The Callisto electronic music performance from the 2009 Hampshire Jam festival is available from the musicziet website in mp3 (£8.99) and flac (£9.99) format as at midnight Sunday 29th November 2009. The album will be available from the AD Music website in 256 rate mp3 format and as a CDr as from 7th December 2009. Check out the AD Music online store for more details. For those who don’t do downloads yet, AD Music can supply a CDr version (only high quality CDrs are used) in a slimline tray with front & back cover art and on body print. The 63 minute set contains  two sequencer based tracks, very much in the Tangerine Dream style and are extended versions of ” The Lighter Side of Gravity” and “The Darkness of Night”, from the forthcoming Callisto instrumental music CD album “NYX” which is now rescheduled for February 2010 release.

American postmodern composer Philip Glass, circa 1985. (Leon Morris/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

I can’t say I expected my next Space Music post to revolve around an opera, but here we are. And yes, I mean an honest-to-god opera. Not a pulp-fueled Star Warsian “space opera” and not even a science fiction opera like the L.A. Opera’s adaptation of “The Fly.” We’re talking ladies in Viking helmets, “Der Ring des Nibelungen” and all that jazz*.

Yes, according to the New York Times, the latest opera from living musical legend Philip Glass centers on the life of noted 16th century astronomer Johannes Kepler. The opera’s title? “Kepler.” What a minimalist, eh?

Heralded as the father of celestial mechanics, Kepler is the guy who proved planetary orbits were elliptical and that orbiting objects travel faster the closer they get to the sun. He even has a supernova named for him.  In short, Kepler’s Laws played a crucial role in the advancement of astronomy. NASA even named an exo-planet hunting satellite for him.

This marks the second time Glass has chosen to explore the life of a noted astronomer. His 2002 work “Galileo Galilei” sounds like a true tour-de-force, opening with the title character elderly, blind and broken by inquisition for heresy. The work, according to Glass’ website, “explores his religiosity as well as his break with the church, and expands into the greater, oscillating relationship of science to both religion and art.” The opera ends with Galileo as a baby. Think “Benjamin Button,” except with a relatable main character.

New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn points out the “Kepler” doesn’t venture into thematic territory quite as deep and brooding. Instead, it’s more about Kepler’s views on his own character flaws and how he irked most of his colleges, which just sounds like a Wood Allen movie. Kozinn at least says that, while “exceedingly nondramatic,” the music is as brilliant as you’d expect from an artist the caliber of Philip Glass.

If you’re planning to be in Linz, Austria any time over the next two weeks, you might get a chance to see “Kepler” for yourself. For the rest of you, check out some scenes from the opera in this video clip.

Thanks to my lovely wife Bonnie for bringing this story to my attention!

* But no actual jazz.

Ponder the Stars at HowStuffWorks.com:
How Stars Work
How Telescopes Work
Wide Angle: Top 10 Extreme Observatories
Wide Angle: Top 10 Moments in Astronomy

More Space Music:
Vol. 1: Astronauts and Ambient Music
Vol. 2: Desert Island Reads… IN SPACE
Vol. 3: Symphonies of the Planets: Music from the Hearts of Space?
Vol. 4: Carl Sagan – “A Glorious Dawn”

Robert Fox & David Wright AD80CD (100 minutes download only) 1st December release date (price £8:45)

Before Time (Collectors Edition – the original studio recording sessions of “Time Code” by David Wright & Robert Fox)

This download album gathers the original studio recordings of the momentous Code Indigo album “Time Code” as composed by David Wright & Robert Fox. The album includes previously unreleased instrumental music and the original unreleased versions of some of the music to be found on the Time Code album. It is a fascinating insight into the compositional process, showing the original compositions and how they differ from the eventual album release after the input of Dave Massey (rhythms), Louise Eggerton (vocals) and Andy Lobban & Nigel Turner-Heffer (guitars) transformed the Wright/Fox compositions into Code Indigo music.

The music on “Before Time” was recorded live and edited afterwards to review for inclusion in the Code Indigo Time Code project, so there is a real spontaniety and live feel to it all that makes the whole album wonderfully chilled and compelling. The 15 Before Time” tracks are interlinked to produce one drifting electronic space music epic and it’s much, much more than just a rough draft – here are the original, sometimes quite inspired electronic music performances of tracks like “24am” and “Call of the Earth”, plus beautiful additional pieces that never made the final album simply because of the time constraints and the sheer amount of excellent material composed. And in the bonus “Time Code Exodus” track, you’ll hear further alternate versions and arrangements. This collection shows just how prolific Wright & Fox were during this period and it is a worthy companion to the “Time Code” album itself, and most definitely worthy of a special download release.

Before Time
BT1 (1:40)
BT2 (1:13)
BT3 (2:51)
BT4 (5:50)
BT5 (4:58)
BT6 (4:39)
BT7 (1:16)
BT8 (8:07)
BT9 (10:22)
BT10 (2:32)
BT11 (3:33)
BT12 (8:21)
BT13 (0:53)
BT14 (2:33)
BT15 (8:09)
Time Code Exodus (34:23)

Composed by David Wright & Robert Fox 2004
Edited, Arranged and produced by David Wright 2004-2009

Pre-order your copy of the CD “Sines of Life Volume 1″ now to ensure it’s with you in time for Christmas and to take advantage of our exciting and exclusive offer to get your “Sines of Life Volume 2″ download album, absolutely free! This second collection contains an additional 113 minutes of David Wright electronic music.

To qualify for your free download album, order “Sines of Life Volume 1″ direct from AD Music before the Monday 7th December 2009 release date. This “free” offer is only available as a download through the AD Music website. On the day your “Sines of Life Volume 1″ CD is shipped we will email you a download link to obtain the additional instrumental music of Volume 2 absolutely free.

If you would like the download album as a double CDr with your Volume 1 CD then please note the free offer only applies to downloads, so there is a nominal charge for the CDr. Please click the appropriate order button on the AD Music site at http://www.admusiconline.com/main/DavidWright-index.php

Sines of Life Volume 1  (AD69CD) CD

01. September Dawn (4:51)
02. Cassini – Live USA 2007 (14:04)
03. Walking with Ghosts – Live 2009 with Ian Boddy & Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock (11:59)
04. Beyond Paradise – Live 2008 with Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock (7:42)
05. Just an Illusion – Live 2008 with Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock (9:48)
06. Sines of Life (6:44)
07. State of Bliss – Live 2008 with Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock (11:54)
08. 3 a.m. – Live 2007 with Robert Fox & Nigel Turner-Heffer (3:04)
09. All Good Things………. (8:27)

**************************************************

Sines of Life (Volume 2) AD73CD Download album

01. First Call (4:58)
02. Kaleidoscope (10:38)
03. Depth from Motion (16:34)
04. Passing Thru (12:03)
05 Cosmosis by David Wright and Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock (20:55)
06. Nomad (alternate version) (9:49)
07. China (32:53)
08. A Night in September (5:13)
Sines of Life Volume 2 is a collection of tracks that were either unreleased live tracks, commissioned pieces, or music that never made it on to CD albums due to time constraints or because the tracks didn’t quite fit the feel of those albums. But they are all tracks the artist would like to have seen released.

So this epic 113 minute download is a fascinating and varied collection of music from David Wright available as a free download to customers who pre-order the CD “Sines of Life Volume 1″ before 7th December 2009. Thereafter the download will be available to purchase at £8:45 (or as double CDr at £13.99).

Hope you enjoy this free offering for your media players S.E.T.I. Live in Leipzig. With thanks to the guys at LOKI Foundation.

Steve Roach has created 20 years of Echoes Soundscapes.

You can hear an audio version of this blog wit Steve Roach’s music.

Steve Roach calls his studio the Time Room and it’s an appropriate name for a place where music plays with concepts of time and perception.

STEVE ROACH : It’s about time, the distortion of time, the playing with time. Ever since I was very very young I was always like to move in and out of time.  I remember when I was very young I liked to spin in circles like children do and just feel that disorientation and I really enjoyed that feeling.

Steve Roach didn’t spring fully formed from his synthesizer circuitry. In the 1970s he was listening to space music from Europe, and in particular Klaus Schulze.  In fact, until he moved to Tucson 20 years ago, the cover of Schulze’s 1975 album, Timewind, sat in Roach’s studio like a religious icon.

Steve Roach: I think when I heard Timewind it was really the album that hit the switch for me. There’s just a sound and a quality of the sound and a feeling that the sound gave me went so deep and cut through so many layers and was so direct, the experience of that music was so direct, it was so familiar.

Roach is now an icon in his own right.  He’s released over 50 solo albums, and a like number of collaborations.  His signature album is Dreamtime Return. Inspired by a trip to Australia, it sent him into a more acoustic, organic sound that he pursued for the next decade.

Steve Roach: The dreamtime and states I wanted to evoke on that album are the essential aspects of combining almost earth type sounds from the environment with internal deep physical feelings and sounds.

It was a short step for Steve Roach from Australia to Arizona.   His soundscapes for the last 20 years have been inspired by the high desert there.

Steve Roach: It’s the kind of landscape that I am personally attracted to for whatever reason. This stark, absolutely alien like desertscape which is barren with possibilities but really evocative and other-worldly in its presence.

I’m always hesitant to say what Steve Roach’s most recent album is, because a new one is likely to drop at any moment.  But in 2009 he released the album, Destination Beyond, an album that looks back to his early work as much as it looks forward.

I’ll be featuring Steve Roach next Tuesday as an one of 20 Icon of Echoes. This has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

01. September Dawn (4:51) 02. Cassini – Live (14:04) 03. Walking with Ghosts – Live (11:59)
04. Beyond Paradise – Live (7:42) 05. Just an Illusion – Live (9:48) 06. Sines of Life (6:44)
07. State of Bliss – Live (11:54) 08. 3 a.m. – Live (3:04) 09. All Good Things………. (8:27)
(Total album time 78.40)

Release date: 7th December 2009

David Wright remains a popular figure in the electronic music scene and there has been increased interest in his music since New World Music took on the distribution of his extensive catalogue in 2009. “Sines of Life (Vol. 1) is David’s 20th solo CD release in a career that spans more than 20 years and the album has been something of a labour of love, as explained in the informative 16 page booklet that also includes lots of photos and details of additional music to be found on the download only “Volume 2″ album.

“Sines of Life – Volume 1″ contains new studio material alongside imaginative live re-workings of classic David Wright compositions from concerts during 2007 and 2009 featuring guest musicians, and it’s no understatement to say that it’s a majestic tour de force of instrumental music and new age electronica.

From the evocative opening “September Dawn” to the truly awesome closing epic “All Good things……….”, the music on offer here covers rhythmic to emotive, atmospheric to melodic and is mature instrumental electronic music with class and style that is nothing short of sensational.

The perennial favorite “Walking with Ghosts” is replayed as a brand new arrangement that is simply sublime and features another UK synth luminary Ian Boddy on keyboards and German guitar legend Klaus Hoffmann Hook, who also plays the Memotron.

Another beautiful reworking is “Beyond Paradise”, this time featuring Hoffmann-Hoock on electric sitar, while “Just an Illusion” and “State of Bliss” are again completely new imaginings of the original album tracks that here feature stunning cosmic guitar work from Hoffmann-Hoock.

The remaining songs include the atmospheric piano based title piece, a previously unreleased live track featuring Robert Fox & Nigel Turner-Heffer titled “3 a.m.” and a new interpretation of David’s popular epic “Cassini” recorded at his 2007 USA concert.

The production is superb and with a running time of over 78 minutes this fitting anniversary album provides both quality and quantity. If you’re already familiar with the work of David Wright, then this album really is a “must have” because the reworked live tracks are significantly different from the originals to differentiate this set from a traditional “Greatest Hits” compilation. If you’re not and you’re into good quality, melodic and emotive electronic music, then “Sines of Life” has more than enough quality to warrant your investigation and ensure your interest.

An album that’s destined to run and run and a terrific addition to an already impressive catalogue.

Gong-The Original Psychedelic Space Gypsies at 40.

You can hear an audio version of this blog, with Gong’s music.

The voyage of the original Star Trek ended in 1969, but another band of space travelers called Gong launched that year and they’re still wandering the galaxies. Gong is a free-wheeling psychedelic band that wraps itself in its on myth, namely, that we’re in contact with mystical, acid drenched beings from the Planet Gong. It’s never quite clear whether the band treat this as fact or metaphor.  Like Sun Ra, they seem to live the life and speak the jargon, whether on-stage or off.   Gong’s founder is the 71 year old Australian guitarist, Daevid Allen.  Speaking backstage at Nearfest 2009 in Bethlehem, Allen articulates the ethos  of Gong.

Daevid Allen:  Well Gong has an ongoing story to it.  So that is kind of a backbone and guide.  It really is a teaching story–in the old Sufi sense– it’s meant to be a story.  But we never wanted it to sound serious because then everyone embraces it as a religion– a terrifying prospect.  So we made it as silly as we possibly could, so that most people wouldn’t take it seriously.

Daevid Allen @ Nearfest Photo: Gino Wong

Needless to say, psychedelics played an important part in Gong’s creative process.

Daevid Allen: It’s almost like channeling because we were consciously saying there are more intelligent beings than us that wish to work through us.  And the acid was really a way of getting rid of our egos so that that could come through as purely as possible.

Gong’s best known work is the Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy. It tells the tale of Zero the Hero while careening from space to jazz to rock, minimalism and beyond.  It also marks two signature sounds of the band, heavenly glissando guitar and deep space echo.  Gong guitarist Steve Hillage.

Steve Hillage: If you’re doing music that has a philosophic connection to the universe and space.   there is nothing better than creating this unearthly spatial environment with all the unearthly reflections.

Allen & Hillage @ Nearfest Photo: Diliberto

Both Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage claim to be teetotalers now, but they’ve just released a new album called 2032 that’s in the spirit of 1972. What that means is, Gong is still making a joyful, hallucinogenic music full of cosmic whimsy and sonic exploration.  Forty years later, Gong is still traveling the spaceways and currently touring Europe. I’ll have an interview with them next week on Echoes. This has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music.

You can hear an audio version of this blog, with Gong’s music.

Read review of Gong’s 2009 Nearfest performance.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

You can hear an audio version of this blog, with Gong’s music.

Electronic Music Icons Play Live in Philadelphia.

Ian Boddy & Mark Shreeve of ARC

In case you haven’t been following all things electronic, the English synthesizer duo, ARC is making their first US appearance ever on November 14th at St. Mary’s Parish Hall on the Penn campus in Philadelphia as part of The Gatherings series.

Mark Shreeve and Ian Boddy are from the second generation of space music artists, musicians who got turned onto electronic music listening to Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Jean-Michel Jarre.  I remember in 1980 and 81 playing Mark Shreeve’s cassette-only releases,  Phantom,  Embryo and Ursa Major on WXPN’s Diaspar and Star’s End shows in Philadelphia.   In 1982, when Kimberly Haas and I  interviewed him in London for Totally Wired,   he was making his music in one end of his living room while his girlfriend watched TV at the other end.  He told me about Ian Boddy, who I hadn’t heard yet but who would become a favorite during the Echoes era. Shreeve has gone on to release several albums since then, as a solo artist, with his band Redshift and with ARC.

A few years ago when we traveled to London to record a living room concert with ARC, we discovered that Mark Shreeve’s living room isn’t like most of his neighbors in the pleasant middle class borough of Southgate, London. They have couches, easy chairs, maybe a telly.  But Shreeve’s living room looks like a synthesizer museum.  Along one wall is an Oberheim Expander, Arp 2600, VCS3  and the centerpiece of his recent music, a vintage Moog Modular Series 3 synthesizer.

There’s been a movement over the last 15 years among electronic musicians to use old analog synthesizer sounds.  Usually they get these timbres through computer programs called soft synths or virtual synthesizers, but Mark Shreeve prefers the original.

“I mean, it’s a real pain to use,” he groans. “It’s a pain to maintain, it’s difficult to operate, it’s always going out of tune, but in the end, nothing sounds like that big Moog.  Nothing in the synthesizer world can put out bass like that machine can, not even a Mini-Moog can.”

Mark Shreeve Wrestling Moog

Mark Shreeve is a burly man with longish, light brown hair and wearing a black, untucked shirt.  As his arms stretch across the width of his Moog synthesizer it seems like he’s trying to wrestle it down to the ground.  It doesn’t have a keyboard.  Instead, Shreeve twists knobs and moves patch cords to manipulate sound and patterns.

Ian Boddy @ Echoes

The sound he gets is awe-inspiring.  Giant thudding bass lines that start somewhere around Jupiter and end at in your groin trawl under his compositions as cyclical melodies and free-form solos emerge.  You can hear that sound on all of Mark Shreeve’s albums over the last decade, including his recordings with Ian Boddy as ARC.

Along with Shreeve, Boddy is one of the grand old men of English space music.  Like Shreeve, he’s been recording electronic music since the late 1970s. Tall, lanky, with graying hair pulled back in a pony tail and a thick north country accent, he share’s Shreeve’s love for all things analog.

“It’s got a kind of out of control feel,” he enthuses. “A lot of the modern digital instruments you know exactly what it’s going to do each time, and certainly live when you’re playing loud, I always liken the Moog in full flight, it’s like a steam train coming straight towards you, you cannot get out of the way,  it’s got a certain element of danger to the sound.

Ian Boddy has played in the U.S. several times and he runs the DiN label, one of the best and most artfully curated electronic music labels. When Mark Shreeve and Ian Boddy started their duo called ARC, they were looking for a more modern electronic sound, apart from the retro-space sequencer style.

“When we started Arc it was to be a more rhythm based,” admits Shreeve. They’ve moved away from that a bit, although the title track from their album, Blaze, has a drummer and sounds like the “Dragnet” theme in space.

When Mark Shreeve and Ian Boddy ascend the altar at St. Mary’s Church as ARC, they are sure to engage in the kind of music communion that resulted in albums like Arcturus, Blaze, Fracture, Octane, and Radio Sputnik.  Be sure to bring your seat harness and maybe a parachute.  It’s taken nearly 30 years to get Mark Shreeve here.  Who knows when he’ll be back. For more information and advance tickets, go to The Gatherings

ARC will be recording a live session for Echoes on Friday.  Look for that to air in December or January.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

FINALLY…………

…………the second Geigertek album, “The Timeless Mind”, is finished and the masters are now with AD Music, ready for release sometime in early 2010. I’m very pleased with it and whilst I don’t want to sounded conceited, it’s sounding good with some strong moments and one track that really does stand out (“Spirit-Walking”) is going to be included on a forth-coming AD electronic music compilation CD. I find it interesting that the sound and the feel of “The Timeless Mind” is a long way off what I originally planned and a couple of tracks have altered radically since they were first recorded. It’s been a labour of love over an 18 month period, not least with two tracks needing to have their production stripped right back and re-done from the ground up which took a couple of months to sort out!!! Here’s a breakdown of the album:

01. The Stirring Of Echoes
02. Passing
03. What Dreams May Come
04. Until The End Of Time
05. In Another Light
06. The Embrace Of Eternity
07. The Timeless Mind
08. Spirit-Walking
09. The Gift Of Goodbye

As with “The Garden”, this instrumental music album twists and turns it’s moods and atmosphere’s, moving from out and out ambient to almost Berlinesque sequencing all within the same track in one instance. The opening track has an air of uncertainty about it, something waiting to happen played out over a wash of shifting filtered noise and small echoing bells. I’ve also indulged in another classically influenced piece (“Passing”), using the sounds of a quartet of piano, flute, cello and viola, bringing in a full orchestra before degrading the sound of a massive held chord through an array of processors (bitcrusher, harmonic filter, delay, granulator and lashings of deep and long reverb). The mood lightens with “What Dreams May Come” with it’s gentle sequenced harp and synthetic rhythms before a percussion section joins the build-up to the synth lead (courtesy of the freebie VST called Minimogue). Ambience returns with “Until The End Of Time”, an emotional piece that brings great washes of rumbling synth pads and swirling pseudo-percussion, before a delicately simple piano passage. “In Another Light” takes another step in a different direction as an abrupt start brings the listener back to reality with it’s piano intro leading into swirling synth pads and then settling down with an almost hypnotic rhythm playing against a wash of choirs, tinking piano, muted synth sections and a gritty overdriven synth lead – one listener claimed the pice gave them goose-bumps!!! “The Embrace Of Eternity” is a mixture of out and out ambience and pseudo-Berlinesque sequencing with a bunch of Radiophonic Workshop type sounds thrown in for good measure, finishing with an insanely cool flanged/filtered layered pad from the Alchemy synth. The title track has an up-tempo feel and is a kind of hybrid sound of trance and calypso with some lovely sounding synth leads from the Oddity (an ARP Odyssey emulation) and electronic effects – very Radiophonic Workshop in places!!! And the same can be said of the strongest and most commercial track, “Spirit-Walking” – bouncing sequences, persistant Giorgio Moroder style basslines and flanged hi-hats, guitar and a complete steal of the Billy Currie Odyssey synth lead sound – it works!!! The closing track is one that I’m pleased with. “The Gift Of Goodbye” closes the album in what I feel is a rather cool way – gorgeous lush choral sounds (my first foray into sampling using my own voice multi-sampled and pitch corrected using the Roland V-Vocal that came with Sonar 7 Producer), dramatic orchestral strings and a massive church organ – all before a quirky and unexpected finish – David Wright laughed like a drain when he heard it and couldn’t believe what I had done – I just hope people will get it

So now it’s done, what’s next? Sadly, because of time and work constrictions, I’ve had to shelve the Geigertek-Elektro project for now – gutted, as the singer Manda has a great voice and we could have put on a great set, but alas circumstances have dictated otherwise. That said, I’ve already started baseline work on the next Geigertek album, ideas are abounding and again a different approach will be taken as I want to explore other areas of electronic music, not least using more software emulations of classic vintage synths and devling further into sampling and sound processing. Work on a new Code Indigo album starts in the New Year with David Wright, Dave Massey and Nigel Turner-Heffer, something I’m very excited about, as well as preparing for more live Geigertek (awaiting confirmation of 2 or 3 gigs already) including the possiblity of doing web-streamed gigs from my front room – lol!!! I also want to look into doing an evening of music in Norwich with other local musos, I’ve bounced the idea off of one performer and he was very receptive to the idea – keep a watch on this space for that one. After the success of the Hampshire Jam, David Wright is keen to get Callisto playing more live sets next year and of course Code Indigo will be out playing live as well.

So all in all, 2010 looks set to be a busy year on the music front, and it’s nice to have things which will see the day of light rather than sit on back-burners. Involvement with Code Indigo and Callisto have really helped to move things forward and I’ve been quite lucky. It seems unreal that 2 years ago I was about to approach AD Music with “The Garden”, back then I would never have dreamt of playing alongside David Wright, being a member of Code Indigo, performing at events with Ian Boddy, Ron Boots, Brendan Pollard and Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock as well as sharing a dressing room with Radio Massacre International!!! And all these things are greatly appreciated as are the times before all this when the first pieces of music went up onto MySpace and I came into contact with a new group of like-minded people.

It’s all good

Well, it came around pretty quickly after a long and busy year for Dave Massey and me, culminating in a several last minute panics when new Callisto on stage member Neil Fellowes was poorly and forced to miss the planned final rehearsals prior to the gig. Then on the day, during set up, I somehow managed to damage cruciate knee ligaments and was forced to play the entire gig seated and in considerable pain. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the event and not playing was never an option. Neil enjoyed himself too on his first Callisto outing and the new look live line-up means there is a good chance of future Callisto performances.

This years Hampshire Jam was coordinated by Ian Boddy (Din) and Dave Law (SMD), and was a thoroughly professional and highly enjoyable event for all concerned if the initial reaction is anything to go by – one big electronic music party with a high quality line up producing varied high quality electronic music from traditional Berlin school to avante garde style electronica. All those concerned with its planning and organization on the day deserve full praise for a job well done.

I didn’t watch any of the other acts, no disrespect to them, but in my experience artists try to keep their head clear for their own performance. However, sitting chatting to other musicians in the dressing room during the day, we could hear the on stage acts quite clearly and it all sounded really great. It was also nice to chat to fans as well before our set, but sorry I wasn’t able to socialize afterward due to the knee problem.

Our set for Hampshire Jam was based on music from the long overdue album NYX, and we decided to use several laptops to trigger sequences from Moog, ARP2600, Jupitor 6, Predator and Albino. Rhythms were from Stylus RMX plus some live toms via Alesis DM5 and then additional laptops ran softsynths that were being used for live playing of pads and leads, ie Omnispheres, Albino, ARP, Moog and Minimoog. Various controllers, Roland JP8000, Karma and MS20 completed the physical keyboards used.

We played extended versions of two tracks; “The lighter Side of Gravity” and “The Darkness of Night” and generally we were pleased with the performance. There are often some technical problems, (concerts wouldn’t be the same without ‘em), but mix levels aside, a few bum notes and a slightly ‘off ‘middle section that needs editing before release, the performance was okay and we will be releasing the concert performance through musiczeit, hopefully before Christmas. Check out this youtube for a glimpse of what went on – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hEQ_eGyviY

Thanks to the audience for such a great reaction to the music. We’re working hard to finish the studio album “Nyx” for Christmas release, so hopefully the live Hampshire Jam performance will be a taster of what is to come and a good companion to Nyx! Watch this space………….

Here you will find a free download of some new S.E.T.I. material. I have been working on a lot of new material and hope to release something in the first quarter of 2010.

The Listeners Have Spoken with their

20 Favorite Echoes Artists.

The results are in from our 20th Anniversary Listener Poll and we’ve got your 20 favorite Echoes artists for 20 years of Echoes.

Brian Eno #1 Icon of Echoes

The list skews heavily towards older acts.  Of the 20 artists, only four began recording during the Echoes years.  Moby and Mark Dwane launched their first recordings the same year that Echoes took off.  Afro Celt Sound System was a defining sound of Echoes at the turn of the millennium.  Ulrich Schnauss is the only true modern artist on the list.  Ten of the artists began in the 1980s and the remaining six began in the 1970s, or in the case of Tangerine Dream, the 1960s.  Brian Eno, always present it seems, neatly bookends the list in that Harold Budd at #20 came to international prominence collaborating with Eno, and Eno himself tops the list.  Electronic music is well-represented.  In addition to Eno, there’s Steve Roach right behind him at #2, Patrick O’Hearn at #3, Tangerine Dream at #4 followed down the list by Moby, Vangelis, Robert Rich, Mark Dwane, David Arkenstone and Ulrich Schnauss.  Windham Hill effectively stands in for acoustic and solo guitar music in general with entries from founder Will Ackerman as well as George Winston and Michael Hedges.  Lisa Gerrard actually makes the list twice: as a member of Dead Can Dance at #10 and as a solo artist at #17.  Click here to see the complete list of 20 icons of Echoes.  You can see my personal choices here.

Throughout the next few months we’ll be profiling the  20 icons of Echoes, beginning tonight 10/26 with Brian Eno.



John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Spookydirt’s pricing has changed: on Spookydirt’s music page, you can pay what you like for any item in the catalogue – even pay nothing. (Obviously it would be lovely if you paid more than nothing, but these days no-one can expect to get rich from music. Perhaps if you really like the music, you could come back and… ok, it’s an idea).

I hope it goes without saying that you can’t expect to name your price when purchasing Spookydirt music from itunes and Amazon.

In another installment of space music, I have to help spread the word about this marvelous audiovisual creation by John Boswell, AKA melodysheep of Color Pulse Music. What he’s done here is take samples and footage from Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” and Stephen Hawking’s “Universe” and mixed it all into a musical tribute.

Boswell’s talent really shines through, but the whole Auto-tune video also feels sincere — musically illuminating Hawking and (especially) Sagan’s passion for space in an almost spiritual sense. Luckily, we still have Hawking, the world’s foremost theoretical physicist, known mostly for contributions to our understanding of singularities.

Sadly, Carl Sagan died in 1996, following a long bout with myelodysplasia, a rare bone marrow disease, but during his time, the noted astronomer and astrophysicist contributed immensely to the popularization of astronomy, astrophysics and science in general. For those of you who missed “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” the 13-part series is available on DVD, and you can even watch it on Hulu.

The video has become something of a YouTube hit, which reassures me a little about humanity and its entertainment choices. That puppy never manages to roll over. Trust me.

Thanks to E. Robert Frank for bringing this to my attention. You might know him from his “Just Like That” mash-up of old Ric Flair videos.

EDIT: Be sure to check out Tracy’s FanStuff interview with John Boswell as well!

Wish to make an apple pie from scratch at HowStuffWorks.com:
Who Said It: Carl Sagan or Michael Crichton?
Who Said It: Einstein or Hawking?
How Black Holes Work
How Time Travel Will Work (worm holes!)
How Your Brain Works

More Space Music:
Vol. 1: Astronauts and Ambient Music
Vol. 2: Desert Island Reads… IN SPACE
Vol. 3: Symphonies of the Planets: Music from the Hearts of Space?

Loreena McKennitt, BT & Ludovico Einaudi Top Listener Poll

For the next two weeks on Echoes you’ll be hearing the 200 CDs that you voted for in our 20th Anniversary Poll.  Surprises? Definitely at the top.  We expected Loreena McKennitt to place very high in the poll, but we certainly didn’t expect her to take the top 3 slots with The Book of Secrets, An Ancient Muse, The Mask & the Mirror.  Whew!  It’s interesting to note that while Loreena still has a reputation as a Celtic inclined harpist, all these albums show her in her Middle Eastern mode with virtually no harp.  And providing a nice contrast to Loreena’s romantically inclined moods is BT at #4 with his edgy album, This Binary Universe. Lounge jazz with solos in the key of abstract, plaintive arpeggiatted guitars, electro marches, minimalist hymns and pastoral dreamscapes drive an album that seeks out joy and redemption, but not without traveling through the dark.

The list loops back again to a more romantic sound with Ludivico Einaudi’s Divenire, his gorgeous, neo-romantic, neo-Minimalist  chamber work.  It’s not surprising that Bombay Dub Orchestra’s eponymous debut or Moby’s brilliant, introspective Wait for Me placed high, #6 and 7 respectively.   California Guitar Trio’s Echoes, released early in 2009  is stil fresh in listeners minds at number 8, but very surprising are the #9 and 10 selections.  General Fuzz’s ambient lounge music on Soulful Filling was an Echoes favorite but I didn’t get the sense he’s well known outside of our limited sphere.   But even more surprising to me is Johann Johannsson’s abstract ambient chamber work, Fordlandia.

Yet, the entire list is full of these surprises . You can see the complete 200 CDs for 20 Years of Echoes here.
You can also see my personal choices earlier in the Echoes Blog.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Have you seen Brainstorm’s Twitter feeds lately? Sounds like dude is working hard and wants to commit mic murder on wack-ass rappers. Typical. Dyme Def have never been ones to shy away from confrontations on wax, even if their primary targets are usually said ambiguous wack-asses. To their beef credit, though, Brain might be the only emcee from the young 206 crop to officially tell Mix to stop reppin’ Seattle (see: “I’m That Guy” off Space Music; also see Wikipedia entry: “Irrelevant Rap Beefs”). Anywaaaay…

…Brain leaked this yesterday to the Twittersphere. It’s him rapping over Rick Ross’ “Mafia Music”. No beat is safe, indeed. Looking forward to the next Dyme Def EP, Sex Tape, to keep us warm this winter.

Keyboardist Jeff Johnson and Guitarist Phil Keaggy converge on a CD of Pastoral Chamber Ambiences

You can hear an Audio Review of Frio Suite, with Music here.

Jeff Johnson and Phil Keaggy are musicians from different musical worlds. Jeff Johnson is best known for his many Celtic and Persian inflected albums, draped with lush keyboards, sensual rhythms and his melodic writing.  Phil Keaggy is known to a bigger slice of the world as a veteran of the psychedelic rock era with the group Glass Harp and a solo career that has embraced rock, country and new age.  Among guitarists, especially finger-style acoustic players, he’s a legend.

But both musicians are united by their born-again Christian backgrounds and that’s how they got together at a Laity Lodge meeting on the Frio River in Texas.  They’ve combined to make an album unlike anything either has done, yet it draws from the core of their music. Composed in their separate studios in Nashville and Washington state, Frio Suite is a CD of intricately painted landscapes, much of it inspired by the Frio River and the photography of Kathy Hastings, which adorns the album. She takes macro photos that have a painterly look, making for often surreal, abstract images of real life objects and settings.  Johnson and Keaggy create the same sort of detailed, close-up music that draws you into its patterns.

“Of Time & Frio,” a precisely arrayed, almost folk-jazz track opens the CD with its light, gentle airs.  But that’s a deceptive beginning for an album of deep moods and exploratory themes.  Johnson and Keaggy’s compositions could be reflecting the landscape of the Frio River in Texas or Hastings’ detailed macro-photos, but they play less as environmental ambiences and more as interior journeys.  Take “Ride the Stone Waves.” Johnson orchestrates a shifting, textured backdrop that includes gamelan sounds, ghost synthesizers and plaintive piano while Keaggy plays acoustic and electric guitars, deploying his intricate melodies while dropping Pink Floyd-like echoes, fuzz chord punctuations and some sinewy fretless bass.

Jeff Johnson’s sound design has never been more inventive, with often minimalist loops, Balinese cycles and ephemeral synthesizer scrims.  He remains a font of pensive, turning-to-dusk melodies. Within Johnson’s ambiences Phil Keaggy sounds like twenty different guitar players, offering country twang, folky picking, spacey ambiences and jazz-inflected changes. But it all coheres into a chamber orchestra of the imagination.

From the first piano notes to last guitar strum, Jeff Johnson and Phil Keaggy have created a nearly perfect album of deeply moving chamber music on Frio Suite.  It’s our CD of the Month for October.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

We asked listeners to pick their Top 10 CDs which will be tabulated into a list of 200 CDs for 20 Years of Echoes.  The only requirements were they had to have been played on Echoes, but could have been released at any time.  I’ve modified those rules for my list, limiting myself to the my favorite 20 CDs released during the 20 years of Echoes.  You can vote for your own in the Echoes 20th Anniversary Listener Poll

JOHN DILIBERTO’S 20 CDS FOR 20 YEARS OF ECHOES

1 Arvo Pärt Alina
2 Dead Can Dance Into the Labyrinth
3 Jon Hassell City: Works of Fiction
4 Peter Gabriel Passion
5 Anja Lechner & Vasillis Tsabropoulos Chants Hymns & Dances
6 Robert Rich Propagation
7 Moodswings Horizontal
8 Digitonal Save Your Light for Darker Days
9 Vas-In the Garden of Souls
10 Moby Wait for Me
11 BTThis Binary Universe
12 Steve Roach World’s Edge
13 R. Carlos Nakai-William Eaton-Will Clipman Feather, Stone & Light
14 Ulrich Schnauss A Strangely Isolated Place
15 Bluetech Sines & Singularities
16 Steve Tibbetts The Fall of Us All
17 Afro Celt Sound System Volume 3-Further in Time
18 Jamshied Sharifi A Prayer for the Soul of Layla
19 Philip Glass Naqoyqatsi
20 Sheila Chandra Weaving My Ancestors Voices

These are my picks, and honestly, I could swap any of them around from number one to number 20.  You can vote for yours by going to the Echoes 20th Anniversary Listener Poll.  You can also win an iPod Touch. The Poll has been extended to Midnight October 5

You can read my 20 Icons of Echoes list here.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

We’ve been asking you to submit your 20 Icons and Top 10 Echoes CDs for our 20th Anniversary. If you haven’t yet, go to The Echoes 20th Anniversary Listener Poll and enter for you chance to win an iPod Touch. Here’s my 2o Icons.

JOHN DILIBERTO’S 20 ICONS OF ECHOES

The Icons are always difficult. The tendency is to select artists who are at the root or our sound and that tends to be musicians who started 25-40 years ago. Newer artists are always difficult to place on these lists. They haven’t yet generated the volume of material, or shown the possibility of timelessness simply because they haven’t been around long enough. That explains why there isn’t as much electronica on here, even though that’s a big part of our sound now. Keeping that in mind however, I did look to signature artists of more recent vintage and musicians who have altered the soundscape of Echoes through their presence and influence. It’s safe to say that after the top 5 or so, there’s a dozen different artists I could’ve swapped out for any other artists on the list. Will Ackerman or Tommy Emmanuel in place of Michael Hedges? I could argue that. Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze in place of Steve Roach or Robert Rich? There’s an argument there. Where is Sheila Chandra, a signpost of Echoes in the 1990s? I have answers for all those and more, but for now, here are the 20 I went with along with an album that best represents what I love about each of them.

1 BRIAN ENO
We probably played Eno’s music less than anybody else on this list. But the breadth of his influence across the Echoes soundscape is undeniable and profound. And music like Another Green World, Music for Airports, and more recently Drawn From Life and Another Day on Earth contain some of the most evocative music of our generation. Essential Album: Another Green World

2 LISA GERRARD
The voice of Dead Can Dance, several solo albums and film scores, Lisa Gerrard sings in a glossolalia vocalese that sound like ancient voices from the middle ages, the Middle East and parts unknown. None of Lisa’s albums are perfect, but they all contain perfection within them. Essential Album: Duality

3 R. CARLOS NAKAI
R. Carlos Nakai brought the Native American flute to its widest audience but he’s an artist who defies expectations. He could’ve done the solo flute thing of his debut, Changes, still favored by spas, but he’s taken his instrument into world fusion, orchestral, electronica and chamber music settings, all to brilliant effect. He’s appeared on Echoes more than any other artist. Essential Album: Feather Stone & Light

4 MICHAEL HEDGES
There are guitarists. There are finger-style guitarists. Then there’s Michael Hedges who reinvented the acoustic guitar and revealed himself as a composer as much as a player. He didn’t invent two-handed tapping, but he brought it to its highest state. He passed in 1997, but every guitarist and most other musicians who come to Echoes still cite him. Essential Album: Oracle

5 JON HASSELL
The godfather of techno tribal music, the doyen of world fusion, the avatar of electro-illusionism, Jon Hassell has influenced music from Brian Eno to Mark Isham,  Peter Gabriel to Steve Roach.
Those  and many more owe much of their sound to Hassell’s darkly seductive trumpet driven soundscapes. Essential Album: Power Spot

6 PHILIP GLASS
While Steve Reich and Terry Riley are the other arms of the holy trinity of minimalism, only Philip Glass has continued putting out CDs that we actually play on Echoes. Glass’s motoric form of minimalism, with rich melodies spun in symetrical motion have contined to be a major part of Echoes and he remains a significant influence. Essential Album: Koyanisqaatsi

7 PATRICK O’HEARN
Patrick O’Hearn has been one of the defining voices of modern electronic music. Until the rise of Yanni, he was the signature artists of the Private Music label. Since his debut album, Ancient Dreams in 1985, he’s continued releasing finely crafted, deeply textured music on CDs like Eldorado and So Flows the Current. Essential Album: Eldorado

8 MIKE OLDFIELD
Mike Oldfield perfected the one-man orchestral band paradigm that so many other artists have perfected. Expansive compositions, explosive, lyrical guitar work and a sense of musical adventure have marked this artist. Even though his signature work came out in the 1970s, Oldfield has created wonderful works throughout the 90s and 2000s. Essential Album: Ommadawn

9 STEVE ROACH
An artist of unique and personal vision, Roach has cast his influence across purveyors of techno-tribal, space and deep drone zone music for 30 years. Possibly too prolific, making music that tests endurance like a Thomas Pynchon novel and has the landmark free opacity of a Mark Rothko painting, Roach always rewards patient and intense listening. Essential Album: Dreamtime Return

10 ROBERT RICH
Roach-Rich, Rich-Roach, these two musicians are always one and two, two and one in my mind. Rich also shaped techno tribal music in the early 90s and has taken his music in exotic, melodically arresting directions. Unlike Roach, Rich is probably the most underrated artist here, amazing a catalog that is expansive and varied.  Essential Album: Propagation

11 Afro Celt Sound System
Afro-Celt Sound system may have been the highwater mark of world fusion. As their name suggests, they combined Celtic, African and electronica along with Middle Eastern and Indian elements to create an exuberant but darkly driving sound, tinged with soul both Celtic and African. Essential Album: Volume 3: Further in Time

12 PAUL WINTER
Before Afro Celts and Jon Hassell, there was The Paul Winter Consort, merging classical, world music and jazz. Just look at the musicians who have come out of this band, David Darling, Oregon, Glen Velez and more and you can hear the impact of this now 70 year old artist. Essential Album: Icarus

13 GEORGE WINSTON
We still get dozens of solo piano albums in each month, and it’s all because of George Winston. He brought atmosphere to the solo piano and has stretched his sound with influences from minimalism, blues and psychedelia. Essential Album: Autumn

14 STEVE TIBBETTS
Despite the world music influence in his music, guitarist Steve Tibbetts is a  uniquely American maverick.  ALong with percussionist Marc Anderson, he’s been orchestrating challenging journeys for multiple guitars, percussion and in recent years, the voice of Choying Drolma. Essential Album: YR

15 JAN GARBAREK
We play a lot of music from the ECM label, but probably none more than saxophonist Jan Garbarek who took Coltrane style jazz and turned it into his own, uniquely spiritual sound that has explored Gregorian chants, ancient Norwegian folk music and intuitive improvisation. Essential Album: Twelve Moons

16 LOREENA MCKENNITT
She started as a harp-playing Celtic folkie and has evolved into a world fusionist with Middle Eastern grooves and her soaring vocals. Hurdy-Gurdies and ouds sit next to cellos and violins in a music that tells epic tales. Essential Album: The Mask & the Mirror

17 ULRICH SCHNAUSS
One of the truly modern musicians on this list, Schnauss orchestrates surging rhythms, heroic electronic melodies and jangly shoe-gazer guitar effects to make an electronica that goes directly to the soul. Essential Album: A Strangely Isolated Place

18 OTTMAR LIEBERT
He created a sound that never existed before, Nouveau Flamenco and instead of riding that to infinity, he’s stretched and expanded it in a uniquely understated style for the entire existence of Echoes. Essential Album: The Hours Between Night & Day.

19 RASA
The emergence of mantric chant cross-over albums parallels the existence of Echoes, and no on has done it better than Rasa, the duo of cellist/indian string player Hans Christian and singer Kim Waters. Prayers to Krishna have never sounded as serene and sensual as they do with Rasa’s richly layered pan-global arrangements and Kim Waters’ serene voice. The gates of heaven beckon. Essential Album: Devotion

20 VANGELIS
Nobody does orchestral synthesis better than Vangelis, combining modernity, experimentation and a somewhat nostalgic melodic sensibility. From vintage space albums like Albedo 0.39 to orchestral scores like 1492: the Conquest of Paradise. Essential Album: Albedo 0.39

Those are my 20 Icons of Echoes. What are yours? If you haven’t voted yet, go to The Echoes 20th Anniversary Listener Poll and vote and while you’re at it, be  entered into our drawing to win an iPod Touch.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

We celebrate a master of Mood and ambience with Patrick O’Hearn-Then & Now

Patrick O’Hearn has been one of the defining voices of modern electronic music.  Until the rise of Yanni, he was the signature artists of the Private Music label.  Since his debut album, Ancient Dreams in 1985, he’s continued releasing finely crafted, deeply textured music on CDs like Eldorado and So Flows the Current. There’s a depth to Patrick O’Hearn’s music that comes from a wide range of experience, from straight ahead jazz with Charles Lloyd to MTV pop with Missing Persons; from sarcastic rock and roll with Frank Zappa to ethereal new age on his own.  The fact that he’s a fine bassist as well as keyboardist has always given O’Hearn’s music a darker, soulful edge.  Patrick is one of the Icons of Echoes, and 25 years later, his first album still sounds as seductive and timeless as his latest.  O’Hearn has been keeping a low profile for most of this century.  We’ll be featuring his music next Wednesday  on Echoes.

FIVE BEST PATRICK O’HEARN ALBUMS

1 Eldorado
This isn’t the obvious choice, but it’s an album that showed O’Hearn pushing back on expectations.  So much so that it’s the release that began his exit from the Private Music label.  Eldorado bristles with rhythmic drive on tracks like “Amazon Waltz” and “Nepalese Tango,” and dark, threatening atmospheres on the title track and “Black Delilah.  O’Hearn was so far ahead of the Persian fusion curve that it hadn’t been drawn yet.  Shahla Sarshar’s impassioned vocal on “Hear Our Prayer” lifts to the skies.  “Delicate,” with the layered wordless vocals of Ina Wolf may be the most purely beautiful song O’Hearn has recorded.

2 Ancient Dreams
Patrick O’Hearn’s 1985 album, Ancient Dreams was a road map of mood and mystery.  Using percussion samples and the breathy voices of the PPG Wave synthesizer, his compositions combined the earthy darkness of African music, but with haunting melodies that hinted at places either just beyond our perceptions, or perhaps deep inside.   It was the second release on Private Music and established the early identity of the label. I’d say it was the best album they released.

3 Indigo
Indigo was Patrick O’Hearn’s swan song on Private Music and may be his mostly perfectly realized album.  He proves himself a master of mood on “Devil’s Lake,” which rolls ominously like an empty train at midnight or “Upon the Wings of Night,” with Mark Isham’s mournful flugelhorn cast against a wash of synthesizers, drones, and mysterious punctuations.  “The Ringmaster’s Dream” seduces you with slow motion melodies, only to pull back the curtains to reveal a carnival midway that’s part funhouse, part Kurt Weill, and part  the Beatles’ “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” with its swirling calliope.

4 So Flows the Current
There was a more organic feel to So Flows the Current than in past O’Hearn albums.  He said they used no MIDI or sequencing on the album and I believe it.  Although O’Hearn’s music has never sounded wooden, the textures here roll more naturally, the nuances of performance are a bit more telling. And then there’s the guitar of Peter Maunu.  His mostly acoustic strings are a warm sound in the grey field of O’Hearn’s arrangements. Maunu explodes into “Northwest Passage” with rippling arpeggios over a snake bitten desert groove.

5 Trust
This was his first album on his own Deep Cave label and it picked up on themes from Indigo with rich layers of synthesizers, often outlined by the rubbery melodies of his electric and acoustic basses.   O’Hearn is helped out by some old friends on a few tracks including Zappa/Missing Persons mate Terry Bozzio and guitarists Peter Maunu and David Torn. But they are just part of O’Hearn’s textures as he creates moods of dark foreboding and menace.  Percussive rhythms tug on the subconscious like a primal shadow, yet beneath it all is a sense of resigned heroism that marks the difference between despair and affirmation.

I could of easily picked a least three other O’Hearn albums to put in this list.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Congratulations and well done to the Organizers for another successful electronic music circus event in Beilefeld. It was good to catch up with friends old and new and despite not having the turnout expected (much like our festival the week before) the fans that did attend were appreciative and had a good time. The music on offer throughout the day was varied and of a high caliber and once again, the help and hospitality of the event organizers was excellent. As an artist, I had a few moans about the evening setup, but these were minor quibbles in the context of the whole day and the event was well managed and the guys really did put their heart and soul into it, and we can’t ask for more than that. Look forward to seeing everyone again at the electronic music circus 2010.

While Parliament's "Mothership Connection" was space-themed, it sadly contained no ambient Voyager recordings. Still, how can I resist any opportunity to use this mind blowing album cover? (Image courtesy Amazon.com)

It’s fascinating to think that some of the most beautiful and haunting music I’ve heard in my life isn’t the work of British electronic artists. Nope, what I’m listening to at this very moment was recorded by two automated NASA probes — and all the music itself was produced by the planets and moons of our solar systems.

Yep, I’m listening to “Symphonies of the Planets,” the five-volume collection of ambient space drone music released in 1992 by Lasterlight Records. When Voyager I and II made their 5-billion-mile journey across the solar system, the probes recorded electromagnetic waves in the soundless void of space surrounding Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.

For instance, the probes picked up the interaction of solar wind on the planets magnetospheres, which releases ionic particles with an audible vibration frequency. Essentially, we can then translate these waves into sound waves and put them on an album. The probes also recorded:

• Waves from the magnetospheres
• Trapped radio waves bouncing between each planet and the inner surface of its atmosphere
• Electromagnetic field noise in space itself
• Charged particle interactions of each planet, its moons and solar wind
• Waves from charged particle emissions from the rings of some planets

I really can’t go any further till you hear the sounds for yourself (click below). Play this YouTube track and you’ll get a taste of what I’m talking about. The probes recorded all this data on magnetometers, plasma detectors, low-energy charged particle detectors, radio antennas and instruments to measure cosmic rays and plasma waves. Then, some uncredited artist or artists arranged selections from these recordings into a more musical form. So you’re not listening to the raw data here, but rather an audible collage constructed from various pieces.

Sadly, the albums are out of print and mostly available in used or bootleg form; fortunately, a friend of mine had a copy, so here we are. Whether you’re a space junky or an electronic music fan, you really need to get your hands on these.

Similar to all this is the musical work of Italian astrophysicist Fiorella Terenzi, who mixes traditional musical elements in with all the cosmic stuff. Her vibe is far more new age and less ambient/drone, so it’s not as much my cup of tea. But hey, Time Magazine apparently dubbed her a cross between Carl Sagan and Madonna, so what’s not to love? She also admits to “fantasizing about Orion like (her) celestial lover.” So hey, if there are any single nebulae out there interested in meeting that special new age, nerdy blond bombshell, then let me direct you to Dr. Terenzi’s  Web site. Oh, and do check out some interview and concert footage:

I can’t help but assume the creators of BBC’s “Look Around You” were inspired by Terenzi when they wrote this bit from their Music 2000 episode, which featured Toni Baxter, a “theoretical physicist from the McBritish Institute.”

So there you have it: a heaping helping of space music. If you want more, explore the weird and spacey music links below, as well as the excellent B-Side music podcast.

Thanks to HSW’s Rob Sheppe for bringing “Symphonies of the Planets” to my attention last month and Dave Striepe for his musical input!

Space out at HowStuffWorks.com:
How the reactable Works (Amazing!)
How Sound Editing Works
How Voyager Works
Chill Out With Astronauts and Ambient Music
Desert Island Reads… IN SPACE
Music Geeks Make Music Geekier: A Video Roundup
Music Geeks Make Music Geekier: Once more, with Robots