Space music
Encyclopedia
Umbrella term
An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of concepts that all fall under a single common category. Umbrella term is also called a hypernym. For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields...
, synonymous with a segment of New Age Music
New Age music
New Age music is music of various styles 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 or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
and Ambient Music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, used to describe music that evokes a feeling of contemplative spaciousness. Space music can be found within a wide range of genres. It is particularly associated with ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, New Age
New Age music
New Age music is music of various styles 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 or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
, and electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
. Some claim that music from the western classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, world
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, Celtic
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
, traditional
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
, experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
and other idioms also falls within the definition of space music.
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.
Such music can evoke a "continuum of spatial imagery and emotion," which can be beneficial for introspection, and for developing, through a practice of deep listening, an awareness of the spatiality of sound phenomenon. This type of psychonautic listening can produce a subtle trance-like state in certain individuals which can in turn lead to sensations of flying, floating, cruising, gliding, or hovering.
Space music is used by some individuals 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
Relaxation technique
A relaxation technique is any method, process, procedure, or activity that helps a person to relax; to attain a state of increased calmness; or otherwise reduce levels of anxiety, stress or anger...
, atmospherics for bodywork therapies, and effectiveness of meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
. Space music appears in many film soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
s and is commonly played in planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
s.
An eclectic
Eclecticism in music
Eclecticism is used to describe a composer's conscious use of styles alien to his nature, or from one or more historical styles. The term is also used pejoratively to describe music whose composer, thought to be lacking originality, appears to have freely drawn on other models .-Sources:* Kennedy,...
form of music, produced almost exclusively by independent labels, space music occupies a small niche
Niche market
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact...
in the marketplace, supported and enjoyed by a relatively small audience of loyal enthusiastic listeners.
Definitions
Stephen Hill, co-founder of "Music from the Hearts of SpaceHearts of Space
Hearts of Space is a United States 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...
" (syndicated nationally in the USA on National Public Radio and XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
), uses the phrase "contemplative music, broadly defined" as an overview to describe the music played on his station, along with the term "spacemusic".
He states that the "genre spans historical, ethnic, and contemporary styles", 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." 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
New Age music
New Age music is music of various styles 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 or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
.
Hill's partner Anna Turner
Anna Turner (producer)
Anna Turner was an American producer and administrator. Turner is best known as the original partner of Stephen Hill for launching the space music radio show Hearts of Space: she was its original radio co-producer and early co-host , as well as co-founder and record co-producer of the associated...
(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."
Gerardo "Pkx" Martinez-Casas, original host, producer and creator of KUSF
KUSF
KUSF was a non-commercial radio station licensed to San Francisco, California and owned by the University of San Francisco. From 1963 until 2011, the station broadcast at 90.3 FM MHz....
's 90.3 FM, University of San Francisco
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...
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. "Space Music experts do agree that Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way", Soundtracks by Philip Glass "The Hours" and "Koyaanisqatsi", Clif Martinez "Solaris", Tangerine Dream "Sorcerer", etc. should be considered Space Music".
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, as does Dallas Smith, writer, teacher and recording artist in his essay New Age Jazz/Fusion. Steven Halpern
Steven Halpern
-Early career:Halpern played trumpet and guitar in the New York City jazz scene of the 1960s, but became disenchanted with it and moved to California. There he began exploring the idea of creating music entirely for the purpose of relaxation, which he called "anti-frantic alternative" music...
, 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."
Radio programmer John Diliberto has stated that space music is related to electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, 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".
Forest, host of Musical Starstreams
Musical Starstreams
Musical Starstreams is a terrestrial and internet radio program that first aired in the San Francisco bay area in December 1981...
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".
Similarly, WXPN
WXPN
WXPN is a non-commercial, public radio station operated by the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia that broadcasts a music radio format called adult album alternative , along with many other format shows supported all with an indie slant...
Radio's Star's End
Star's End
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.-History:...
, 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
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
considers space music to be "Anything but New Age," and writes that "spacemusic [is] also known as ambient, chill-out, mellow dub, down-tempo."
In the same article, he describes Stephen Hill's "Hearts of Space" spacemusic program as streaming ambient, electronic, world, New Age and classical music. In contrast to this, according to author and National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
researcher Judith H. Balfe, Billboard editor Jerry Wood describes space music as a one of several "genres within the genre" of New Age music.
Allmusic, one of the world's largest commercial databases of music-related information, defines Space music as a subgenre of New Age music.
Similarly, mainstream retailer Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
, independent online music retailer CDBaby, and RealNetwork's music download service Rhapsody
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
all classify Space music as a subgenre of New Age music.
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."
Musicologist Joseph Lanza relates space music to prior generations of relaxing or environmental music, with a twist, writing, "Space music is easy-listening with amnesia, sounding like the future but retaining unconscious ties to elevator music
Elevator music
Elevator music refers to instrumental arrangements of popular music designed for playing in shopping malls, grocery stores, department stores, telephone systems , cruise ships, airports, doctors' and dentists' offices, and elevators...
of the past."
Variety
As described by Stephen Hill, the predominant defining element of spacemusic is its contemplative nature. Within that overview, space music includes a wide variety of styles, instrumentation and influences - both acoustic or electronic. For example, the playlist archives of the "Hearts of Space" program lists the following genres as included in their programming:- Electronic space music: Electronic Space, Ambient/Downtempo, Ethno/Ambient
- Acoustic or partially acoustic space music - Regional or national: African/Sub-Saharan, Celtic, Japanese, Scandinavian/Arctic, Central Asian, Latin American, Southeast Asian/Indonesian, Chinese, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern/North African, Spanish/Moorish, Tibetan, Native American, World Fusion, East Indian
- Acoustic or partially acoustic space music - Western:Contemporary Instrumental, New Vocal, Holiday, Miscellaneous/Eclectic, Space Jazz, Sacred/Choral, Guitar, Piano, Orchestral/Chamber
While many space music recording artists specialize in electronic forms, evolving out of the traditional Kosmische musik of the Berlin School
Berlin School of electronic music
The Berlin School of electronic music, or just Berlin School, was a development of electronic music in the 1970s, shaped by Berlin-based artists like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Ashra....
(also known as Krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
), examples of recording artists who create the contemplative experience of space music using acoustic instruments and influences of cultures from around the world are plentiful: Andreas Vollenweider
Andreas Vollenweider
Andreas Vollenweider is a Swiss musician. His music has been categorized as World Music, Jazz, New Age and even Classical; two of his albums were number 1 on the Billboard charts simultaneously in the categories Classical, Jazz, Pop and Crossover for more than 11 weeks. His music could be...
(harp), George Winston
George Winston
George Winston is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up mainly in Miles City, Montana as well as Mississippi and Florida. He attended Stetson University in Deland, Florida and lives in Santa Cruz, California.-Background:...
(piano), Carlos Nakai and Coyote Oldman
Coyote Oldman
Coyote Oldman is a duo of New Age musicians consisting of Native American flute players Barry Stramp and Michael Graham Allen. The name Coyote Oldman is derived from the trickster archetype in Native American mythology. Their music can be described as New Age electronica...
(Native American flutes), David Darling
David Darling (musician)
David Darling is an American cellist and composer. He won the Grammy award for Best New Age Album in 2010. He has performed and recorded with artists such as Bobby McFerrin and Spyro Gyra in addition to putting out several solo and small ensemble albums as well as albums of his...
(cello), Paul Horn (woodwinds), Paul Winter
Paul Winter
Paul Winter is an American saxophonist , and is a six-time Grammy Award nominee.- Biography :Paul Winter attended Altoona Area High School and graduated in 1957...
(saxophone), and more. Examples of Space music artists using combinations of acoustic and electronic instruments are Deuter
Deuter
Deuter is a German New Age instrumentalist and recording artist known for his meditative style that blends Eastern and Western musical styles.- Biography :...
(flute and other esoteric instruments), Kitaro
Kitaro
, better known as , is an award winning Japanese musician, composer and multi-instrumentalist who is regarded as one of the pioneers of new age music.-Early life:...
(Japanese drums and synthesizers), Laraaji
Laraaji
Laraaji is an American musician. Born Edward Larry Gordon in Philadelphia, he studied violin, piano, trombone and voice in his early years in New Jersey. He attended Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, D.C. on a scholarship to study composition and piano...
(acoustic zither with electronic processing), Constance Demby
Constance Demby
Constance Mary Demby is an American multi-instrument musician and composer. Demby is identified with the New Age movement , while some of her output is also classified as ambient or space music. She is also a singer, instrument designer, painter, sculptor, and multi-media producer...
(hammered dulcimer, cello, vocals, custom acoustic instruments and synthesizers), Oregon (world music influenced jazz), Mychael Danna
Mychael Danna
Mychael Danna is a Canadian film composer.-Life and career:Mychael Danna is the brother of fellow composer Jeff Danna. He has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned Danna the first of his thirteen Genie Award nominations. He has won...
(ethnic instruments and orchestra with electronic minimalism), and others.
Author and classical music critic David Hurwitz describes Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
'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
William Herschel
Sir Frederick William Herschel, KH, FRS, German: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel was a German-born British astronomer, technical expert, and composer. Born in Hanover, Wilhelm first followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, but emigrated to Britain at age 19...
, oboist and astronomer (discoverer of the planet Uranus).
Historical usage of the term space music
In 1928, the German composer Robert Beyer published a paper about "Raummusik" (spatial music), which is an entirely different sense of the term. Karlheinz StockhausenKarlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
, 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." 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."
Music historian Joseph Lanza described the emerging light music
Light music
Light music is a generic term applied to a mainly British musical style of "light" orchestral music, which originated in the 19th century and had its heyday during the early to mid part of the 20th century, although arguably it lasts to the present day....
style during the early 1950s as a precursor to modern space music. He wrote that orchestra conductor Mantovani
Mantovani
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani known as Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian conductor and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book British Hit Singles & Albums states that he was "Britain's most successful album act before The Beatles .....
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."
Jazz artist Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
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.
Physicist Werner Meyer-Eppler
Werner Meyer-Eppler
Werner Meyer-Eppler , was a German physicist, experimental acoustician, phoneticist, and information theorist....
had been inspired by Homer Dudley's 1948 invention of the Vocoder
Vocoder
A vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
and began in 1951 to work with a device known as a Melochord, in conjunction with magnetic tape recorders
Tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck or tape machine is an audio storage device that records and plays back sounds, including articulated voices, usually using magnetic tape, either wound on a reel or in a cassette, for storage...
, leading to a decade of working at the Cologne school
Hochschule für Musik Köln
The Cologne University of Music is a music college in Cologne, and Germany's largest academy of music.-History:The academy was founded by Ferdinand Hiller in 1850 as Conservatorium der Musik in Coeln...
specializing in "elektronische Musik" using magnetic tape recorders, sine wave generators and serial composition
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
techniques.
In 1969, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
was introduced to the music of Stockhausen by young arranger and cellist, and later Grammy award winner, Paul Buckmaster
Paul Buckmaster
Paul John Buckmaster is a Grammy Award-winning English artist, arranger and composer.He began learning the cello at the age of 4 and graduated from the Royal College of Music at age 16....
, 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." His recordings and performances during this period were described as "space music" by fans, by music critic Leonard Feather
Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.-Biography:...
, and by Buckmaster who stated: "a lot of mood changes - heavy, dark, intense - definitely space music."
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
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
Aoxomoxoa
Aoxomoxoa is the third studio album by the Grateful Dead. It was originally titled Earthquake Country. Many Deadheads consider this era of the Dead to be the experimental apex of the band's history. It is also the first album with Tom Constanten as an official member of the band...
, and later in the 1980s, Infrared Roses
Infrared Roses
Infrared Roses is a live compilation album by the Grateful Dead. It is a conglomeration of their famous improvisational segments "Drums" and "Space."...
, and Grayfolded
Grayfolded
Grayfolded is an album produced by John Oswald featuring the Grateful Dead song "Dark Star". The album's name, Grayfolded, is a homophone of "Grateful Dead".-Creation:...
. Band member Phil Lesh
Phil Lesh
Phillip Chapman Lesh is a musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career....
released experimental space music recording Seastones with computer music pioneer Ned Lagin
Ned Lagin
Ned Lagin is an American avant-garde keyboardist.Lagin is considered a pioneer in the development and use of minicomputers in real-time stage and studio performance. This included running analogue to digital converters and doing digital signal processing to generate music in the era before digital...
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 time digital synthesizer
Digital synthesizer
A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing techniques to make musical sounds.Electronic keyboards make music through sound waves.-History:...
s became commercially available in the early 1980s.
The Czech-American composer Václav Nelhýbel
Václav Nelhýbel
Václav Nelhýbel was a Czech-American composer, mainly of works for student performers. He is considered one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century....
, 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
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis...
, Jean-Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades.-1970s:In...
and Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
, 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, 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. 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.
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 screen writer Joshua Smith
Joshua Smith
Joshua Smith was an Australian artist who won the Archibald Prize in 1944 with his portrait of Hon Sol Rosevear, MHR, Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives, but is more well known as being the subject of the previous years controversial Archibald Prize win, by artist William...
worked with Sun Ra to produce a 30 minute documentary film, expanded into a feature film released in 1974, entitled "Space is the Place
Space Is the Place
Space Is the Place is an 82-minute film made in 1972 and released in 1974.It was produced by Jim Newman, directed by John Coney, written by Sun Ra, Joshua Smith and features Sun Ra and his Arkestra...
", featuring Sun Ra's Arkestra and filmed in Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
.
In 1973, KPFA
KPFA
KPFA is a listener-funded progressive talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on-the-air April 15 1949, as the first Pacifica Station...
Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
radio producers Anna Turner
Anna Turner (producer)
Anna Turner was an American producer and administrator. Turner is best known as the original partner of Stephen Hill for launching the space music radio show Hearts of Space: she was its original radio co-producer and early co-host , as well as co-founder and record co-producer of the associated...
and Stephen Hill used the phrase in the title of their local public radio show Music from the Hearts of Space
Hearts of Space
Hearts of Space is a United States 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...
. They developed an innovative segue
Segue
A segue is a smooth transition from one topic or section to the next.-In music:In music, segue is a direction to the performer. It means continue without a pause. It comes from the Italian "it follows". The term attacca is also used in classical music.For written music it implies a transition...
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. Other US-based radio programmers adopted the term as well, among them, John Diliberto, Steve Pross, and Gino Wong with Star's End
Star's End
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.-History:...
, launched in 1976, Frank J. Forest (a.k.a. “Forest”) with Musical Starstreams
Musical Starstreams
Musical Starstreams is a terrestrial and internet radio program that first aired in the San Francisco bay area in December 1981...
, launched in 1981 and nationally syndicated in 1983, and John Diliberto again with Echoes
Echoes (radio program)
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,...
, launched in 1989.
In film and television soundtracks
Space music has been effective for creating moods and soundscapeSoundscape
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology...
s in film and TV soundtracks; in particular, electronic forms of space music have been used to convey an auditory metaphor for non-ordinary consciousness. Examples of space music in film soundtracks include Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
- Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ
Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ
Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ is a musical album released in 1989 by Peter Gabriel. It is his second soundtrack and eighth album overall...
, Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
- Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke....
and The Hours (soundtrack)
The Hours (soundtrack)
The Hours is the original soundtrack album, on the Elektra/Nonesuch label, of the 2002 film The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. The original score was composed by Philip Glass....
, Cliff Martinez
Cliff Martinez
Cliff Martinez is an American film score composer and former drummer.-Biography:Cliff Martinez was born in the Bronx, New York. Raised in Columbus, Ohio, his first job composing was for the popular television show Pee Wee's Playhouse...
- Solaris (2002 film)
Solaris (2002 film)
Solaris is a 2002 science fiction film and psychological drama directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone...
, Vangelis
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis...
score to Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
,
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
's moody soundtracks for Legend
Legend (Tangerine Dream soundtrack)
-Personnel:* Edgar Froese* Christopher Franke* Johannes Schmoelling* Bryan Ferry— "Is Your Love Strong Enough?"* Jon Anderson— vocal version of "Loved by the Sun"...
, Sorcerer (soundtrack) and Risky Business
Risky Business
Risky Business is a 1983 American teen comedy-drama film written by Paul Brickman in his directorial debut. It stars Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. The hit film launched Cruise to stardom.-Plot:...
,
Jonn Serrie
Jonn Serrie
Jonn Serrie is a composer of space music, a genre of ambient electronic music, and New Age music. He has recorded at least eighteen albums and worked on various projects for Lucasfilm, IMAX Corporation, NASA, the United States Navy, Hayden Planetarium, Expo Seville, and CNN.-Musical career:Serrie...
's surround-sound score for the IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
short film, Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time,
Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
's score for the 1989 film For All Mankind, and Michael Stearns
Michael Stearns
Michael Stearns is a United States musician and composer of ambient music. He is also known as a film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for large format films, theatrical films, documentaries, commercials, and themed attractions....
' soundtrack for the 1985 IMAX film, Chronos
Chronos (film)
Chronos is a 1985 abstract film directed by Ron Fricke, created with custom-built time-lapse cameras. Originally released in IMAX theaters, it is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, HD DVD, and for free on Hulu and YouTube.-Synopsis:...
, broadcast on Stephen Hill's Hearts of Space radio, on the film's opening night.
Television science-fiction series Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
was scored by former Tangerine Dream member Christopher Franke
Christopher Franke
Christopher Franke is a German musician and composer. From 1971 to 1988 he was a member of the electronic group Tangerine Dream. Initially a drummer with The Agitation, later renamed Agitation Free, his primary focus eventually shifted to keyboards and synthesizers as the group moved away from its...
, released on CD in 1996 on Franke's independent label Sonic Images. The scores for many of the Babylon 5 TV movies and numerous Babylon 5 episodes were also released by Sonic Images. In 1994, the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
TV station Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Broadcasting] is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat of Bavaria, with its main offices located in Munich. BR is a member of ARD.- Legal foundation :...
launched the television program Space Night
Space Night
Space Night is the nameof a German television program of the Bayerischer Rundfunk...
, featuring a constant flow of satellite and space images accompanied by space music programmed by European chill-out-DJ Alex Azary.
Notable artists
This list includes notable artists who have created works of space music:- Aphex TwinAphex TwinRichard David James , best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music"...
or AFX - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 - David ArkenstoneDavid ArkenstoneDavid Arkenstone is an American New Age musician. His music is primarily instrumental, with occasional vocalizations. He was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 1, 1952. He has three children—Quillon, Dashiell and Valinor—with his first wife, Julie...
- Robot Wars, Another Star in the Sky - William BasinskiWilliam BasinskiWilliam Basinski is a United States avant-garde composer of ambient music via tape music and process music. Basinski is also a clarinetist, saxophonist, sound artist, and video artist...
- The Disintegration LoopsThe Disintegration LoopsThe Disintegration Loops is an album by William Basinski and was released in 2002. It is the first of the Disintegration Loops series, followed by II, III and IV.-Content:...
(2002–2003) - Kevin Braheny - Galaxies
- Thom BrennanThom BrennanThom Brennan is an American electronic ambient musician, composer and synthesist.Active since the 1980s with his first album Mountains , he belongs to the scene of Californian pioneers of electronic music...
- Strange Paradise, Beneath Clouds, Signals in Moonlight - Carbon Based LifeformsCarbon Based LifeformsCarbon Based Lifeforms is a psychedelic ambient music group made up of Johannes Hedberg and Daniel Segerstad , in Gothenburg, Sweden...
- Hydroponic Garden, World of Sleepers, Interloper (albums) - Wendy CarlosWendy CarlosWendy Carlos is an American composer and electronic musician. Carlos first came to notice in the late 1960s with recordings made on the Moog synthesizer, then a relatively new and unknown instrument; most notable were LPs of synthesized Bach and the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick's film A...
- Tron, Digital Moonscapes - The Cosmic Jokers
- ClusterCluster (band)Cluster is a German experimental musical group who influenced the development of contemporary popular electronic and ambient music. They have recorded albums in a wide variety of styles ranging from experimental music to progressive rock, all of which had an avant-garde edge. Cluster has been...
- Mychael DannaMychael DannaMychael Danna is a Canadian film composer.-Life and career:Mychael Danna is the brother of fellow composer Jeff Danna. He has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned Danna the first of his thirteen Genie Award nominations. He has won...
- Aurora Borealis - David DarlingDavid Darling (musician)David Darling is an American cellist and composer. He won the Grammy award for Best New Age Album in 2010. He has performed and recorded with artists such as Bobby McFerrin and Spyro Gyra in addition to putting out several solo and small ensemble albums as well as albums of his...
- Until the End of the World - Constance DembyConstance DembyConstance Mary Demby is an American multi-instrument musician and composer. Demby is identified with the New Age movement , while some of her output is also classified as ambient or space music. She is also a singer, instrument designer, painter, sculptor, and multi-media producer...
- Sacred Space Music (1982), Novus MagnificatNovus MagnificatNovus Magnificat: Through the Stargate is a New Age album by Constance Demby, with additional sonic textures by composer Michael Stearns. The album sold over 200,000 copies worldwide and made Demby one of the most successful New Age artists of the time...
(1986) - DeuterDeuterDeuter is a German New Age instrumentalist and recording artist known for his meditative style that blends Eastern and Western musical styles.- Biography :...
- Sun Spirit - Thomas DolbyThomas DolbyThomas Dolby is an English musician and producer. Best known for his 1982 hit "She Blinded Me with Science", and 1984 single "Hyperactive!", he has also worked extensively in production and as a session musician.-Early life:Dolby was born in London, England, contrary to information in early 1980s...
- The Gate to the Mind's Eye - EnigmaEnigma (musical project)Enigma is an electronic musical project founded in Germany by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in 1990. The Romanian-born Cretu conceived the Enigma project while working in Germany, but has based his recording studio A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, Spain, since the early 1990s until May...
- A Posteriori - Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
- Apollo, Music for Airports - Les FradkinLes FradkinLes Fradkin is a guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer and record producer. He is best known for being a member of the original cast of the hit Broadway show Beatlemania...
- TelstarTelstarTelstar is the name of various communications satellites, including the first such satellite to relay television signals.The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 was launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962...
, Lift Off, Orbiter - Eloy FritschEloy FritschEloy Fernando Fritsch is the keyboard player and main composer of Brazilian progressive rock band Apocalypse and as a solo artist he creates cosmic New Age music.-History:...
"Atmosphere - Electronic Suite, Space Music, Behind the Walls of Imagination" - Edgar FroeseEdgar FroeseEdgar Wilmar Froese is a German artist and electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group, Tangerine Dream. Although his solo and group recordings prior to 2003 name him as "Edgar Froese", his solo albums from 2003 onward bear the artist name "Edgar W. Froese".Froese...
- GeodesiumGeodesiumGeodesium is the name of a music project by composer and recording artist Mark C. Petersen. The word is formed by combining the terms "geodesic dome" and "planetarium" and refers to the space music Petersen creates specifically for use as scores for planetarium shows.Peteresen has produced...
- A Gentle Rain of Starlight, Fourth Universe, West of the Galaxy, Double Eclipse - Peter GabrielPeter GabrielPeter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
- Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of ChristPassion: Music for The Last Temptation of ChristPassion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ is a musical album released in 1989 by Peter Gabriel. It is his second soundtrack and eighth album overall... - Michael GarrisonMichael Garrison (musician)Michael Garrison was a synthesist from Oregon, USA.While studying music at the University of Idaho, he started to form the basis for his first release on his own label, Windspell Records, later known as Garrisongs Music...
- Escape, In the Regions of Sunreturn, Eclipse, Point of Impact, Aurora Dawn, An Earth-Star Trilogy - Lisa GerrardLisa GerrardLisa Gerrard is an Australian musician, singer, and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with former music partner Brendan Perry....
- The Mirror Pool - Manuel GöttschingManuel GöttschingManuel Göttsching is a German musician and composer.As the leader of the group Ash Ra Tempel or Ashra, one of the most notable German groups of the 1970s and 80s, as well as a solo artist, he is one of the most important guitarists of the Kosmische Musik genre. He also participated in the Cosmic...
- Jean Ven Robert HalJean Ven Robert HalJean Ven Robert Hal, stage name for Roberto D'Agostino Vendola born 11 May 1970 is an Italian musician, composer of Electronic Music, Kosmische Musik, Space music, Progressive, Ambient, Jazz, Synth pop and Orchestral music.-Biography:...
- Jon HassellJon HassellJon Hassell is an American trumpet player and composer. He is known for his influence in the world music scene and his unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.-Life and career:...
- Dream Theory in Malaya : Fourth World Volume Two - Tom HeasleyTom HeasleyTom Heasley plays an unusual instrument for ambient music - the tuba. His first solo CD "Where the Earth Meets the Sky" was released on the Hypnos ambient label and was mastered by ambient music pioneer Robert Rich...
- Where the Earth Meets the Sky - Michael HedgesMichael HedgesMichael Alden Hedges was an American composer, Acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter.-Background:...
- Michael HoenigMichael HoenigMichael Hoenig is a German composer who has composed music for several movies and games, in addition to two solo albums...
- Departure from the Northern Wasteland 1978 - Paul HornPaul HornPaul Horn is the name of:*Paul Horn , jazz flutist*Paul Horn , American computer scientist...
- Inside the Taj Mahal - David HykesDavid HykesDavid Hykes is a composer, singer, musician, author, and meditation teacher. He was one of the earliest modern western pioneers of so-called overtone singing, and has developed since 1975 a comprehensive approach to contemplative music which he calls Harmonic Chant...
- Hearing Solar Winds - IshqIshq' , Dari "eshq" Persian eshgh, Turkish aşk, , Azerbaijani , means "love". The word is derived from ‘ashiqah, a vine: the common belief is that when love takes its root in the heart of a lover, everything other than God is effaced. In Islam's Sufi and mystic doctrine it is a concept which refers to...
- Orchid - Jean Michel JarreJean Michel JarreJean Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and...
- Oxygene, Equinoxe, Magnetic Fields, Rendez-Vous, Revolutions - Benn JordanBenn JordanBenn Lee Jordan is an American modern jazz and electronica musician operating under many pseudonyms. Since 1999 his most widely distributed and eclectic music has been released under the name of The Flashbulb...
- Pale Blue DotPale Blue Dot (album)Pale Blue Dot: A Tribute to Carl Sagan is the first studio album released by Benn Jordan using his own name, instead of the various pseudonyms he generally releases his music under .... - Al Gromer KhanAl Gromer KhanAl Gromer Khan is a German-born sitar player and composer whose music spans the multiple genres of ambient, New Age, world and electronica.- Early influences :...
- KitaroKitaro, better known as , is an award winning Japanese musician, composer and multi-instrumentalist who is regarded as one of the pioneers of new age music.-Early life:...
- Ten Kai/Astral Voyage/Astral Voyager/Astral Trip, Silk Road, The Light of the Spirit and many more.
- LaraajiLaraajiLaraaji is an American musician. Born Edward Larry Gordon in Philadelphia, he studied violin, piano, trombone and voice in his early years in New Jersey. He attended Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, D.C. on a scholarship to study composition and piano...
- Celestial Vibration, Celestial Realms, Essence/Universe, Flow Goes the Universe - LustmordLustmordBrian Williams is a British electronic musician often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord.- History :Williams started recording as Lustmord in 1980 before joining SPK in 1982...
- The Place Where The Black Stars Hang - Ray LynchRay LynchRaymond "Ray" Lynch is a classically trained guitarist and lutenist. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to a musical and artistic family. His mother was a classical pianist and watercolor artist. At age 6, Lynch began studying the piano until age 12, where he was inspired by the music of Andres...
- MurcofMurcofMurcof is the performing and recording name of Mexican electronica artist Fernando Corona.Corona was born in 1970 in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in Ensenada. He was for a time a member of the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective of electronic musicians under the Terrestre project name...
- Cosmos - R. Carlos NakaiR. Carlos NakaiRaymond Carlos “R.” Nakai is a Native American flautist of Navajo/Ute heritage.-Biography:Born Ray Carlos Nakai, in Flagstaff, Arizona, he released his first album, Changes, in 1983...
- Cycles Volume 2 - NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
(with Brain/Mind Research) - Symphonies of the Planets series - Numina
- Patrick O'HearnPatrick O'HearnPatrick O'Hearn is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and recording artist. While his musical repertoire spans a diverse range of music, he is an acclaimed New Age artist in his solo career...
- Ancient Dreams, Between Two Worlds - Mike OldfieldMike OldfieldMichael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
- The Songs of Distant Earth - Oregon
- David ParsonsDavid ParsonsDavid Joseph Parsons has been the England and Wales Cricket Board's National Spin Bowling Coach since 27 January 2006....
- Sounds of the Mothership, Atmanaut - Jeff Pearce - To the Shores of Heaven
- Popol VuhPopol Vuh (German band)Popol Vuh was a German electronic avantgarde band, in the mainstream-media so called Krautrock, founded by pianist and keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1969 together with Holger Trülzsch and Frank Fiedler...
- Tantric Songs and Hosianna Mantra - Giles ReavesGiles ReavesGiles Reaves is a multi-instrumentalist sound artist and audio engineer who has composed albums of space music. His most recognized album, Sea of Glass, 1992, peaked at #11 on the Billboard Top New Age Albums chart.-Biography:...
- Wunjo, Nothing Is Lost, Sea of Glass, Kaleida Visions, Sacred Space - Robert RichRobert Rich (musician)Robert Rich is an ambient musician and composer based in California, United States. With a discography spanning over 30 years, he is widely regarded as a figure whose sound has greatly influenced today's ambient, New Age, and even IDM music.-Early life:At an early age he thought he disliked music...
- Night Sky Replies, Music from Atlas Dei - Steve Roach - Structures From Silence
- Roedelius
- Conrad SchnitzlerConrad SchnitzlerConrad Schnitzler was a prolific German experimental musician.Schnitzler was born in Düsseldorf. He was an early member of Tangerine Dream and a founder of the band Kluster. He left Kluster in 1971, first working with his group Eruption and then focusing on solo works...
- Constellations, Moon Mummy - Klaus SchulzeKlaus SchulzeKlaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades.-1970s:In...
- Moondawn, Cyborg - Sensitive Chaos - Leak, Emerging Transparency
- Jonn SerrieJonn SerrieJonn Serrie is a composer of space music, a genre of ambient electronic music, and New Age music. He has recorded at least eighteen albums and worked on various projects for Lucasfilm, IMAX Corporation, NASA, the United States Navy, Hayden Planetarium, Expo Seville, and CNN.-Musical career:Serrie...
- Midsummer Century, Ixlandia - Michael StearnsMichael StearnsMichael Stearns is a United States musician and composer of ambient music. He is also known as a film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for large format films, theatrical films, documentaries, commercials, and themed attractions....
- Desert Moon Walk, Planetary Unfolding, Lyra Sound Constellation, Encounter - Tim Story - Shadowplay
- Tangerine DreamTangerine DreamTangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
- Alpha Centauri - Robert Scott ThompsonRobert Scott ThompsonRobert Scott Thompson is a composer of ambient, instrumental and electroacoustic music. He earned the B.Mus. degree from the University of Oregon and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at San Diego. His primary teachers include Bernard Rands, Roger Reynolds, Joji Yuasa and...
- Sidereal - Isao TomitaIsao Tomita, often known simply as Tomita, is a Japanese music composer, regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music, and as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements...
- Snowflakes are DancingSnowflakes are DancingSnowflakes Are Dancing is an electronic music album by Isao Tomita, recorded in 1974 and first released as a Quadradisc in April. The album consists entirely of Tomita's arrangements of Claude Debussy's "tone paintings", performed by Tomita on a Moog synthesizer...
considered the ultimate Space Album of All Time; The Planets, Kosmos, Space Walk and Mind of the Universe - Vir UnisVir UnisVir Unis is an American ambient-music composer and performer. He is the co-founder of the AtmoWorks label with James Johnson.-Discography:-External links:...
- Aeonian Glow - VangelisVangelisEvangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis...
- Albedo 0.39, Spiral, Mythodea - Klaus WieseKlaus WieseKlaus Wiese was a veteran e-musician, minimalist, and multi-instrumentalist. A master of the tibetan singing bowl, he created an extensive series of album releases using them...
- George WinstonGeorge WinstonGeorge Winston is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up mainly in Miles City, Montana as well as Mississippi and Florida. He attended Stetson University in Deland, Florida and lives in Santa Cruz, California.-Background:...
- Erik WolloErik WolloErik Wøllo is a Norwegian composer and musician, guitarist and synthesist.Erik Wøllo has a background in various genres in music. As a solo recording artist, he is most known for his electronic and ambient musical soundscapes. Music that can be classified in the genres of space, drone, new age,...
- Wind Journey, Emotional Landscapes - René Van Der WoudenRené Van Der Wouden-Biography:René has been active in music since he was eight years old. He started having piano lessons in a classical sense and later he also had some lessons on the organ. As a child René quickly got fascinated by the organs and synthesizers he saw on TV every week in the Dutch musicshows Toppop...
= Pro Sequentia, Alchemia, Universal Quiet, Sequential Tourism
See also
- Space rockSpace rockSpace rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
- Ambient musicAmbient musicAmbient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
- SoundscapeSoundscapeA soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology...
- Electronic art music
- New Age musicNew Age musicNew Age music is music of various styles 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 or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
- SynthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
- Chillout music
- DowntempoDowntempoDowntempo is a laid-back electronic music style similar to ambient music, but usually with a beat or groove unlike the beatless forms of Ambient music. The beat is sometimes made from loops that have a hypnotic feeling...
- Space discoSpace discoSpace disco is a term used to describe the fusion of disco music with futuristic themes, sounds and visuals, which was popular in the late 1970s...
- Program musicProgram musicProgram music or programme music is a type of art music that attempts to musically render an extra-musical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience in the form of program notes, inviting imaginative correlations with the music...
- Drone musicDrone musicDrone music is a minimalist musical style that emphasizes the use of sustained or repeated sounds, notes, or tone-clusters – called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy audio programs with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout each piece compared to other musics...
Further reading
- Prendergast, Mark. Eno, Brian (Foreword) (2001). The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance: The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 1582341346.