Customer Reviews

Spacecraft

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From the opening moments of the first track Planit Orbit, Spacecraft takes you onto a flight in deep space, giving you a flavor of the sounds of silence found there. Not much melody here, just mood explorations with synthesizers of all kinds. Think Tangerine Dream around Phaedra and Zeit. The key track is Zero, One: a 22 minute "quiet blowout" of their deep space sound. This album is the perfect setup for what would come next for Spacecraft, namely the Hummel CD (see review there).

The Spacecraft album is a worthy addition to your space music collection. There is expansive sound, interesting ideas, mind-blowing passages, and truly environmental compositions. The result of this work is music that is equally foreground in the sense of grabbing your attention and keeping it and backgraound in the sense of running in the environment as you work without distracting you.

As the title implies, the album reminds you of what you imagine it is like being out in space, traveling to some distant destination across the galaxies. The sound is expansive to the point of really taking you there, but it is also peaceful and leads the listener to a positive, restful place that rewards participation in this sonic happening. There is a lot of aural layering here, the kind of sonic composition that really rewards repeated listening.

The music is unique, but there are some influences that come to mind. The spontaneous ever composing and performing and never standing still style of Steve Roach is present. The expansive sound and playing with the silence that is characteristic of Mychael Danna also comes into play. Make no mistake, though - this is not a deriviative exercise but an album of truly original music that stands on its own and then some.

Tony Gerber's synthesizers and superior production work combine with Chris Balzen's Koto and the synthesizers of John Rose and Diane Timmons to make a seamless whole that is greater than the parts. The artists weave their electronic sounds like master loom workers, spinning a tapestry of sound that is wonderful to behold. THere is a lot to take in, and a lot to appreciate.

If you like the kind of music that really takes you out there, Spacecraft is for you. It is equally satisfying to listen to this album in a focused way and to play it in the background as a pleasant stimulus to peace and tranquility. This is great stuff and space music buffs will love it!

Spacecraft's self-titled album, released in 1997 (different from but equally as good as their follow-up, 1999's Earthtime Tapestry), takes some getting used to but if you stay with it, after repeated listenings you'll find it sinking in, to the point of it downloading into your very being.

Planetary Orbit kicks off the album, an introductory fade-in that's evocative of a deep-space vacuum of sorts, its hollowness making you feel as if you are astrally hovering within a cosmic, reverberating Void. This is music - if it can be called this - that thinks outside the box that is our globe.

The album comes with liner notes written by group member Tony Gerber. We learn that the album is part NASA-inspired and, in fact, some of NASA's own recordings are used as samplers (as with the data transmissions in their exploration of Jupiter, a contribution here included, taken from the Voyager spacecraft).

And if you're fascinated by custom-made instruments, in the vein of Constance Demby's Space Bass and the Whale Sail, then check out Chris Blazen's "electric sustaining koto," here featured on Spacecraft's debut release.

Konstantin Tsiolkousky once said: "Earth is the cradle of man, but he cannot live in the cradle forever." This album, in honor of the Mars probe, and the Hubble telescope, is dedicated to this very idea.

The album is structured as if in movements; that is, it's meant to be listened to in its entirety in one sitting in order to experience its full effect. It is also best played in solitude, nocturnally. And preferably in hi-fi. Just imagine how track 2 would sound like with precision tweeters, a decent sub-woofer, and - to top it off - in surround sound! It would be enough to make the room you're in vibrate like the real deal.

Speaking of track 2, the plus-twenty-minute-long Zero, One, what a wowing opus this is! At first I was put-off by the slightly jarring, semi-harsh and blaring tonality of its crescendo passage (16:50-18:20), but after time you learn to expect it, and it no longer plays like borderline nails-on-slate.

Spacecraft, the album (7 tracks; 63:52), is a very original taste within the space-music banquet; somewhat moody, occasionally eerie, oftentimes alienating and haunting in parts, filled with noteless inclusions such as the sounds of beeping, buzzing, pulsating, primitive robotic language, trickling, horn-blowing, aural flashes, whooshes, rhythmic tick-tocking (track 5), and other otherworldly sound effects.

The only thing missing is the vocals of Diane Timmons, but an ambient masterpiece nevertheless.