Christopher Franke

Christopher Franke
Birth name	Christopher Franke
Born	6 April 1953 (1953-04-06) (age 58)
Origin	Berlin, Germany
Genres	Electronic music
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Drums, keyboards, synthesizers
Associated acts	Tangerine Dream
Website	christopherfranke.com

Christopher Franke (b. 6 April 1953, Berlin) is a German musician and composer. From 1971 to 1988 he was a member of the electronic group Tangerine Dream. Initially a drummer with The Agitation, later renamed Agitation Free, his primary focus eventually shifted to keyboards and synthesizers as the group moved away from its psychedelic rock origins. While he was not the first musician to use an analog sequencer, he was probably the first to turn it into a live performance instrument, thus laying the rhythmic foundation for classic Tangerine Dream pieces and indeed for the whole Berlin school sound.

After his departure from the group, he founded the Sonic Images record label, a New Age music label called Earthtone and the Berlin Symphonic Film Orchestra, and produced a number of solo music works. After leaving Tangerine Dream, his only live concert was on Oct 9, 1991 at the Royal Apollo Theatre in London. He performed on stage with Edgar Rothermich (aka Richard E. Roth) who is also his producer and engineer on all his solo projects and film music after 1990.

Christopher Franke moved to Los Angeles, California in 1991 to pursue film work. In 1995 he scored the AFI short, Requiem. He may be best known for composing the music for the science fiction television series Babylon 5, as well as the score of the anime movie Tenchi Muyo! in Love and in 2005 the music for German musical Ludwig² (with Konstantin Wecker).

Solo discography

• Pacific Coast Highway (1991)
• Universal Soldier (1992)
• London Concert (1992)
• New Music for Films Vol. 1 (1993)
• Raven (1994)
• Night of the Running Man (1995)
• Babylon 5 (1995)
• Klemania (1995)
• Perry Rhodan - Pax Terra (1996)
• The Celestine Prophecy (1996)
• Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo! in Love (1996; rereleased in 2002)
• Enchanting Nature (1996)
• Babylon 5, volume 2: Messages from Earth (1997)
• Babylon 5: In the Beginning (1997)
• Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1997)
• Pacific Blue (1997)
• Transformation of Mind (1997)
• Babylon 5: River of Souls (1997)
• Epic (1999)
• Babylon 5: Episodic CDs - 24 CDs x 30 minutes per CD (1997–2000)
• New Music for Films Vol. 2 (2000)
• The Calling (2000)
• The Best of Babylon 5 (2001)
• Music for Films Vol. 3 (2003) CD-R
• What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004)
• Ludwig² - Das Musical (2005)
• Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (2007)

See also

• Perry Rhodan

External links

• Christopher Franke official website
• Sonic Images official homepage
• Christopher Franke at Allmusic
• Christopher Franke at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Franke, Christopher
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Date of birth	6 April 1953
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