Space music | |
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Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Early 1970s, Germany and Japan [1] [2] |
Fusion genres | |
Other topics | |
Space music, also called spacemusic or space ambient, is a subgenre of ambient music and is described as "tranquil, hypnotic and moving". It is derived from new-age music and is associated with lounge music, easy listening, and elevator music. [3]
According to Stephen Hill, co-founder of a radio show called Hearts of Space , the term is used to describe music that evokes a feeling of contemplative spaciousness. [4] [5] [6] Hill states that space music can range in character, the sonic texture of the music can be simple or complex, it can be instrumental or electronic, it may lack conventional melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic features, and may be less concerned with the formal compositional schemes associated with other styles of music. [7] [8] Hill proposes that space music can be found within a wide range of genres. [7] [9] Space music may have influences from western classical, world, Celtic, traditional and experimental music. [10] [11] [12]
Hill believes that space music can evoke a "continuum of spatial imagery and emotion", [13] which can be beneficial for introspection, and for developing, through a practice of deep listening, an awareness of the spatiality of sound phenomenon. [14] This type of psychonautic listening can produce a subtle trance-like state in certain individuals [15] [16] [17] which can in turn lead to sensations of flying, floating, cruising, gliding, or hovering. [18] [19]
Hill states that some individuals use space music for both background enhancement and foreground listening, often with headphones, to enable states of relaxation, contemplation, inspiration, and generally peaceful expansive moods; it may promote health through relaxation, atmospherics for bodywork therapies, and effectiveness of meditation. [20] Space music appears in many film soundtracks and is commonly played in planetariums. [21]
According to Hill space music is an eclectic music produced almost exclusively by independent labels and it occupies a small niche in the marketplace, supported and enjoyed by a relatively small audience of loyal enthusiastic listeners. [22]
AllMusic defines space music as a subgenre of New Age music. [23] Similarly, mainstream retailer Barnes & Noble, independent online music retailer CD Baby, and RealNetwork's music download service Rhapsody all classify space music as a subgenre of new-age music. [24] [25] [26] Rhapsody's editorial staff writes in their music genre description for space music (listed as a subgenre of new-age music) that "New Age composers have looked upward for inspiration, creating an abstract notion of the sounds of interstellar music." [27]
Stephen Hill, co-founder of the radio show Music from the Hearts of Space (syndicated nationally in the United States on National Public Radio) uses the phrase "contemplative music, broadly defined" as an overview to describe the music played on his station, along with the term "spacemusic". [10] He states that the "genre spans historical, ethnic, and contemporary styles", [5] and that it combines elements from many cultures and genres, blended with varieties of acoustic and electronic ambient music, "woven into a seamless sequence unified by sound, emotion, and spatial imagery." [10] In his essay "New Age Music Made Simple", and in introducing the 200th broadcast of the Hearts of Space radio program, Hill has referred to space music as a sub-category of New Age. [19]
Hill's partner Anna Turner (co-host and original co-producer of Music from the Hearts of Space) wrote in her 1989 essay entitled "Space Music" that "New Age Space music carries visions in its notes; it is transcendent inner and outer space music that opens, allows and creates space... this music speaks to our present moment, to the great allegory of moving out beyond our boundaries into space, and reflexively, to the unprecedented adventures of the psyche that await within." [28]
Gerardo "Pkx" Martinez-Casas, original host, producer and creator of KUSF's 90.3 FM, University of San Francisco in California, "Moondance (The Beyond Within)" 1981– 198?, described space music as electronic, environmental and spiritual fine art fashion cosmic sounds as an aid and tool for cultural, contemplative, meditative, social and spiritual awareness. [29]
In her book The New Age Music Guide, author, editor and music critic P. J. Birosik classifies space music as a subgenre of new-age music, [30] as does Dallas Smith, writer, teacher and recording artist in his essay New Age Jazz/Fusion. [31] Steven Halpern, noted recording artist and workshop leader writes that space music has been considered a synonym for new-age music: " 'Space' is a vital dimension of new-age music; so much so that one of the early appellations for the genre was simply 'space music', referring both to its texture and to the state that it tended to evoke in the listener." [32]
John Diliberto, the host of the radio show, Echoes , and creator of WXPN's Star's End , has stated that space music is related to electronic music, [8] as has Bay Area musician, composer and sound designer Robert Rich, who considers space music to be a combination of Electronic music influences from the 1970s with world music and "modern compositional methods". [33] Forest, host of Musical Starstreams refers to space music as a separate genre along with Ambient music, and others including dub, downtempo, trip hop, and acid jazz in the list of genres he calls "exotic electronica". [34] Similarly, WXPN Radio's Star's End, programming ambient music since 1976, on its website lists space music as a separate genre, along with Ambient, new-age, and others.
Steve Sande, freelance writer for the San Francisco Chronicle considers space music to be "Anything but New Age," and writes that "spacemusic [is] also known as ambient, chill-out, mellow dub, down-tempo." [35] In the same article, he describes Stephen Hill's "Hearts of Space" spacemusic program as streaming ambient, electronic, world, new-age and classical music. [11] In contrast to this, according to author and National Endowment for the Arts researcher Judith H. Balfe, Billboard editor Jerry Wood describes space music as one of several "genres within the genre" of new-age music. [36]
As described by Stephen Hill, the predominant defining element of spacemusic is its contemplative nature. [5] [10] Within that overview, Hill's definition of space music includes a wide variety of styles, instrumentation and influences – both acoustic or electronic. [7] [9]
Many space music recording artists specialize in electronic forms, evolving out of the traditional Kosmische musik of the Berlin School (also known as Krautrock). [37]
Author and classical music critic David Hurwitz describes Joseph Haydn's choral and chamber orchestra piece, The Creation, composed in 1798, as space music, both in the sense of the sound of the music, ("a genuine piece of 'space music' featuring softly pulsating high violins and winds above low cellos and basses, with nothing at all in the middle ... The space music gradually drifts towards a return to the movement's opening gesture ... "); and in the manner of its composition, relating that Haydn conceived The Creation after discussing music and astronomy with William Herschel, oboist and astronomer (discoverer of the planet Uranus). [12]
In 1928, the German composer Robert Beyer published a paper about "Raummusik" (spatial music), [38] which is an entirely different sense of the term. Karlheinz Stockhausen, who became a colleague of Beyer in Cologne in 1953, used the expression "space music" in this sense when describing his early development as a composer: "The first revolution occurred from 1952/53 as musique concrète, electronic tape music, and space music, entailing composition with transformers, generators, modulators, magnetophones, etc., the integration of all concrete and abstract (synthetic) possibilities within sound (also all noises) and the controlled projection of sound in space." [39] In the sense meant here, he stated in 1967, "Several have commented that my electronic music sounds 'like on a different star', or 'like in outer space.' Many have said that when hearing this music, they have sensations as if flying at an infinitely high speed, and then again, as if immobile in an immense space." [40] A number of Stockhausen's later compositions (not all of them electronic music) take outer space as their theme: Sternklang (Star Sound, 1971), Ylem (1972), Sirius (1975–77), several components of the opera-cycle Licht ( Weltraum (Outer Space, 1991–92/1994), Michaelion (1997), Komet (Comet, 1994/1999), Lichter—Wasser (Lights—Waters, 1998–99)), and the so-called "Urantia" subcycle of Klang (Sound, 2006–2007), extending from its thirteenth "hour", Cosmic Pulses to its twenty-first "hour" Paradies .
Music historian Joseph Lanza described the emerging light music style during the early 1950s as a precursor to modern space music. He wrote that orchestra conductor Mantovani used new studio technologies to "create sound tapestries with innumerable strings" and in particular, "the sustained hum of Mantovani's reverberated violins produced a sonic vaporizor foreshadowing the synthesizer harmonics of space music." [41]
Jazz artist Sun Ra used the term to describe his music in 1956, when he stated that the music allowed him to translate his experience of the void of space into a language people could enjoy and understand. [42]
Physicist Werner Meyer-Eppler had been inspired by Homer Dudley's 1948 invention of the Vocoder and began in 1951 to work with a device known as a Melochord, in conjunction with magnetic tape recorders, leading to a decade of working at the Studio for Electronic Music (WDR) specializing in "elektronische Musik" using magnetic tape recorders, sine wave generators and serial composition techniques. [43]
In 1969, Miles Davis was introduced to the music of Stockhausen by young arranger and cellist, and later Grammy award winner, Paul Buckmaster, leading to a period of new creative exploration for Davis. Biographer J. K. Chambers wrote that "The effect of Davis's study of Stockhausen could not be repressed for long. ... Davis's own 'space music' shows Stockhausen's influence compositionally." [44] His recordings and performances during this period were described as "space music" by fans, by music critic Leonard Feather, and by Buckmaster who stated: "a lot of mood changes – heavy, dark, intense – definitely space music." [45]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Grateful Dead developed a new form of improvisational space music in their extended formless jam sessions during live concerts (which their fans referred to as "Space" though the band did not formally assign that title), and their experimental space music albums such as Aoxomoxoa, and later in the 1980s, Infrared Roses, and Grayfolded. [46] [47] Band member Phil Lesh released experimental space music recording Seastones with computer music pioneer Ned Lagin in 1975, one of the first albums to be issued in the innovative but commercially unsuccessful format SQ-Quadwith. Lagin used in real-time stage and studio performance of minicomputers driving real-time digital to analog converters, prior to the commercial availability of digital synthesizers in the early 1980s.
The Czech-American composer Václav Nelhýbel, released in 1974 a record named Outer Space: Music by Vaclav Nelybel. From the liner notes: "Ingenious use of echo, artificial reverberation and electronic alterations gives the music in this category a weird, spooky futuristic, 'out of this world' quality, well-suited to super-natural happenings of any kind. Piano, drums and electronic instruments are used to achieve the strange atmosphere and spatial sounds." Vaclav Nelhybel crafts a supernatural world, describing nebulae, meteors, star clusters and craters on Mars with sounds natural and manipulated to tell the story of cosmic space.
Beginning in the early 1970s, the term "space music" was applied to some of the output of such artists as Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, [37] due to the transcendent cosmic feelings of space evoked by the sound of the music and enhanced by the use of the emerging new instrument, the synthesizer, [48] [49] [50] [51] and also in part to the "outer space" themes that are apparent in some of their works. These space music explorations diverged from traditional pop-song formats into longer less structured compositions. [52] Following their early influence on the development of space music, Tangerine Dream later produced increasingly rock-influenced works that are not generally described as space music. [53]
In 1971–72, Sun Ra brought his "space music" philosophy to UC Berkeley where he taught as artist-in-residence for the school year, creating notoriety among the students by devoting the second half-hour of each class to solo or band performances. In 1972, San Francisco public TV station KQED producer John Coney, producer Jim Newman, and screenwriter Joshua Smith worked with Sun Ra to produce a 30-minute documentary film, expanded into a feature film released in 1974, entitled Space Is the Place , featuring Sun Ra's Arkestra and filmed in Golden Gate Park. [54]
In 1973, Berkeley radio producers Anna Turner and Stephen Hill used the phrase in the title of their local public radio show Music from the Hearts of Space . They developed an innovative segue music assembly technique, cross-mixing "spacey" instrumental pieces to create a sustained mood. The term began to be used more widely when the show was syndicated nationally in 1983. [55] Other U.S.-based radio programmers adopted the term as well, among them, John Diliberto, Steve Pross, and Gino Wong with Star's End , launched in 1976, Frank J. Forest (a.k.a. "Forest") with Musical Starstreams, launched in 1981 and nationally syndicated in 1983, and John Diliberto again with Echoes , launched in 1989. [56]
Examples of space music in film soundtracks include the Vangelis score to Blade Runner , [57] [58] Tangerine Dream's moody soundtracks for Legend , Sorcerer and Risky Business , [59] [60] Jonn Serrie's surround-sound score for the IMAX short film, Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time, [61] Brian Eno's score for the 1989 film For All Mankind, [62] and Michael Stearns' soundtrack for the 1985 IMAX film, Chronos , broadcast on Stephen Hill's Hearts of Space radio, on the film's opening night [63]
Television science-fiction series Babylon 5 was scored by former Tangerine Dream member Christopher Franke, released on compact disc in 1996 on Franke's independent label Sonic Images. The scores for many of the Babylon 5 TV movies and numerous Babylon 5 episodes [64] were also released by Sonic Images. [65] In 1994, the German TV station Bayerischer Rundfunk launched the television program Space Night , [66] featuring a constant flow of satellite and space images accompanied by space music programmed by European chill-out-DJ Alex Azary.
space music evokes vague images of regal landscapes perhaps encountered in past lives or the tones of a harmonic convergence between earth and other celestial bodies...
Space music is just as important for its ability to confound our spoon-fed sense of time and place. Its mercurial stirrings create openings between worlds: inner and outer space; ancestral rhythms and ultra-civilized electronics, the clock on the wall and the hallucinatory "psyhonaut" time that drifts in and out of waking life.
The mystique of communing with some larger, transpersonal, extraterretrial Gaia is commonly included as part of space music's packaging. Explaining compositions such as 'The Galactic Chalice' and 'Celestial Communion', Constance Demby refers to the 'transformative journey' with 'sounds to awaken and activate soul memory of our true origin.'
Space music presents a virtual fantasy of traveling in outer space.
Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means. Pure electronic instruments depended entirely on circuitry-based sound generation, for instance using devices such as an electronic oscillator, theremin, or synthesizer. Electromechanical instruments can have mechanical parts such as strings, hammers, and electric elements including magnetic pickups, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Such electromechanical devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, electric piano and electric guitar.
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-1970s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann. In 1979, Johannes Schmoelling replaced Baumann until his own departure in 1985. This lineup was notable for composing many movie soundtracks. Since Froese's death in 2015, the group has been under the leadership of Thorsten Quaeschning. Quaeschning is Froese's chosen successor and is currently the longest-serving band member, having joined in 2005. Quaeschning is currently joined by violinist Hoshiko Yamane who joined in 2011 and Paul Frick who joined in 2020. Prior to this Quaeschning and Yamane performed with Ulrich Schnauss from 2014 to 2020. Schnauss only played two shows with Froese in November 2014 before Froese's passing.
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It is often "peaceful" sounding and lacks composition, beat, and/or structured melody. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer.
Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drumming, languid vocals, synthesizers, and lyrical themes of outer space and science fiction.
Echoes is a daily two-hour music radio program hosted by John Diliberto featuring a soundscape of ambient, space, electronica, and new-age music. The program features in-depth artist interviews and intimate "living room" performances. Interview subjects have included Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, and Philip Glass. Live performers have included Yo-Yo Ma, Pat Metheny, Loreena McKennitt, Steve Roach, Air and many others. Echoes has produced sixteen CD collections from these and other in-studio performances. Distributed by Public Radio Exchange, Echoes is currently heard on about 80 radio stations. Echoes can also be heard on the web, with 24/7 streaming and on-demand audio available.
Steve Roach is an American composer and performer of ambient and electronic music, whose recordings are informed by his impressions of environment, perception, flow and space. His work has been influential in the trance and new-age genres.
New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy rather than trance, or to create a peaceful atmosphere in homes or other environments. It is sometimes associated with environmentalism and New Age spirituality; however, most of its artists have nothing to do with "New Age spirituality," and some even reject the term.
Star's End is a weekly, five-hour-long new-age music radio show broadcast by 88.5 WXPN, the University of Pennsylvania's radio station, in Philadelphia. It is the second longest-running show of its type in the world, after Hearts of Space.
Dark ambient is a genre of post-industrial music that features an ominous, dark droning and often gloomy, monumental or catacombal atmosphere, partially with discordant overtones. It shows similarities with ambient music, a genre that has been cited as a main influence by many dark ambient artists, both conceptually and compositionally. Although mostly electronically generated, dark ambient also includes the sampling of hand-played instruments and semi-acoustic recording procedures.
Dreamtime Return (1988) is a double album by the American ambient musician Steve Roach, based on Australian Aboriginal culture and the concept of the Dreamtime. Described as "one of the pivotal works of ambient music" and "groundbreaking," the album has been included on a number of lists of the world's best music, including 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.
Phaedra is the fifth studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was recorded during November 1973 at The Manor in Shipton-on-Cherwell, England and released on 20 February 1974 through Virgin Records. This is the first Tangerine Dream album to feature their now classic sequencer-driven sound, which is considered to have greatly influenced the Berlin School genre.
Hearts of Space is an American weekly syndicated public radio show featuring music of a contemplative nature drawn largely from the ambient, new-age and electronic genres, while also including classical, world, Celtic, experimental, and other music selections. For many years, the show's producer and presenter, Stephen Hill, has applied the term "space music" to the music broadcast on the show, irrespective of genre. It is the longest-running radio program of its type in the world. Each episode ends with Hill gently saying, "Safe journeys, space fans ... wherever you are."
Musical Starstreams is a terrestrial and internet radio program that first aired in the San Francisco bay area in December 1981. Originally known as Music for Your Inner Space, it has been produced, programmed and hosted by Forest, originally in Mill Valley and now from Maui, for its entire forty year history, except for a twelve-month period from mid-2002, when Madison Cole hosted the show.
Space-themed music is any music, from any genre or style, with lyrics or titles relating to outer space or spaceflight.
Jeff Johnson is a recording artist, composer, and producer who has released numerous solo and collaborative recordings. Born near Portland, Oregon, he currently resides in the San Juan Islands in the state of Washington.
Risky Business is the twenty-first major release and fourth soundtrack album by Tangerine Dream. It is the soundtrack to the 1983 film Risky Business, starring Tom Cruise, and also includes songs by Bob Seger, Muddy Waters, Jeff Beck, Prince, Journey and Phil Collins. The Tangerine Dream selections consisted of two new compositions and three reworkings of previously released material, retitled to correspond to scenes in the movie. AllMusic noted that the soundtrack is a mix of electronic music from Tangerine Dream, plus rock, blues and funk songs from other music artists.
Stephen Hill is an American producer, creator and host of the long-running Hearts of Space radio program, which features "contemporary space music" from a variety of musicians and genres. He has helped popularize the term "space music" during his tenure on the show and is an advocate for contemplative music regardless of source or genre.
Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate is the fourth studio album by American musician and composer Constance Demby, with additional contributions by Michael Stearns. It was co-produced by Demby and Anna Turner and released in 1986 on Hearts of Space Records. In its original form, the album features a single 54-minute piece divided into two parts.
Kevin Keller is an American composer and recording artist known primarily for "ambient chamber music", a style that combines live instruments with electronic effects.