A longtime member of the pioneering German electronic unit Tangerine Dream, keyboardist/composer Christopher Franke was born in Berlin on April 6, 1953, subsequently studying classical music and composition at the Berlin Conservatory. While playing in the jazz-rock group Agitation Free, he and his mentor, Swiss avant-garde composer Thomas Kessler, set up a sound studio and began teaching courses in improvisation, laying the groundwork for what would become the Berlin School of Electronic Music. Through the school, Franke met Edgar Froese and Peter Baumann, joining them in Tangerine Dream in 1970; he remained with the group for nearly two decades, during that time greatly expanding the parameters of electronic music through his contributions to landmark records including Zeit, Atem, and Phaedra as well as influential film soundtracks like Sorcerer, Risky Business, and Legend.
Buy CD
Buy on iTunes
© 2010
