The German prog pioneers were founded in 1967 and had already released four albums on the ear label when they signed with the still young label Virgin Records in 1974. Their last Ohr release, Atem, was named Album of the Year by the influential BBC station John Peel in 1973. Phaedra was the record that brought about the band's international breakthrough. When this classic instrumental work was released on February 20, 1974, it revealed a brooding title track that spanned the entire first page, over 17 minutes of VCS 3 synthesizer fame. On one of the first albums with sequencers, page two began with the almost 11-minute "Mysterious Semble At The Strand Of Nightmares". Then came the eight-minute "Movements Of A Visionary" before the album ended with the short coda "Sequent C". Phaedra was recorded at the Manor, the studio in a mansion in Shipton-on-Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England, which was already celebrated in early 1974 as the place where Mike Oldfield had created Tubular Bells. It was produced by Tangerine Dream founder Edgar Froese, who played the Mellotron, guitar, bass and organ and, like his colleagues Peter Baumann and Christopher Franke, the VS3. Froese also painted the picture on the album cover; Baumann added the organ, e-piano and flute and Franke the Moog. Strangely enough, Phaedra was not a great success in Germany, where the band had already been established for several years. But on the British and American market it opened doors. A two-week run and a high of 196 on the US charts was a modest start, but it was the first of seven chart albums there in a dozen years. In the UK, where imports of the band's pre-Virgin albums reportedly sold 25,000 copies, the title eventually sold an estimated 100,000 units. It enjoyed a 15-week chart run and, despite very little airplay, reached number 15 on the charts. The band would only improve this chart position through the success of Rubycon album #12 the following year. These were the first two of no less than 16 British top ten albums in the charts over a period of 13 years, in a loyal relationship between the band and their fans. As Froese himself said: "We believe that every single member of the audience must also be a musician. Every ... has a different understanding of what comes off the stage