The Breathtaking Blue
Encyclopedia
The Breathtaking Blue is the third album released by the German band Alphaville
Alphaville (band)
Alphaville is a German synthpop group which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were Marian Gold , Bernhard Lloyd , and Frank Mertens Alphaville is a German synthpop group which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were Marian Gold (real name Hartwig Schierbaum,...

 in 1989. A companion video, Songlines
Songlines (Alphaville video)
Songlines is a video released by the German band Alphaville in 1990, created during the production of Alphaville's 1989 album The Breathtaking Blue...

was released in 1990. The Compact Disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 release of this album was one of the first commercial CD+G
CD+G
CD+G is an extension of the compact disc standard that can present low-resolution graphics alongside the audio data on the disc when played on a compatible device...

 format discs. In addition, about 400,000 copies of the album have been sold.

Reviews

Reviewers tended to be less enthusiastic about Alphaville's third album than their previous two. One reviewer called the album "somewhat disappointing" compared to their previous releases, and notes that "the production, by Klaus Schulze and Alphaville ... is met with mixed success." In particular the reviewer found that the songs suffered due to the band's "experiments with a somewhat richer instrumentation, adding strings, saxophone, trumpet, double bass, electric and even acoustic guitars." That said, reviewers did like some of the individual tracks on the album, calling "Heaven or Hell" "interesting," and saying that "For a Million" was "as genuine as the band gets."
A separate reviewer was more positive, calling the album "a highly polished cluster of glimmering technopop" and saying that "the overall effect is accessible and often breathtaking."

Track listing

  1. "Summer Rain" – 4:10
  2. "Romeos
    Romeos
    Romeos is the first single from Alphaville's 1989 album The Breathtaking Blue. It was released a month ahead of the album, and was the first single by Alphaville to be released as a CD single, previous singles having preceded the format's rise in popularity.-Reviews:Graeme Kay praised singer &...

    " – 5:29
  3. "She Fades Away" – 4:57
  4. "The Mysteries of Love" – 4:55
  5. "Ariana" – 3:42
  6. "Heaven or Hell" – 3:27
  7. "For a Million" – 6:09
  8. "Middle of the Riddle" – 3:19
  9. "Patricia's Park" – 4:12
  10. "Anyway" – 2:48


Many of the album's tracks would find their way, in remixed, instrumental or demo form, to 1999's album Dreamscapes
Dreamscapes
Dreamscapes is a limited edition eight-CD set of rare Alphaville recordings, released in 1999. It features 124 tracks with a total playing time of around 9.5 hours...

.

Album cover

The cover of the album is a composite of two works: the first being The Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel (Brueghel)
The Tower of Babel is the subject of three oil paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The first, a miniature painted on ivory, was painted while Bruegel was in Rome and is now lost...

 by Pieter Bruegel; the second being the blue sun. The face in the blue sun is credited to Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

, from a sybil
Sybil
In antiquity, the oracular seeresses of the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean were referred to by the Greek term "sibyls". In modern times, when "Sibyl" is adopted for a woman's name, the conventional spelling is "Sybil".-People:...

 on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel ceiling
The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, at the commission of Pope Julius II, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The ceiling is that of the large Papal Chapel built within the Vatican between 1477 and 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV after whom it is named...

. The halo of sunrays is of unknown origin.
The year '1989' (the year the album was released) is displayed in Roman numerals
Roman numerals
The numeral system of ancient Rome, or Roman numerals, uses combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet to signify values. The numbers 1 to 10 can be expressed in Roman numerals as:...

 across the bottom of the cover.

Musicians and credits

  • Summer Rain
    • String arrangement ... Rainer Bloss
      Rainer Bloss
      Rainer Bloss is a German electronic musician. He collaborated with electronic composer Klaus Schulze in the 1980s to produce several albums, including Trancefer , Audentity , Aphrica and Drive Inn .- Discography :- External links :* at Discogs.com* at Last.fm...

    • Additional percussion ... Hansi Behrendt

  • Romeos
    • Guitars ... Blacky Schwarz Ruszczynski
    • Backing vocals ... Miriam Stockley
      Miriam Stockley
      Miriam Stockley is a British singer. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her work is influenced by the African music in her home country. Her unique vocalese style gained international acclaim when Karl Jenkins' launched the "Adiemus" project with "Songs of Sanctuary", featuring...

       and Mae McKenna

  • She Fades Away
    • String arrangement ... Klaus Schulze
      Klaus Schulze
      Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades.-1970s:In...

    • Crescendo guitar ... Kenneth Ward

  • The Mysteries of Love
    • Guitars ... Blacky Schwarz Ruszczynski
    • Saxophones ... Thomas Keller
    • Backing vocals ... Patti Calore
    • Additional percussion ... Hansi Behrendt

  • Ariana
    • Guitar solo ... Micael Ryan
    • Backing vocals ... The Lunapark Office Choir

  • Heaven or Hell
    • Drums ... Hansi Behrendt
    • Guitar ... Eff Jott Krueger
    • Double bass ... Ernst Deuker
    • Saxophones ... Friedemann Graef
    • Backing vocals ... Gabi Becker

  • For a Million
    • Guitars ... Manuel Goettsching
    • Additional guitar ... Eff Jott Krueger
    • Vocoder voices ... Julie Ocean
    • Backing vocals ... Gabi Becker

  • Middle of the Riddle
    • Guitars ... Blacky Schwarz Ruszczynski
    • Strings ... Klaus Schulze
    • Additional percussion ... Hansi Behrendt

  • Patricia's Park
    • (Instrumental)

  • Anyway
    • Trumpet ... Michael Junker
    • String & brass arrangement ... Rainer Bloss

  • Musicians Hansi Behrendt, Eff Jott Krueger and Ernst Deuker, who helped with some of the songs on this album (see above for specifics), were themselves from the German band Ideal
    Ideal (German band)
    Ideal was one of the more successful German Neue Deutsche Welle music groups. It is best known for the songs "Blaue Augen" , "Berlin", and "Monotonie" .- History :...


  • Gabi Becker would record with Alphaville again, on 2003's CrazyShow
    CrazyShow
    CrazyShow is a limited-edition four-CD album by Alphaville, composed of new material as wellas rare and remixed tracks, and three cover versions...

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