Peter Baumann (born 29 January 1953) is a German musician. He formed the core line-up of the pioneering German electronic group Tangerine Dream with

Edgar Froese Edgar Willmar Froese (; 6 June 1944 – 20 January 2015) was a German musical artist and electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group Tangerine Dream in 1967. Froese was the only continuous member of the gro ...

and Christopher Franke in 1971. Baumann composed his first solo album in 1976, while still touring with the band, and embarked on a solo career in 1977. He founded the record label Private Music. Since the early 2000s, Baumann has devoted his time to studying and promoting initiatives in science and philosophy that shed light on the

human condition The human condition can be defined as the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, reason, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered ...

Background

Peter Baumann was born in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, in 1953, his father a composer, his mother an actress. When he was eight, the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

was built, and Baumann entered the American/German Community School in West Berlin, where he learned English and was first exposed to American culture. At age 14, Peter joined a cover band and performed at G.I. clubs. Then, in 1971, at age 18, he met Christopher Franke, and ended up joining Tangerine Dream as a replacement for their former organist Steve Schroyder. Two years later, Tangerine Dream signed with

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

and their first album on the label, '' Phaedra'', became a Top 10 seller on the

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

charts. As a result of this and other recording successes, Tangerine Dream toured the world for eight years. They also made successful forays into film scoring. Baumann had temporarily left Tangerine Dream twice, first in 1973 (returning in time for Franke & Froese to shelf their current work on '' Green Desert'' and the three to start anew on what was to become ''Phaedra''), and again in 1975, leaving

Michael Hoenig Michael Hoenig (born 4 January 1952) is a Germans, German composer who has composed music for several films and games, in addition to two solo albums, including the highly acclaimed 1978 album ''Departure from the Northern Wasteland''. In 1997, ...

as a temporary substitute for an Australian tour. His departure in 1977, shortly after the completion of the band's first U.S. tour, was final and led to a brief solo career. During the 1980s, he founded a

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

, Private Music, specializing in instrumental music in a style popularly referred to as new-age. Artists signed to the label included

Yanni Yiannis Chryssomallis (; born November 14, 1954), known professionally as Yanni ( ), is a Greek composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer. Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand that he developed as a child, blending jazz, clas ...

Patrick O'Hearn Patrick John O'Hearn (born September 6, 1954) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and recording artist. Known primarily as a bass guitarist and keyboardist, O'Hearn came to prominence with Frank Zappa and co-founded the early 1980s ...

Jerry Goodman Jerry Goodman (born March 16, 1949) is an American violinist known for playing electric violin with The Flock (band), The Flock and the jazz fusion ensemble Mahavishnu Orchestra. Career Jerry Goodman was born on March 16, 1949, in Chicago, Ill ...

Suzanne Ciani Suzanne Ciani (; born June 4, 1946) is an American musician, sound designer, composer, and record label executive who found early success in the 1970s, with her electronic music and sound effects for films and television commercials. Her career h ...

, and former bandmates Tangerine Dream. In 1996, the label was sold to

Windham Hill Records Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The label was ...

' parent company, BMG, who continue to distribute some of the back catalogue of its more successful artists.

The Baumann Foundation

Following his music career, Peter Baumann moved to San Francisco, where in 2009 he founded the

Baumann Foundation Baumann () may refer to: * Baumann (surname) * Mount Baumann, mountain in Togo See also * Baumann's Cave * Bauman * Bowman (disambiguation) Bowman or Bowmans may refer to: Places Antarctica * Bowman Coast * Bowman Island * Bowman Peninsula ...

: a think-tank that explores the experience of being human in the context of cognitive science, evolutionary theory and philosophy. The foundation pursues its fundamental mission, to foster greater clarity about the human condition, by organizing initiatives that facilitate scientific research and promote discussions between scientists, contemplatives, and the public. The Baumann Foundation's main initiative is ''Beinghuman.org,'' a social website designed to spark a global conversation about how current developments in fields like behavioral economics, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, genetics, anthropology, and philosophy can help people make sense of their experiences. In 2012 the foundation sponsored Being Human 2012, an interdisciplinary conference held in San Francisco’s

Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally built for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to 197 ...

that brought together neuroscientists, philosophers, evolutionary theorists and meditation experts to hold a public dialogue about the nature of humanity. Baumann is the co-author, with Michael W. Taft, of the 2011 book ''Ego: The Fall of the Twin Towers and the Rise of an Enlightened Humanity.'' The book draws on new research in neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and other scientific fields to examine the origin and history of the human ego and the evolutionary implications of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

Personal life

Baumann has been married to Alison Baumann since 1983, and has three children. He is the director of several real estate and natural resource companies. In addition to creating the Baumann Foundation, he is on the board of directors of the

California Institute of Integral Studies The California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is a private graduate school (with limited undergraduate offerings) in San Francisco. Founded in 1968 as the California Institute of ''Asian'' Studies, the name was changed in 1980. CIIS has b ...

and is a fellow of the

Mind and Life Institute The Mind & Life Institute is a US-registered, 501(c)(3) organization, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1991 to establish the field of contemplative neuroscience, contemplative sciences. Based in Charlottesville, Va., the institute ...

Discography

As a member of Tangerine Dream

Albums

* '' Zeit'' (1972) * '' Atem'' (1973) * '' Phaedra'' (1974) * '' Rubycon'' (1975) * ''

Ricochet A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...

'' (1975) * '' Stratosfear'' (1976) * ''

Sorcerer (soundtrack) ''Sorcerer'' (1977) is the ninth major release and first soundtrack album by the German band Tangerine Dream. It is the soundtrack for the film ''Sorcerer''. It reached No.25 on the UK Albums Chart in a 7-week run, to become Tangerine Dream's t ...

'' (1977) * ''

Encore An encore is an additional performance given by performers at the conclusion of a show or concert, usually in response to extended applause from the audience.Lalange Cochrane, in ''Oxford Companion to Music'', Alison Latham, ed., Oxford Universi ...

'' (1977)

Solo career

Albums

* ''Romance '76'' (1977) (LP) * ''Trans Harmonic Nights'' (1979) (LP) * ''Repeat Repeat'' (1981) (LP) * ''Strangers In The Night'' (1983) (LP) * ''Blue Room'' (promo cassette with

Paul Haslinger Paul Haslinger (born 11 December 1962) is an Austrian musician and composer. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life and career Early life Haslinger was born and raised in Linz, Austria. He attended high school at Kollegium Aloisi ...

& John Baxter) (1991) * ''Phase by Phase: A Retrospective '76 - '81'' (1996) (CD) * ''Machines of Desire'' (2016) (CD) * ''Neuland'' (with

) (2019) (CD, LP) * ''Nightfall'' (2025) (CD, LP)

EP

* ''Bicentennial Present'' (7" single) (1976) * ''Biking Up The Strand'' (7" single) (1979) * ''Realtimes'' (7" single) (1981) * ''Daytime Logic (Extended Dance Mix)'' (12" single) (1981) * ''The Russians are Coming'' (12" single, with

Conrad Schnitzler Conrad "Conny" Schnitzler (17 March 1937 – 4 August 2011) was a prolific German experimental musician associated with West Germany's 1970s krautrock movement. A co-founder of West Berlin's Zodiak Free Arts Lab, he was an early member of Tang ...

) (1982)

Other appearances

* ''Welcome to Joyland'' (with Leda, as 'Hacoon Mail') (1978) * ''Grosses Wasser'' (co-producer on the

Cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study the magnetosphere * Asteroid cluster, a small ...

album) (1979)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baumann, Peter 1953 births Living people German electronic musicians Virgin Records artists Tangerine Dream members Private Music artists