Canyon Dreams (1987) watch online HD

I've spent most of my holidays in the middle west, having visited almost all of the places shown on this DVD at least once. The pictures taken on those locations are simply marvelous. And as I am also a great fan of the music of Tangerine Dream (which is sometimes wrongly accused as being "new age") I have no other choice of voting 9/10, only denying the highest rating because of the missing Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. This one is to lay back and dream.

I bought the VHS years ago and I watch it now and then. I have quite a few other titles that are similar to this 'video album'. Including rec of VH1 'New Visions' New Age/Smooth Jazz/Prog-Synth music Videos from the 80s. New Visions regular VJ was Frankie Crocker the famous DJ at WBLS in NYC. Celebrity guest hosts could invite other artists. Guest Hosts that I know of: Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson, Chick Corea, Anthony Phillips, Micheal Hedges, David Torn, Mark Egan, Bill Evans, Wynton Marsalis, Larry Fast, Carlos Alomar, Gary Burton, Bill Bruford, Nile Rodgers. Ben Sidran took over as VJ when the format went to all Jazz in 1990. 'Earth Scapes' OOP on VHS and DVD is my personal favorite. 'Desert Vision' is another great video album. 'Natural States' is OK but a 14min segment is fantastic. Windham Hill released many video albums. My favorite is 'Seasons'. 'Chronos' is very good. It's all good and worth the time collecting.

Contents are great and music is just wonderful. It can put you to sleep if you would like or enjoy it just to relax. The scenes of the desert are incredible but fuzzy and dull. The old VHS tape looks a lot better. I hope someday Canyon Dreams (and Desert Vision) will be released by Miramar in HD. That would be awesome. However, I will probably wait another twenty years. The only thing I can think positive is it's a DVD and easy to access titles - wow. Like me, this appears to be old school stuff. The audio is OK but 5.1 Dolby surround would even be better. Special features are good and OK as is. Buy the VHS Tape if you can ever find it and play it on a S-VHS machine - it will look a lot better.

I must respectfully disagree with the gentleman ahead of me who wrote a review for this film. I personally feel that "Canyon Dreams" is one of the better albums to come out from Edgar Froese and company. Much of TD's catalogue tends to be recycled, remixed, or live albums. Rarely do we get an album of actual fresh material. Canyon Dreams is one of those fresh ones. I think my favorite track is "Canyon Carver" set to footage of the Colorado River. The tempo of the music fits so well with the white water rapids and the rising and falling of the rafters. The music is done by the line up of Froese (who founded the band, and continues to record under the band name with his son Jerome), Christopher Franke (Perhaps best known for his musical work on the series Babylon 5), and Paul Haslinger. This, I believe, is considered by many to be the best lineup of the group of all. Frakne's orchestral flourishes can definitely be felt on this album, and one can hear his "thumbprint" here pop up again later on the Babylon 5 series.

The footage is simply breathtaking. I think this would make a spectacular movie to show at an Imax dome theatre. From the soaring over the cliffs, to walking through narrow slot canyons barely big enough for two people two walk side by side. The gorgeous waterfall sequence is also a favorite of mine. I find myself wishing I'd been born with wings, so as to soar over the valleys, and plains and cliffs of the Grand Canyon, to experience the land in a whole new way.

One of the only complaints I have about the movie is that it doesn't contain all of the music that is on the album. There are actually three versions of Canyon Dreams... The first is the original album, released in 1987. It has 9 songs:

1. Shadow Flyer

2. Canyon Carver

3. Water's Gift

4. Canyon Voices

5. Sudden Revelation

6. A Matter of Time

7. Purple Nightfall

8. Colorado Dawn

9. Rocky Mountain Hawk

Then there's the Miramar re-release in 1991 which has 8 songs:

1. Shadow Flyer

2. Canyon Carver

3. Water's Gift

4. Canyon Voices

5. Sudden Revelation

6. A Matter of Time

7. Purple Nightfall

8. Colorado Dawn

The video, also released by Miramar, has 6 songs:

1. Shadow Flyer

2. Canyon Carver

3. A Matter of Time

4. Water's Gift

5. Canyon Voices

6. Sudden Revelation

Why there's a difference, I have no clue. I don't know why Miramar released the album minus one song. I don't know why the video is short two (or three, depending on which version you have) songs. The songs on the video are also sequenced differently than on the albums. That's the reason I gave it an 8 instead of 10.

The gentleman ahead of me said, "the transfer to DVD looks blurry and dim." I don't see that...maybe he's got a bad copy or something, I don't know. Even on my ancient TV, it still looks great.

All in all, I truly love this movie, the music, and the band. Discover why the southwest US is considered to be such a fantastic and magical place to see. This video manages to capture some of that majesty. Watch it - you'll enjoy it, I'm sure.

This DVD appears to be targetted at someone who will just put it on and play it in an endless loop in the background. It's organized as a series of music videos of the Grand Canyon set to various pieces of Tangerine Dream music.

Unfortunately, the TD music is dull, and the transfer to DVD looks rather blurry and dim. Too expensive a DVD for what it is.