In their early days, Tangerine Dream were one of the most progressive, avant-garde bands to span the distance between rock and electronic composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen. Much in line with other Krautrock artists of the early '70s, they created a drawn-out, improvised sound that brought droning electronics up against wind instruments and rock instrumentation played like a jazz ensemble. With increasing focus on the growing possibilities of synthesizers, they embarked on a new sound, arranging heavy analog drones into a then-futuristic sound of pure electronics and minimal rhythm. Throughout the '80s and into the '90s, their output became decreasingly academic and progressive, and increasingly Ambient and incidental.