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Washington Post reviewer Mike Joyce profiled Tangerine Dream: Synthesist Edgar Froese, the founder of Tangerine Dream, remembers all too well the response the group received at its debut performance in Berlin in 1969, including the "apples, oranges and bananas" that pelted the stage. Although the concert was scheduled to run for 1 1/2 hours, the response was so negative that the band walked off stage after only 20 minutes. "There was no audience for our music then," said Froese, who will bring Tangerine Dream to the Kennedy Center Thursday night. "None whatsoever...But we wanted to explore how these new instruments could be used in music, because no one had really looked into that. They were being used for measurements and technical adjustments. So when Bob Moog invented the first real oscillator, we thought, okay, that's a start." Twenty-five albums and tons of analogs and now computer gear later, Tangerine Dream is widely considered one of the most influential and imaginative forces in electronic music, creating both surreal and turbulent soundscapes over the course of its career. In one sense, at least, it's made the world safer for instrumental music, but don't make the mistake of calling the trio the "Godfather of New Age Music," as some observers have. Froese, who counts Jimi Hendrix as one of his principal influences and who started out in music as a rock guitarist himself, considers that title ludicrous. "I realized when {new age music} came on the market four or five years ago that it would be commercially successful," he explains in a thick German accent. "But I also knew that many people would understand that music to be coming from someone who had just smoked a ton of marijuana and was pressing down three keys. That's exactly what we're not into...If you have something to say musically, it's important not to lose sight of that." Froese's disdain for music designed as some sort of sonic backdrop or yuppie therapy can be traced back to the band's first album, "Electronic Meditations," which in spite of its title was more stormy than soothing. Synthesist Claus Shulze, then the drummer, dubbed it the "punk album of electronic music," and Froese is delighted that it's become something of a cult hit in England recently. "It was wild," he concedes. "An experiment against everything. Maybe it had the same root that punk came from. You stand up and you're against everything -- the establishment, some social movements, tastes in music, the mainstream. And you say, 'Okay, let's turn everything upside down and start again.'" West Germany was a particularly healthy incubator for electronic music, Froese believes. After all, he says, there was no native rock tradition to draw on. Nearly everyone who took up music seriously was classically trained, and while many, including Froese, were drawn to rock and blues, in the end those styles always sounded alien to their own culture. "That's why so many German rock bands sound too German," he says, laughing. The turning point for Froese came when he opened a couple of concerts for Hendrix. "I really saw, just a few feet away, what he did, but I never figured out how he did it." More importantly, Froese says, Hendrix showed him that "music doesn't have to follow along the same known routes, that you can leave those routes and get something entirely different out of it. It's sort of like traveling in open space." Tangerine Dream is traveling with a five-ton payload on its first all-computer tour (thanks in part to a deal with Atari). While Froese admits that sound checks can still be a nightmare on occasion, life on the road is sheer bliss compared with when the band lugged primitive prototypes around. "In the old days," he recalls, "if you started a concert and realized that everything somehow got out of tune, you just went on playing like a drunken symphony." At last count, the trio has 9,200 sounds stored away, "everything from a pure string tone on up." Tomorrow night's concert will feature music from several of the group's albums, including its latest release, "Optical Race," as well as new pieces and an elaborate light show. A decade ago the group also struck up a successful relationship with Hollywood, scoring such films as "Sorcerer," "Firestarter" and "Legend." But Froese is quick to add that the film work, though enjoyable, is basically a means to an end. "The films help pay our bills," he says flatly. "We've never had a Top 10 hit in America, and we may never have one. I'm not sure about that. Therefore, the films help us make a living and pay for our equipment ... But touring is something I enjoy. This may be computer music, but we feel a real contact with the audience at our shows. There's this electricity..."