New Tangerine Dream Box Set, Pilots of Purple Twilight – The Virgin Recordings 1980 -1983

Following up on the success of In Search Of Hades – a deluxe boxed set focusing on Tangerine Dream‘s most influential period – UMC has announced Pilots of Purple Twilight, a 10 CD boxed set, showcasing the next chapter in the band’s history.

Pilots of Purple Twilight focuses on the albums Tangerine Dream recorded for Virgin Records between 1980 and 1983. The collection features newly re-mastered versions of the albums Tangram, Thief, Exit, White Eagle, Logos and Hyperborea, along with previously unreleased soundtracks from the films The Soldier and The Keep, something of a holy grail for Tangerine Dream fans.

All audio has been re-mastered from the original master tapes by Ben Wiseman.

Pilots of Purple Twilight also features additional previously unreleased material across 4 discs, including:

  • The full concert at The Dominion Theatre, London (November 1982);
  • The soundtrack to Thief includes an extended promotional only version of Dr. Destructo;
  • White Eagle features six bonus tracks recorded for the German television crime drama series Tatort (originally released on a 12-inch single and a 7-inch single in Germany only), all of which are released for the first time on CD and digitally; and
  • Hyperborea includes five bonus tracks, originally issued on the Virgin soundtrack LP for the movie Risky Business, including Tangerine Dream’s biggest streaming track, Love On A Real Train.

Pilots Of Purple Twilight is lavishly packaged, with a hard-back book, with a new essay and many rare photographs and memorabilia.

1 CD versions of Tangram, Thief, Exit, White Eagle, Hyperborea & Logos will also be released, with audio from the 2020 remasters and the bonus tracks from the boxed set.

Pilots of Purple Twilight will be available to order Oct 16, 2020.

Track Listings:

Disc: 1
Tangram Set 1
Tangram Set 2

Disc: 2
Beach Theme
Dr. Destructo
Diamond Diary
Burning Bar
Beach Scene
Scrap Yard
Trap Feeling
Igneous
Dr. Destructo (extended version) (promo only)

Disc: 3
Kiew Mission
Pilots of Purple Twilight
Choronzon
Exit
Network 23
Remote Viewing

Disc: 4
Mojave Plan
Midnight in Tula
Convention of the 24
White Eagle
Das Mädchen auf der Treppe
Flock
Katja
Speed
Daydream
Moorland

Disc: 5
Main Titles
Cue #1 – variation on Logos #1
Cue #2 – variation on Horizon #1
Cue #3 – The Soldier #1
Cue #4 – variation on Dolphin Dance
Cue #5 – variation on Tangent #1
Cue #6 – The Soldier #2
Cue #7 – The Soldier #3
Cue #8 – The Soldier #4
Cue #9 – The Soldier #5
Cue #10 – variation on Horizon #2
Cue #11 – The Soldier #6
Cue #12 – The Soldier #7
Cue #13 – variation on Logos #2
Cue #14 – The Soldier #8
Cue #15 – variation on Horizon #3
End Titles

Disc: 6
The Dominion Concert Part One

Disc: 7
The Dominion Concert Part Two
Midnight in Tula
White Eagle
Dominion

Disc: 8
Logos (Part 1)
Logos (Part 2)
Dominion

Disc: 9
No Man’s Land
Hyperborea
Cinnamon Road
Sphinx Lightning
The Dream is Always the Same
No Future (Get off the Babysitter)
Guido the Killer Pimp
Lana
Love on a Real Train (Risky Business)

Disc: 10
Puer Natus Est Nobis (Gloria)
Arx Allemand
Truth and Fiction
The Silver Seal
Ancient Powerplant
Supernatural Accomplice
The Challenger’s Arrival
Heritage Survival
Parallel Words
Canzone
Voices from a Common Land
Wardays Sunrise
The Night in Romania

via Andy King

26 thoughts on “New Tangerine Dream Box Set, Pilots of Purple Twilight – The Virgin Recordings 1980 -1983”

  4. No 5.1 mixes like in the In Search Of Hades set??? Shame. Also where’s the Wavelength soundtrack and the Quichotte AKA Pergamon live disc???

  7. TD set some of the standards because they were among the first who could afford a lot of the gear. If people had access to as much of it then as we have now, the history would be a lot broader. Not everyone would have used a 16-step sequencer the same way they did. I could buy a new modular Moog with the money I’ve spent on TD’s work, of course, including Paul Haslinger’s solo titles.

  8. The Keep is the original ‘unreleased’ LP – hence the some of the tracks have been dropped. Some of TD’s finest work is in this box set, deal with it 😀

    1. So that made no sense. What do you mean ‘hence the some of the tracks have been dropped.’ ??? Unless you’re part of the original band that composed this or part of the label holding the master negatives from the film, what exactly do you know? You do realize the entire selling point of this box set IS The Keep soundtrack.

  11. This is very exciting news. I’d love to hear a high quality recording of the whole of the Dominion gig, because I went to that gig in London, at the tender age of 16. Let’s hope it includes a fantastic version of Thermal Inversion one of the best TD tracks from the Schmoelling phase that never got released properly. But it’s a shame Tangram and Le Parc aren’t included, but I guess in many ways they are very different recordings than the rest this period. But the addition of The Keep is the icing on the cake. For all those who have thrown their CD player away, I cannot recommend an old second hand Sony CDP-930XB more. These are complete bargains if you can find one (mine cost £30)

  12. You still won’t be hearing the concert you went to as this is a recording of the afternoon gig, not the evening one. Tangram is in the set (disc One). Le Parc isn’t covered by the time period or label and therefore wasn’t in Universal’s archive. Thermal Inversion was never played at the Dominion Theatre.

    1. Aloysius
      The Logos LP from 1982 had some fake information, supposedly the London Dominion concert, BUT: not performed there at all! That is why, for example, all characteristic solos of that performance are missing on that record. TD often had a hand with those kinds of gimmicks (think of the so-called Albuquerque concert from ’86 on Livemiles – not played there either!).
      I really hope that with this new box this will be corrected, just as with the previous box (In Search of Hades) the fake Coventry concert on DVD was ‘unmasked’ ….).
      I already have two officially released The Keep soundtracks on CD, resp. from 1997 and 1999. I’m curious if that ‘new’ version really has something relevant to add …
      The fact that soundtrack The Soldier, released on bootleg CD in 2014, is now remastered is of course fine. And those tracks from the Risky Business Audio Movie Kit were officially only released on LPs in 1983 (later on a bootleg CD), and were therefore only accessible to a select group of people. Nice that everyone can hear them now.
      Nevertheless, such an expensive box should above all be an ADDITION to the existing material, with surprises if possible, Unfortunately most of it is an ordinary sampler of existing work that is already accessible to everyone. And this is uttermost disappointing.
      I can’t make it more beautiful: ‘Remastered edtions’ anyway of 6 CDs of already released so called “definitive editions”, CD’s whick can already be found in almost every good record store (Logos, Hyperborea, Exit … take a look at the list)! The person responsible for compiling the musical content of such a box should have searched deeper and longer in those vaults. There must be a lot more interesting material to be found than re-releases of re-releases of already known albums. And if that could not be found, a thinner box for half the price would also have been nice (or nicer)!

  14. The Logos LP from 1982 had some fake information, supposedly the London Dominion concert, BUT: not performed there at all! That is why, for example, all characteristic solos of that performance are missing on that record. TD often had a hand with those kinds of gimmicks (think of the so-called Albuquerque concert from ’86 on Livemiles – not played there either!).

    I really hope that with this new box this will be corrected, just as with the previous box (In Search of Hades) the fake Coventry concert on DVD was ‘unmasked’ ….).

    I already have two officially released The Keep soundtracks on CD, resp. from 1997 and 1999. I’m curious if that ‘new’ version really has something relevant to add …

    The fact that soundtrack The Soldier, released on bootleg CD in 2014, is now remastered is of course fine. And those tracks from the Risky Business Audio Movie Kit were officially only released on LPs in 1983 (later on a bootleg CD), and were therefore only accessible to a select group of people. Nice that everyone can hear them now.

    Nevertheless, such an expensive box should above all be an ADDITION to the existing material, with surprises if possible, Unfortunately most of it is an ordinary sampler of existing work that is already accessible to everyone. And this is uttermost disappointing.
    I can’t make it more beautiful: ‘Remastered edtions’ anyway of 6 CDs of already released so called “definitive editions”, CD’s whick can already be found in almost every good record store (Logos, Hyperborea, Exit … take a look at the list)! The person responsible for compiling the musical content of such a box should have searched deeper and longer in those vaults. There must be a lot more interesting material to be found than re-releases of re-releases of already known albums. And if that could not be found, a thinner box for half the price would also have been nice (or nicer)!

  16. Still better than the awful tosh that old Johannes is putting out, to say nothing of washed up Jerome. Another musician who’s career has tanked

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