Juno to Jupiter | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 24 September 2021 | |||
Studio | Planet Earth Studios | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 72:59 | |||
Label | Decca | |||
Producer | Vangelis | |||
Vangelis chronology | ||||
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Juno to Jupiter is the last studio album by Greek musician and composer Vangelis, released on 24 September 2021 by Decca Records. It was his final studio album, prior to his death in 2022. After Mythodea (2001), it is his third album inspired by space missions, this time of the space probe Juno . It features soprano Angela Gheorghiu on three tracks. [1] [2]
As the title suggests, Vangelis was inspired by NASA's space mission of Juno to Jupiter. It includes sounds from the same mission (#1, #17), and Angela Gheorghiu (#9, #13, #16). The mission and meaning of the album is "named so after Hera (in Roman Juno), who, according to Greek mythology, was the mother of Gods and humans and the wife of Zeus, in Roman Jupiter, who was the father of Gods and humans". [3] According to Vangelis, he "put emphasis on the characteristics of Jupiter/Zeus and Hera/Juno that according to the Greek Theogony, had a special relationship. I felt that I should present Zeus/Jupiter only with sound, as the musical laws transform chaos into harmony, which moves everything and life itself. Unlike, for Hera / Juno, I felt the need for a voice. Angela Gheorghiu, represents in this historical depiction of the mission to the planet Jupiter, Hera / Juno, in a breathtaking way". [3]
The track 15 comes from the Hungarian theatre play A Vihar ( The Tempest ) in 2002.
Spoken word samples on track 17 of the album, courtesy of NASA, are by scientists Randall Faelan, Chris Leeds, Jennifer Delavan and Matt Johnson. [3] The album was also dedicated by Vangelis to his brother Niko. [4]
In September and October 2021 music videos were released for singles "In the Magic of Cosmos", "Hera / Juno Queen of the Gods" and "Inside Our Perspectives". [5] [6]
On the date of release the album was available in CD and digital format, with CD box set including a booklet. A double vinyl LP was released on 4 February 2022, while a limited edition box set including "2 LPs, a Mintpack CD, a 172 page hard-back book detailing the project and a Lenticular Bookmark hand signed on the back by the composer" was released on 24 June 2022. [3] [7]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [8] |
MusicOMH | [9] |
The Arts Desk | [10] |
Thom Jurek of Allmusic in a very positive review with score of 4/5 stars, praised both Vangelis and Gheorghiu performance, concluding "Juno to Jupiter, like Mythodea, is a major late-career work from Vangelis. It is carefully articulated and deeply illustrative of both its subject matter -- the loneliness and grandeur of space travel -- and its metaphorical referents in Greek mythology." [8] Ben Hogwood of MusicOMH also gave it a positive 4/5 review, [9] while Thomas H Green in a 3/5 review at the end remarks "while sometimes over-opulent, the best of Juno to Jupiter conjures the vastness of space, giving a sense of human machine endeavour amid infinite emptiness. Tunes such as "Jupiter's Veil of Clouds" and "Jupiter's Quiet Determination" show that Vangelis, albeit playing more to the amphitheatre than the spliffed bedroom, still has juice in the tank". [10]
All tracks written and arranged by Vangelis. [4]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Atlas' Push" | 3:40 |
2. | "Inside Our Perspectives" | 3:32 |
3. | "Out in Space" | 4:14 |
4. | "Juno's Quiet Determination" | 5:17 |
5. | "Jupiter's Intuition" | 3:58 |
6. | "Juno's Power" | 4:09 |
7. | "Space's Mystery Road" | 4:17 |
8. | "In the Magic of Cosmos" | 2:07 |
9. | "Juno's Tender Call" | 3:42 |
10. | "Juno's Echoes" | 3:38 |
11. | "Juno's Ethereal Breeze" | 1:31 |
12. | "Jupiter's Veil of Clouds" | 5:17 |
13. | "Hera / Juno Queen of the Gods" | 4:21 |
14. | "Zeus Almighty" | 11:00 |
15. | "Jupiter Rex" | 1:36 |
16. | "Juno's Accomplishments" | 4:22 |
17. | "Apo 22" | 1:53 |
18. | "In Serenitatem" | 4:14 |
Total length: | 72:59 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
19. | "Cosmos Autopator" | 8:45 |
Credits adapted from the CD liner notes. Vangelis composed, arranged, produced, performed and recorded the whole album. [4]
Music
Production
Chart (2021) | Peak position |
---|---|
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [11] | 14 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [12] | 28 |
French Albums (SNEP) [13] | 200 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [14] | 25 |
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ) [15] | 34 |
Portuguese Albums (AFP) [16] | 36 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [17] | 21 |
US Classical Crossover Albums ( Billboard ) [18] | 2 |
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, known professionally as Vangelis, was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed the Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined and slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun. Its diameter is eleven times that of Earth, and a tenth that of the Sun. Jupiter orbits the Sun at a distance of 5.20 AU (778.5 Gm), with an orbital period of 11.86 years. It is the third brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky, after the Moon and Venus, and has been observed since prehistoric times. Its name derives from that of Jupiter, the chief deity of ancient Roman religion.
Angela Gheorghiu is a Romanian soprano, especially known for her performances in the operas of Puccini and Verdi.
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JunoCam is the visible-light camera/telescope onboard NASA's Juno spacecraft currently orbiting Jupiter. The camera is operated by the JunoCam Digital Electronics Assembly (JDEA). Both the camera and JDEA were built by Malin Space Science Systems. JunoCam takes a swath of imaging as the spacecraft rotates; the camera is fixed to the spacecraft, so as it rotates, it gets one sweep of observation. It has a field of view of 58 degrees with four filters.
Scott J. Bolton is an American theoretical and experimental space physicist. He is an associate vice president of the Southwest Research Institute Space Science and Engineering Division. His research area is planetary sciences with a focus on the giant planets and the origin of the solar system. Previously serving as a member of the Galileo and Cassini–Huygens missions, Bolton became the Principal Investigator of Juno, a New Frontiers program mission to Jupiter which began primary science in 2016.
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Explorer S-1, also known as NASA S-1 or Explorer 7X, was a NASA Earth science satellite equipped with a suite of scientific instruments to study the environment around the Earth. The spacecraft and its Juno II launch vehicle were destroyed five seconds after launch on 16 July 1959, in a spectacular launch failure caused by complications with the launch vehicle's power supply. A relaunch of the mission in October 1959, Explorer 7 (S-1A), was successful.
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