Edgar Froese, who was the only constant member of Tangerine Dream throughout their 48-year history, has died. He was 70.

The band posted a statement to its Facebook page today, reading, “This is a message to you we are very sorry for … On January 20th, Tuesday afternoon, Edgar Froese suddenly and unexpectedly passed away from the effects of a pulmonary embolism in Vienna. 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.”

Born in East Prussia on D-Day (June 6, 1944), Froese moved to West Berlin to study art. He formed Tangerine Dream in 1967 and, by the mid-‘70s, had achieved international fame for the band's groundbreaking use of synthesizers. They proved to be influential to generations of ambient, New Age and other subgenres of electronic music.

Tangerine Dream were also known for being incredibly prolific, having released more than 100 albums in their history, scoring movies like ‘Risky Business’ and ‘Three O’Clock High’ and the video game ‘Grand Theft Auto V.’ In addition to recording with Tangerine Dream, Froese released many albums under his own name beginning with 1974’s ‘Aqua.’

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