Force Majeure (Tangerine Dream album)

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Force Majeure
Studio album by Tangerine Dream
Released	February 1979
Recorded	August–September 1978
Studio	Hansa, West Berlin, Germany
Genre	Electronic, progressive rock, space rock[1]
Length	40:14
Label	Virgin
Producer	Chris Franke, Edgar Froese
Tangerine Dream chronology
Cyclone (1978) Force Majeure (1979) Tangram (1980)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]

Force Majeure is the ninth studio album by the German group Tangerine Dream. It was originally issued on transparent vinyl.^[2][3] Following Stratosfear, the album developed Tangerine Dream's further evolution toward the more melodic sound they would adopt in the 1980s, with a heavier presence of guitars, drums and distinct musical suites in the tradition of progressive rock, rather than the band's 1970s output of Berlin School.

The distortion of the bass sequence on "Thru Metamorphic Rocks" was the result of a burnt-out transistor in the mixing desk. When the band heard the result, they decided to keep it.^{[citation needed]}

Force Majeure is Tangerine Dream's fourth-biggest-selling album in the UK, reaching No. 26 and spending 7 weeks on the chart.

Monique Froese's rear cover artwork collage includes an image of a man's lower face, apparently a photograph of a sculpture, which looks extremely like the death-mask of classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven. His musical influence (heard particularly in some of the harmonic and melodic progressions in Tangerine Dream's music) may possibly be the 'force majeure' to which the album title refers. The closing section of the title track also uses La Folia, Op.5, No.12 a classical piece of music by Arcangelo Corelli in 1700.