Embracing the space music

I’ve always loved music.

My mom is a harpist and opera singer. She was a big Andreas Wollenweider fan when I was young. It wasn’t uncommon to come downstairs on a sunny Sunday morning to find the kitchen bathed in sunlight with electric harp and synth music blasting from “the 45” while my parents used the ‘ol Sunbeam mixmaster with juicer attachment and made waffles.

They were also known to do yoga in the living room while listening to the hauntingly light, airy, and expansive music of Paul Horn.

I guess it warmed me up early to the idea of ambient & new age music and the way it could transform a space or take you to an entirely new place inside your head.

Far from being “background” music, I’ve learned to use it as transportational music. Or even teleportational music. 😂

As a teenager I discovered Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II at my local record shop, the legendary Vintage Vinyl in the St. Louis Loop. I would sit in the dark and let it take me to subterranean caves on distant planets.

For over 40 years, NPR has aired a show called Hearts of Space that we sometimes listened to on Sunday nights. I think this is where I first heard Jonn Serrie’s wonderfully ultra-otherworldly, and richly narrative “space music”. It was such a godsend during lockdown and even helped me find one of my favourite books.

Here are a few of my favourite artists and albums with a few comments, in no particular order. I’ll try to update this list with more as I think of them.

• Bernie Krause & Philip Aaberg - Meridian a Journey of Spring
• Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol II
• Tony Scott’s ultra-zen Music for Zen Meditation
• Brian Eno’s Music for Airports
• Wendy Carlos’s Sonic Seasonings
• Peter Gabriel’s beautiful Passion: Music for the Last Temptation of Christ
• Enigma’s ultra-cheesy yet adventurously narrative MCMXC a.D.
• Paul Horn’s “Inside” series. Particularly the hauntingly beautiful first one: Inside the Taj Mahal, the ancient and dusty sounding “Inside The Great Pyramid” and the swriling almost Byzantine “Inside and The Cathedral”.

I could write a whole post about Paul Horn’s Inside series. I get a nostalgic, mind-expanding shiver every time I hear their empty, open, lighter than air melodies echoing and reverberating across time & space. Something about it takes me back to large empty, somewhat dilapidated yet stately stone & brick buildings in the St. Louis of my 70’s & 80’s youth. It’s magical.

So, don’t be afraid of the ambient, the “New Age”, and the “space music”! 😜

Of course, your magical musical journey will vary according to your own programming and life experience.

Check it out.

See where it takes you and tell me when you arrive!