Embracing the space music

I’ve always loved music. Sometimes I even make my own.

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 in the 80’s to a kitchen bathed in sunlight with electric harp and synth music blasting from the stereo while my parents made waffles and juiced oranges with with a special attachment for their Sunbeam “mixmaster”.

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.

Music is also an important part of my sleep routine. I use it to unwind and put myself into a more meditative, associative, “dreamy” state. Ambient music is perfect.

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.

• People on a Sunday by Domenique Dumont
• Plantasia by Mort Garson
• Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
• 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 –  Sonic Seasonings
• Peter Gabriel –  Passion: Music for the Last Temptation of Christ
• David Hykes - Hearing Solar Winds
• Pauline Oliveros - Deep Listening
• 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 swirling 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!