Christopher Franke was, early in his career, right on the cutting edge of the freshness of electronic music. Indeed, as a member of Tangerine Dream, he helped to pioneer the genre and achieved much acclaim as a founder of the Berlin School of e-music. Unfortunately, after he left TD, he became more interested in the mass production of music. The quality of his albums has suffered as a result. He has, however, released four CDs that rate as good to excellent. "Klemania" is one of the good ones. (KLEM is an organization dedicated to the advancement and promotion of electronic music.)

"Klemania" has two long-form (over 21 minutes) pieces and one short (4 minute) piece. Within his soundscapes, Franke visits the Berlin School and other domains. There are deep atmospheres, heavy experiments and dynamic rhythms. Gentle melodies weave around and through those elements to complete the soundscapes.

This is a good CD. In relation to Franke's entire career, it is a disappointment. In relation to his solo career, it is a fine disc. It will appeal to fans of Klaus Schulze, Edgar Froese, Paul Haslinger and Johannes Schmoelling.

Christopher Franke is an amazing artist and has composed excellent music for the Babylon 5 series along with many movies over the years. Following his departure from his band of 18 years Tangerine Dream, his solo output has been stunningly beautiful and his 1994 album "Enchanting Nature" is the pinnacle of his solo output barring movie related compositions.

"Enchanting Nature" is not a completely new entry in the Christopher Franke's discography. Instead, it's mostly a targeted compilation of altered & remixed material, with four completely new tracks (out of 14 total) added. As honestly indicated on the cover, this release is targeted at a new audience, rather than at collectors, but I am sure that the latter will want to have this beautiful CD in their collection as well. In my opinion, as hard as it is to image, "Enchanting Nature" improves upon the original release, "Pacific Coast Highway".

"Enchanting Nature"'s contents are mostly taken from Franke's first solo studio album, "Pacific Coast Highway". The new tracks (first and last two) are composed in a similar vein - light piano melodies with a misty air of soft synthesizer passages. Nevertheless, this is not average easy listening music - laws, no. It's classical in composition structure, perfectly executed, bearing the stigma of enormous compositional experience Franke had within Tangerine Dream.

This is a wonderful album that you should not pass up, even if you're not a major New Age zealot. The title may be a bit cheesy but believe me, this album is beyond enchanting!

Christopher Franke's first solo record upon leaving Tangerine Dream is a travelogue saluting the rugged, and often majestic, California coastline environs. Franke here has largely jettisoned his trademark sequencer labyrinths of yesteryear and instead substituted grand pianos, austere digital synths and subtle percussive shadings. The music is surprisingly melodic, highly accessible, and immaculately produced.

"Driving Into Blue" uses digitized pianos to convey a sense of speed while commuting along white sandy shorelines. "Purple Waves" is an intimate work for synthetic voice choirs, wind-chime electronics and piano that suggests fluorescent sunsets and afternoon silences, with sounds that caress and balm the spirit.

"Pacific Coast Highway" is Franke's most personal statement to date, far from the experimental tropes of Tangerine Dream, but quite charming in its simplicity.

Recommended.

The first impression the music on "A Thousand Times" left on me is that it contains many beautiful Tangerine Dream references of the '80s. This isn't strange, as Johannes Schmoelling joined the band in 1980 for the concert at the Palast der Republik in East-Berlin and beyond. This once again shows how much he was the musical heart of Tangerine Dream during his tenure in the 80's. I think his contribution to the sound of TD was his keen use of fluidly played solo-voices next to strong, overall harmonic composition and imminent chordal progression.

Each of his solo albums shows great originality, but still have his unmistakable touch. It goes to show, that unlike his former band mate (Edgar Froese), he believes in QUALITY over QUANTITY.

Recorded between January to November 2009, "A Thousand Times" nicely follows up on Johannes' previous release "Instant City". But this time the piano is more up-front next to his always gracious, encompassing synth pads, to which some great solo's are thrown in as well.

Together they create great emotional and melodic atmospheres, expertly displayed on e.g. "Monochrome", "Kiterunner", "Stigma" and "Blueshift", but also very heart-felt and intimate as heard on "Funeral Tears". In addition, hints of "Le Parc" are clearly heard on the sweeping and joyful track "Abacus".

To sum things up, on all levels "A Thousand Times" makes cool album containing many good old Tangerine Dream references.

Well done, Johannes!