest of the album, it doesn’t feature an AI.

Have you or do you intend to experiment with AI in your music?

Out of curiosity, I checked out the common tools. At first glance, the results might seem impressive, but for anyone with years of experience as a composer and producer, the flaws become obvious almost immediately. Sure, these algorithms will keep improving as they endlessly “train” on all available material, but that only underscores the urgent need for updates to copyright law.

What’s truly infuriating is this Suno guy claiming that composing yourself or learning an instrument isn’t fun. Instead, he suggests you should just “prompt” and feel proud when the AI spits out music it stole ideas from – music originally created by people who actually enjoyed composing and mastering an instrument. Let’s be clear: AI doesn’t create anything on its own. There’s no way to sugarcoat that.

In the technical aspects of making this record, where there any other new instruments or developments which you found to be important in realising the final product?

As I mentioned earlier, new and fascinating things keep appearing almost daily, both in the digital and physical realms. For example, after almost three decades, I finally retired my DAW, Cubase. Many features that have long been standard elsewhere were simply missing. Switching to a new software was an important liberating move.

For the lead guitars, I once again used my Charvel Model 4, which I bought in Los Angeles back in 1988 for $800. It’s the same guitar I used to record my first solo on the TANGERINE DREAM album ‘Lily On The Beach’ in 1989. I also had a box full of stomp boxes on hand, which were used for all kinds of sonic experiments. And of course, on ‘The Clock That Forgot Time’ you’ll hear vintage synths: a Prophet 5, PPG Wave 2, and Oberheim OB-X. Those familiar with these classics will surely recognize their sounds.

‘Endless Sympathy’ closes the album and moves from being quite floaty to rocking out before drifting into flutey-type sounds almost like a reference to classic TANGERINE DREAM, had this been an intentional “Easter Egg”?

Interesting that you feel that way! I actually added the middle part only at the very end, when the song was almost finished. The idea was more to briefly pull the listener out of their cozy state, only to let them settle back in right after. But you’re right, there are definitely associations there. So even for me, it has now turned into an Easter Egg! 🙂

You took part in the documentary ‘Revolution Of Sound: TANGERINE DREAM’ which came out on DVD in 2018, were you satisfied with how it turned out?

The project largely did not match my personal taste. I was offered the opportunity to come on as a co-producer, but since my stepmother wanted to take the creative lead herself and also be a co-producer, I quickly withdrew and only licensed the images from my archive to the production company.

Key figures, such as Chris Franke, were not included as interviewees at all, and some others apparently refused to participate. Johannes Schmoelling and I appear only because the director wanted it that way. Had it been up to my stepmother, she would likely have conducted all the interviews herself. Overall, there was so much more that could have been done with the topic, both visually and content-wise.

I interviewed Peter Baumann earlier this year and he was happily reminiscing about the old days; how is your media project The TANGERINE DREAM Archive coming along and are there any plans with it?

There are now many plans in motion. Unfortunately, our fundraising efforts for fully digitizing my mother’s analog archive fell slightly short of the desired amount. However, we were able to acquire a professional scanner, which allows us to digitize almost all formats. Compared to a specialized company, this is a very time-consuming process, and since we only have one workstation, multiple people cannot work on it simultaneously.

The Super 8 film material was already digitized back in the 1990s, so it is available to us more quickly. I have already spoken with various people about potential projects related to this and have generated a lot of interest. Now I just need to carve out more time for myself to push things forward, and I hope to manage that soon.

Which are your own favourite tracks on ‘Sunsets In Stereo’?

I usually like the tracks that were added last to a production the most, since they haven’t been heard as often. In this case, that would be ‘Where We Belong’, ‘A Game of Hearts, Played with Fire’ and the title track ‘Sunsets in Stereo’.

It’s hard to pick a favorite, as I think the album is very versatile and doesn’t want to settle in one particular direction. How each song resonates really depends on your mood, so every track can be experienced differently at any given time. For example, ‘A Game of Hearts, Played With Fire’ was almost consistently the favorite among the female listeners who pre-listened the album.

It’s been a while since you ventured out live, is this something that you would like to do again?

Absolutely, especially since I’d love to perform in the UK again. The audience there has always given great feedback at the shows. I’m not the type who needs to be on stage all the time to live off the applause, but a few small, cozy events would definitely be enjoyable. Let’s see if something comes up in the near future.

What is next for you solo or in collaboration with others?

Once the album drops, I’ll probably take a few days just to breathe, recharge, and let everything sink in. After that, there’s a whole world waiting: my entire TANGERINE DREAM catalog, ready to be re-released on physical formats – the plans for that are already laid out on my desk. On top of that, I’ve got remastered versions of my first three solo albums in the works, and who knows, maybe even a box set down the line.

Meanwhile, I’ve wrapped up a full album with Marty Willson-Piper (THE CHURCH, ALL ABOUT EVE), and we’re hoping to release it soon. And then there’s something I recently cooked up with Susanne Freytag – who’s now living in Berlin – which has this wonderfully dark, morbid edge. We’re thinking it could become an EP sometime soon.

But before all that, before even thinking about grand plans or releases, I’m heading to the kitchen to make myself a coffee. Sometimes the simplest things come first.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Jerome Froese

Additional thanks to Anja Kathmann at Moonpop

‘Sunsets in Stereo’ is released by Moonpop on 31st October 2025 in CD and digital formats

https://jeromefroese.com/

https://instagram.com/jeromefroese

https://facebook.com/jeromefroese

https://youtube.com/@jeromefroeseofficial

https://tangerinedreamarchive.com/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
24th November 2025

JEROME FROESE Sunsets in Stereo

28 October 2025 /

Jerome Froese, the sound architect who fuses electronics, guitar and emotion is back with his fourth solo album ‘Sunsets in Stereo’.

Formally a member of TANGERINE DREAM alongside his father Edgar, he has also made music as LOOM with another former TD member Johannes Schmoelling as well as collaborating with Claudia Brücken with whom he released an album ‘Beginn’ in 2018.

Embellishing his trademark guitartronica sound, Jerome Froese has brought in additional influences from post-rock and dreampop for ‘Sunsets in Stereo’ which sees him explore themes of resilience, reflection, and hope.

Photo by Anja Kathmann

To a sunset strum, ‘Hope’ develops into a burst of guitar layered chill out with female voices to start before ‘Lemonade Clouds’ adds more prominent drums and rocks out in a livelier concoction. But ‘The Clock That Forgot Time’ explores more electronic climes with cascading synths and shimmers over a strident drama for an early album highlight.

The ivory dressed ‘Where We Belong’ is gentler with sparing guitar textures recalling Robin Guthrie’s ambient work initially although these six string interventions get louder alongside the progressive trapped percussion. ‘Flowers and Skywriters’ is a piece that grooves in its rhythmic shuffle and develops into a rock jam with plenty of soloing but with something of an electronic bounce, ‘A Game of Hearts, Played with Fire’ sees the female voice return but in a more cooing fashion which might surprise some, although the kerrang makes its presence felt.

After that, the ‘Sunsets in Stereo’ title track is more laid back before ‘Blow the Fuse, Ignore the Galaxy’ does exactly just that in its explosive tension. ‘Feel Your Ghosts’ does the full metal racket after a sedate start although as if the best is saved until last, ‘Endless Sympathy’ is wonderfully floaty and spacey but as it reaches the middle phase, the space gets rocky but as waves of flute drift into the mood, there’s a canter before the full stop.

“It’s about overcoming the noise – both inside and out – and rediscovering beauty in chaos” says Jerome Froese as he reaffirms his place bridging the past and the future with this cinematic and deeply personal album. ‘Sunsets in Stereo’ provides a combination of noisier guitar-derived textures and brighter electronic soundscapes in a manner that will be appreciated by those who prefer their ambient on the rockier spectrum.

‘Sunsets in Stereo’ is released by Moonpop on 31st October 2025 in CD and digital formats

https://jeromefroese.com/

https://instagram.com/jeromefroese

https://facebook.com/jeromefroese

https://youtube.com/@jeromefroeseofficial

https://tangerinedreamarchive.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
28th October 2025

2018 END OF YEAR REVIEW

8 December 2018 /

2018 saw Jean Michel Jarre celebrate 50 years in the business and whether the world really needed another of his compilations, ‘Planet Jarre’ was probably one of the better collected representations of his work for casual admirers.

But not standing still and releasing his fourth new album in three years, ‘Equinoxe Infinity’ continued the story as the French Maestro tuned 70.

SOFT CELL made a totally unexpected return for a huge one-off farewell gig at London’s O2 Arena; and with it came a boxed set, the ‘Northern Lights’ single and other new recordings which have raised hopes for a new album. From the same era, FIAT LUX announced plans for their debut album ‘Save Symmetry’ with an excellent lead track ‘It’s You’, while B-MOVIE came up with their most synth-propelled single yet in ‘Stalingrad’.

But one act who actually did comeback with a brand new album in 2018 were DUBSTAR; now a duo of Sarah Blackwood and Chris Wilkie, as ‘One’ they reminded audiences as to why they were the acceptable face of Britpop with their bridge to Synth Britannia. IONNALEE finally released her debut opus ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’ and her tour which included choice cuts from IAMAMIWHOAMI, proved to be one of the best value-for-money live experiences in 2018, one that was even endorsed by Welsh songstress Charlotte Church.

CHVRCHES offered up their third album ‘Love Is Dead’ and continued their role as international flagwavers for quality synthpop, while EMIKA presented her best album yet in ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’, an exquisite electronic record with a Bohemian aura. John Grant was on an artistic roll both solo and in partnership with WRANGLER as CREEP SHOW with two new albums. However, he was beaten by Neil Arthur who managed three albums over a 12 month period as NEAR FUTURE and BLANCMANGE including ‘Wanderlust’, possibly the latter’s best body of work in its 21st Century incarnation.

It was a busy year for Steve Jansen with a new solo ambient work ‘Corridor’, the well-received vinyl reissue of JAPAN’s two Virgin-era studio albums and his epic, more organically flavoured band project EXIT NORTH with their debut long player ‘Book Of Romance & Dust’. Sarah Nixey went on some ‘Night Walks’ for her best solo album yet, a wonderful collection of everything she had ever been musically all wonderfully rolled into one. Meanwhile Tracey Thorn went back to the ‘Dancefloor’ with her ‘Record’ which content wise was right up there with some of Alison Moyet’s electronica output from the last five years.

Those who liked their electronic music darker were well served with NINE INCH NAILS, IAMX, KIRLIAN CAMERA and HELIX, but after experimenting with the single only format for a few years, Daniel Graves announced he was taking the plunge again with a new AESTHETIC PERFECTION album. The Sacred Bones stable provided some quality releases from Hilary Woods, Zola Jesus and John Carpenter. Meanwhile, providing some fierce socio-political commentary on the state of the UK was GAZELLE TWIN.

Hungary’s BLACK NAIL CABARET offered some noirish ‘Pseudopop’ and promising Norwich youngsters LET’S EAT GRANDMA got more deeply into electronica without losing any of their angsty teenage exuberance on their second album ‘I’m All Ears’. Less intense and more dreamy were GLASSHOUSE, the new duo fronted by former TECHNIQUE singer Xan Tyler.

Aussies CONFIDENCE MAN provided some wacky dancey glitz to the pop world and after nearly four decades in the business, Canadian trailblazers RATIONAL YOUTH finally played their first ever concert in London at ‘Non Stop Electronic Cabaret’ alongside dark wave compatriots PSYCHE and Numan-influenced Swedish poptronica exponents PAGE.

Sweden was again highly productive with Karin Park, Johan Baeckstrom and Val Solo while Norway took their own approach with FARAO, SOFT AS SNOW and ELECTRO SPECTRE setting their standard. Veteran Deutschlanders THE TWINS and Peter Heppner returned with new albums after notable recorded absences while next door in Belgium, METROLAND presented themselves as ‘Men In A Frame’.

While the new HEAVEN 17 album ‘Not For Public Broadcast’ is still to be finished, Glenn Gregory teamed by with live keyboardist Berenice Scott as AFTERHERE. Their long-time friend Claudia Brücken performed as xPROPAGANDA with Susanne Freytag and partnered up with one-time TANGERINE DREAM member Jerome Froese, releasing the ‘Beginn’ album in the process.

It was a year of interesting collaborations all-round with UNDERWORLD working with Iggy Pop, U96 linking up with Wolfgang Flür for an excellent single called ‘Zukunftsmusik’ and German techno pioneer Chris Liebing recruiting Polly Scattergood and Gary Numan for his Mute released album ‘Burn Slow’. Based in Berlin, THE KVB offered up some brooding gothic moods with ‘Only Now Forever’ while Valerie Renay of NOBLESSE OBLIGE released her first solo album ‘Your Own Shadow’.

Highly appealing were a number of quirky Japanese influenced female artists from around the globe including COMPUTER MAGIC, MECHA MAIKO and PLASMIC. But there were also a number of acts with Far Eastern heritage like STOLEN, FIFI RONG, DISQO VOLANTE and SHOOK who continued to make a worthy impression with their recorded output in 2018. Heavy synth rock duo NIGHT CLUB presented their ‘Scary World’ on the back of tours opening for COMBICHRIST and A PERFECT CIRCLE while also from across the pond, NYXX and SINOSA both showcased their alluring potential.

At the poppier end of the spectrum, Holger Wobker used Pledge Music to relaunch BOYTRONIC with their most recent vocal incumbent James Knights in an unexpected twist to once again prove the old adage to “never say never” as far as the music industry is concerned. Meanwhile, Chris Payne co-wrote and co-produced the excellent ‘Walking In West Berlin’ EP with KATJA VON KASSEL while also revealing plans for an autobiography and opening for his old boss…

The surprise album of the year was Chris Catrer with his ‘Chemistry Lessons Volume One’ while using a not dissimilar concept with their second album ‘Hello Science’, REED & CAROLINE took their folk laden synthpop out on a US tour opening for ERASURE. IMMERSION provided a new collection of their modern Motorik as SHRIEKBACK, FISCHERSPOONER, THE PRESETS, HEARTBREAK and QUEEN OF HEARTS all made comebacks of varying degrees with audiences still eager for their work.

Steven Jones & Logan Sky harked back to the days when Gary Numan and OMD would release two albums in one year by offering ‘Hans Und Lieselotte’ and ‘The Electric Eye’ in 2016. Those veteran acts themselves celebrated their 40th anniversaries by going orchestral, something which SIMPLE MINDS also did when they opted to re-record ‘Alive & Kicking’ for the ’80s Symphonic’ collection although Jim Kerr forgot how a third of the song went!

With SIMPLE MINDS also performing a horrible and barely recognisable ‘Promised You A Miracle’ during BBC’s ‘The Biggest Weekend’, making up for the live joke that his former band have become was one-time bassist Derek Forbes with the album ‘Broken Hearted City’ as ZANTi with Anni Hogan of MARC & THE MAMBAS fame. Other former members of high-profile bands were busy too with Ian Burden, formally of THE HUMAN LEAGUE returning with the Floydian ‘Hey Hey Ho Hum’ while A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS reformed briefly for an orchestral re-run of their catalogue.

Having been championed by RÖYSKSOPP, Wales’ MAN WITHOUT COUNTRY returned with ‘Infinity Mirror’, but hailing from Scotland were WITCH OF THE VALE who proved to be one of the most interesting new acts of 2018 having supported ASSEMBLAGE 23 on their most recent UK visit. There was a good showing from UK acts in 2018 with Rodney Cromwell, Ani Glass, and FAKE TEAK all issuing some excellent synth tinged songs for public consumption.

NINA’s long awaited debut album ‘Sleepwalking’ was a fine hybrid of synthpop and the currently fashionable Synthwave aesthetic; her live double billing with Canadian synthpopsters PARALLELS was one of the hottest tickets of the year.

The sub-genre was indeed making waves and there were some very enjoyable artists coming out of it like GUNSHIP, Dana Jean Phoenix and Michael Oakley. However, the endless AOR excesses, moonlight sax breaks and highly unimaginative band monikers using numbers between 80 to 89 affixed to an archaic technology reference, illustrated by yet another neon sunset, VCR grid and Lamborghini, were becoming tiresome.

As Synthwave cynics, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s touch paper was being lit big time! The whole point of the synthesizer’s role during the Second British Invasion of the US was to fight against the insipid overtures of AOR like TOTO, CHICAGO and JOURNEY, NOT to make music coated with its horrid stench as THE MIDNIGHT did in 2018 with their long player ‘Kids’.

But there was naivety within some quarters too; electronic music did not begin in 2011 with ‘Drive’, an above average film with a good if slightly over rated soundtrack. However, its cultural influence has led to a plethora of meandering tracks made by gamer boys which sounded like someone had forgotten to sing on them; perhaps they should have gone back to 1978 and listened to GIORGIO MORODER’s ‘Midnight Express Theme’ to find out how this type of instrumental music should be done?

Many of the newer artists influenced by Synth Britannia that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has featured have sometimes been accused of being stuck in the past, but a fair number of Synthwave acts were really taking the soggy biscuit with their retro-obsession.

Rock band MUSE’s use of glowing artwork by Kyle Lambert of ‘Stranger Things’ fame on their eighth album ‘Simulation Theory’ sent sections of the Synthwave community into meltdown. There were cries that they had “stolen the aesthetics and concept” and how “it’s not relevant to their sound”!

But WHAM! had Peter Saville designed sleeves and never sounded like NEW ORDER or OMD, while electropop diva LA ROUX used a visual stylisation for ‘In For The Kill’ that has since been claimed by Synthwavers as their own, despite it being from 2009 when Ryan Gosling was peddling graveyard indie rock in DEAD MAN’S BONES 😉

This was one of the bigger ironies of 2018, especially as MUSE have always used synths! One of Matt Bellamy and co’s biggest musical inspirations is ULTRAVOX, indicating the trio probably have a better understanding of the fusion between the synthesizer, rock and classical music, as proven by the ‘Simulation Theory’ bookends ‘Algorithm’ and ‘The Void’, than any static laptop exponent with a Jan Hammer fixation.

It is interesting to note today how electronic music has split into so many factions, but there’s still the assumed generalisation that it is all one thing and that synthpop fans must also like Synthwave, Deep House, EDM, Industrial and those tedious beach chill-out remixes.

Back in the day and even now, some fans of THE HUMAN LEAGUE didn’t like OMD, DEPECHE MODE fans only liked DEPECHE MODE and rock fans had a token favourite electronic band. Out of all the acts from the Synth Britannia era, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK had very little time for THOMPSON TWINS despite their huge international success, but their leader Tom Bailey’s 2018 solo recorded return ‘Science Fiction’ was warmly received by many.

Just as COLDPLAY and SNOW PATROL fans don’t all embrace ELBOW, it is ok to have preferences and to say so. Not liking the music of an artist does not make you a bad person, but liking everything does not make you a better person either… in fact, it shows you probably have no discerning taste! In 2002, SOFT CELL warned of a ‘Monoculture’, and if there is no taste differentiation in art and music, it will spell the end of cultural enhancement.

Taste is always the key, but then not everyone who loves chocolate likes Hersheys… and with that analogy, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK bids farewell to 2018 and looks forward to a 2019 that includes the return of TEARS FOR FEARS and the first full live shows from Giorgio Moroder, plus new releases by VILE ELECTRODES, KITE, VILLA NAH, I AM SNOW ANGEL and LADYTRON.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings of 2018

PAUL BODDY

Best Album: MAN WITHOUT COUNTRY Infinity Mirror
Best Song: MAN WITHOUT COUNTRY Lafayette
Best Gig: TANGERINE DREAM at London Union Chapel
Best Video: THE SOFT MOON Give Something
Most Promising New Act: VOX LOW

IAN FERGUSON

Best Album: BLANCMANGE Wanderlust
Best Song: ELECTRO SPECTRE The Way You Love
Best Gig: OMD at Glasgow Kelvingrove Park
Best Video: NYXX Voodoo
Most Promising New Act: WITCH OF THE VALE

SIMON HELM

Best Album: DUBSTAR One
Best Song: PAGE Start (Poptronica Version)
Best Gig: DIE KRUPPS + FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY at O2 Academy Islington
Best Video: FIFI RONG Horizon
Most Promising New Act: ZANTi

CHI MING LAI

Best Album: EMIKA Falling In Love With Sadness
Best Song: FIAT LUX It’s You
Best Gig: SOFT CELL at London O2 Arena
Best Video: FAKE TEAK Bears Always Party The Exact Right Amount
Most Promising New Act: WITCH OF THE VALE

MONIKA IZABELA TRIGWELL

Best Album: GUNSHIP Dark All Day
Best Song: SHELTER Karma
Best Gig: IAMX at London Electric Ballroom
Best Video: JUNO REACTOR Let’s Turn On
Most Promising New Act: MECHA MAIKO

Text by Chi Ming Lai
8th December 2018

BRÜCKEN FROESE Beginn

27 May 2018 /

One is a former member of TANGERINE DREAM and son of electronic music pioneer Edgar, while the other is best known for her being part of PROPAGANDA.

‘Beginn’ sees the first results of a new collaboration between Jerome Froese and Claudia Brücken. Atmospheric album opener ‘(The) Last Dance’ starts with a synth string pad, lo-fi Roland CR78-style drum machine and subtle piano part. From the off, this is a beautifully produced track, Brücken sounds absolutely stunning here and her vocals float ethereally over Froese’s textural synth and guitar parts. Sequencers are used sparingly throughout and the emotional impact comes from the lyrics which catalogue the unavoidable break-up of a relationship “…we danced our dance”.

With a couple of exceptions, this is very much a downtempo, chilled-out album. The tempo rarely raises itself above 100bpm and the second track ‘Wounded’ is another example of this. With its skittery percussion and dark string synth textures, ‘Wounded’ has the kind of production aesthetic and chord progression which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Exciter’. The track’s chorus really lifts off with a dark droning FM-bass synth underpinning everything; lyrically we are again dragged into pretty dark surroundings with Brücken storytelling about a person trapped in a relationship.

‘Flight (of) Fancy’ (there are plenty of brackets on the track names!) lightens the mood considerably and is the most guitar-oriented piece on ‘Beginn’; possibly a bit too lightweight in conception (one could imagine Emma Bunton or Natalie Imbruglia covering this), it’s partially salvaged by a welcome minor key sequencer-based part in the middle 8.

‘Cards’ is similar in tone and conception to Alison Moyet’s some of recent solo works… in fact if you were looking at an overall comparison point for ‘Beginn’, then ‘the minutes’ would be a good place to start. Breakbeats which are introduced later in the track and some middle-Eastern inflected melodies keep the dark vibe going and gets ‘Beginn’ back on track again.

‘Light (of the) Rising Sun’ is a short ambient piano / synth based piece; more of an interlude than a complete song, Brücken delivers another beautiful vocal in a track which has positive and uplifting lyrics which counterpoint some of the darker themes present elsewhere.

‘Whispers (of) Immortality’ is the epic center piece of ‘Beginn’ with Brücken providing a spoken word contribution throughout. The song, which features hissing analogue snare and hi-hats, has a Brücken vocal delivery which is very reminiscent of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND’s Nico, especially on the “here she comes” line.

In contrast, the following ‘Sound (of the) Waves’ is very much a game of two halves, the first stripped back with little percussion, then the second lifting off with more breakbeats.

‘Sweet Sense (of) Liberation’ is a definite highlight of ‘Beginn’ and the most contemporary-sounding piece here by a long shot, ’s xPROPAGANDA bandmate Susanne Freytag. With its deep detuned Reese sawtooth sound and Drum N Bass kick / snare pattern, it wouldn’t sound out of place on a Hospital Records compilation. Adding to the album a welcome change of pace, the track has some PROPAGANDA-style spoken word elements in it’ middle section and sparkling blippy sequencer lines throughout.

The album climaxes (as it started) in a low-key fashion with ‘Unbound Spaces’, featuring a mixture of found sounds and synthetic textures and brings the album to a satisfying and melodic atmospheric conclusion.

Interestingly, ‘Beginn’ is a bit of a curveball in that it’s really not what you would expect considering the backgrounds of the two artists; if you approached it expecting a TANGERINE DREAM album fronted with icy PROPAGANDA vocals, then you may be surprised. It’s plainly obvious to the listener that ‘Beginn’ has had a lot of time and love invested in it; it is immaculately produced and Brücken has never sounded better.

Her vocals compliment Froese’s synth and guitar textures perfectly and if you are seeking a reflective downtempo album which combines these elements, it’s unlikely you will hear a better one delivered this year. A perfect beginning…

‘Beginn’ is released by Cherry Red Records on 15th June 2018 in download, CD and limited edition double vinyl LP featuring two bonus FLEETWOOD MAC cover versions, pre-order direct from https://www.cherryred.co.uk/artist/brucken-froese/

http://www.claudiabrucken.co.uk

http://www.jeromefroese.com

https://twitter.com/ClaudiaBrucken1

https://twitter.com/jeromefroese

Text by Paul Boddy
27th May 2018

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