Edgar Froese dead: Tangerine Dream founder dies aged 70

The pioneer of the electronica group passed away suddenly in Vienna

Tangerine Dream Edgar Froese (Getty Images)

The founder of Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese, has died at the age of 70.

Froese, who was best known for his work with ground-breaking electronica band, died suddenly from the effects of pulmonary embolism in Vienna, Austria on Tuesday.

The news was broken by Froese’s son Jerome on Friday, in a Facebook post on the band’s page he wrote: “The sadness in our hearts is immensely. Edgar once said: “There is no death, there is just a change of our cosmic address." Edgar, this is a little comfort to us.”

Tributes were paid to musician on social media with Queen guitarist Brian May tweeting, "So sad to hear of the sudden death of my friend Edgar Froese, founder of Tangerine Dream. Great memories - RIP - Bri".

While BBC Radio 5 live presenter Danny Baker posted, "Tangerine dream's "Ricochet" is the number one most played album on my iPod. Edgar Froese 1944-2015."

Former Roxy Music star Brian Eno simply wrote, "RIP Edgar Froese #TangerineDream".

Froese was born in East Prussia, now the Russian city of Sovetsk, on D-Day 6 June 1944.

He founded Tangerine Dream with fellow students in West Berlin in 1967. The group had an ever-changing line up and it was not until the early Seventies that they found fame.

Their 1973 album Atem helped the band become one of the first artists to sign with the newly-formed Virgin Records. But it was their next album Phaedra that propelled Tangerine Dream into the spotlight with the record reaching number 15 in the UK charts.

Tangerine Dream gained fans from their work on film soundtracks in the Eighties including Risky Business, Near Dark and Thief. More recently the band wrote music for video game Grand Theft Auto V.

From 2003 Froese created solo work under the name Edgar W Froese.