Unusual music for beautiful space images? No electronic space music, please?

February 24, 2009 1:00 PM

Attention music lovers: I’m looking for music to accompany a gorgeous planetarium show about philosophy, cosmology, perception and the known universe.

Know any good instrumental music that’d making an interesting and unusual choice to accompany images of distant space? Something Carnatic, Persian…beyond airy space music or Philip Glass?

***

A colleague is doing a talk inside a sort of planetarium (a GeoDome, actually) with a program that models the known, observable universe to its limit.

Here’s some Flickr sets of the visuals accompanying the talk.

He’s currently using airy electronic music which works fine. But I wonder if there isn’t another approach.

I’ve heard that Sergei Eisenstein was inspired to juxtapose images in his movies by seeing Japanese ideograms. An ideogram showing a knife and a heart together, for instance, does not mean murder or violence, but sorrow.

I would like to try to find music that creates a similar effect, and provides a richer context for my colleague’s ideas.

I first thought of Carnatic music, with its ties to ancient Hindu religion, so much more in touch with cosmic timeframes than Western religions. But most of the instrumental Carnatic violin music I’ve found has changes in tempo that don’t make it a good choice for background music.

Ideally, the music should be instrumental, relatively unobtrusive and not have jarring percussion/dissonance/changes in tempo/etc. that would distract listeners significantly away from the speaker. Also, ideally, it’d be downloadable and in the public domain or created by an artist willing to let it be used.

Any ideas? Love to have them! Thanks!

posted by Jennifer S. to media & arts (43 comments total)

One suggestion to start might be Gustaf Holst's suite "The Planets".
posted by ragtimepiano at 1:07 PM on February 24

It might be too jarring, it might be too trite, but isn't Also sprach Zarathustra kinda iconic for space images? ;-)
posted by mmkhd at 1:10 PM on February 24

Most anything from David Byrne's "The Forest."
posted by mudpuppie at 1:11 PM on February 24

I don't have one in particular, though the artist Girl on a String has some lovely sounds to it. I would tend toward haunting but beautiful. Try browsing music.download.com for some free downloads.
posted by big open mouth at 1:13 PM on February 24

Something by Lisa Gerrard (in or out of Portishead), perhaps? Definitely some eastern influences there. Not sure how much of it is considered PD, nor what clearance might cost.
posted by jquinby at 1:14 PM on February 24

Brian Eno & Robert Frip - No pussyfooting
Global Communication - 76:14
posted by elmono at 1:17 PM on February 24

Arvo Part's Fratres. I have this CD and was recently listening to it, and I can't recommend it enough. No dissonance or vocals or jarring shifts; all slow, minimalistic, evocative, eerie.
posted by Jaltcoh at 1:17 PM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

They did a whole show on WNYC's New Sounds about music devoted to space and the planets:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/episodes/1986/12/22
posted by world b free at 1:21 PM on February 24

The soundtrack to Sagan's Cosmos is pretty sweet for that. There's certain bits of it with which I will always associate astronomy.
posted by adipocere at 1:24 PM on February 24

Interesting suggestions, keep 'em coming!

Can we move *away* from space music and think more about the Eisenstein idea I mentioned in my question? Music that's NOT space music, but that works with the images somehow?
posted by Jennifer S. at 1:25 PM on February 24

Icelandic group Sigur Ros's albums 'Ágætis Byrjun' and 'Takk' might be good.
posted by tokidoki at 1:30 PM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

Zoe Keating.
posted by longdaysjourney at 1:33 PM on February 24

This is pretty left-field, but the Dirty Three's Ocean Songs is a beautiful instrumental album. Just guitar, drums, and violin. I could see it working for Venus, at least.

Here's a YouTube link to live version of a song from the album.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:35 PM on February 24

As a not-very-creative alternative to Glass how about Steve Reich? Gamelan might be an idea too. Lastly, as something more unusual, there might be some pieces by Morton Feldman that could work nicely. There are a lot but maybe you could look into Coptic Light or Rothko Chapel.
posted by ob at 1:37 PM on February 24

Magnatune has a lot of fantastic music for with relatively cheap licensing.

The whole of Braid's soundtrack was sourced from there, and it's beautiful. For example, I can imagine the first song here working beautifully with space visuals.
posted by lucidium at 1:39 PM on February 24

Seconding Arvo Part Fratres. It would fit the description quite well, it wouldn't be distracting, and it's really beautiful.
posted by louche mustachio at 1:46 PM on February 24

Boards of Canada
Slowdive
Van Morrison's Astral Weeks
Yo La Tengo's Painful
Mum
Fridge
Arthur Russell
posted by MeatLightning at 1:46 PM on February 24

How about Arvo Part? Beethoven late quartets (first movement of opus 131)? Brian Eno's Apollo (which counts as space music, I guess...)
posted by Schmucko at 1:52 PM on February 24

Eisenstein chose the components of the juxtaposition and you are interpreting their effect. Why not just do the same and choose the music you already want to--Carnatic, or relatives--and put the images to it? You have this aesthetic you're going for, why not realize it?

It basically sounds like you're really asking for suggestions of mellower Hindu-oriented tunes.
posted by rhizome at 1:52 PM on February 24

As a not-very-creative alternative to Glass how about...
John Adams Shaker Loops
Brian Eno Music for Airports
Arvo Part Tabula Rasa
Loop Guru The Third Chamber
Penguin Cafe Orchestra Preludes, Airs & Yodels
posted by cocoagirl at 1:55 PM on February 24

Yo La Tengo's Sounds of the Sounds of Science is excellent, and would make a good match for your purposes, in my opinion.

The Sounds of the Sounds of Science features 78 minutes of instrumental music by Yo La Tengo. The CD contains the entire score written and performed by the band to accompany eight legendary but rarely-seen undersea documentary shorts by influential French avant-garde filmmaker Jean Painleve. Yo La Tengo's score, originally debuted on stage at the San Francisco Film Festival in April 2001 with the band providing live accompaniment to the films, echoes the films' haunting surrealist imagery, yet the music is equally evocative on its own, from the dreamy soundscapes of “Sea Urchins” and “How Some Jellyfish Are Born” to the harsher, more dissonant moods of “Liquid Crystals”and “The Love Life of The Octopus”. In September 2001, the group headed into a Nashville studio and laid down the complete score with longtime producer Roger Moutenot.

The undersea feel of this album would translate well to space, I think. I see that you're looking for free stuff, so buying the album is out (though it's totally worth it), but on the page linked above they do have one of the tracks available for free download. It's 12 wonderful minutes long.
posted by carsonb at 1:56 PM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

stars of the lid are

a) awesome and
b) always make me think of spacey things.

And Their Refinement Of The Decline in particular.
posted by christy at 2:10 PM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Mike Marshall's "Uncommon Ritual"
OR Edgar Meyer's recording of the Bach Cello Suites, played at pitch on a doublebass.
posted by The White Hat at 2:12 PM on February 24

Brian Eno would be really good for something like this, he was big into making ambient background music, stuff that people could listen to but still have a conversation.
posted by BrnP84 at 2:14 PM on February 24

Offhand, given my background, and purposely avoiding anything obviously space-themed, I can think of:

Bach's Prelude from Cello Suite No. 1 (here performed by Rostropovich)
Barber's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, 2nd movement (here performed by Hilary Hahn)
Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5, 3rd movement (Largo) (here performed by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, part 1) (part 2)

Listen to the first few minutes of each of these, and see if they fit the bill. Let me know if they do.
posted by Busoni at 2:21 PM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

31d1's stuff is good instrumental.
posted by brownpau at 2:31 PM on February 24

Seconding the Pärt, "Fratres" suggestion. You might also try the first movement of Maurice Ravel's "Rapsodie espagnol" ("Prélude à la nuit"), or the second movement of Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" (though it has Latin vocals, and there's a fortissimo in the middle that might be jarring.)

And for what it's worth, Holst's "The Planets" has nothing to do with space and science per se; Holst's inspiration was the astrological meanings of the planets. The final movement, "Neptune, the Mystic", fits your requirements to a tee.
posted by Johnny Assay at 2:40 PM on February 24

Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, by Spiritualized.
posted by media_itoku at 2:43 PM on February 24

Seconding the Planets by Holst.
posted by Ironmouth at 2:57 PM on February 24

Philip Glass, MAD RUSH
posted by wittgenstein at 3:35 PM on February 24

Maurice Jarre's soundtrack to The Year of Living Dangerously
posted by Joe Beese at 4:04 PM on February 24

Juxaposition would work particularly well when talking about how "empty space" is in some sense teeming with activity, that the universe is full of radiation, etc. A nice, "active" arpeggiated synth track might work well in this scenario. In particular I'm thinking of the introduction to Baba O'Riley by The Who. When the band kicks in, that's the part where the sun goes supernova. Or something.

It's certainly not ethereal space music, in any event.
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 4:31 PM on February 24

Something by Lisa Gerrard (in or out of Portishead), perhaps?

Just to be pedantic here, Lisa Gerrard was in Dead Can Dance, not Portishead.
posted by Kafkaesque at 4:38 PM on February 24

Lisa Gerrard was in Dead Can Dance, not Portishead.

Ah shit, that's pretty egregious of me. Too much happening at once around here. Yes. DCD.
posted by jquinby at 5:00 PM on February 24

Icebreaker (aka Icebreaker International or Icebreaker & Manual--not the other Icebreaker), especially Into Forever.... (esp. 'Into Forever,' 'Inner Rings,' and 'A Turning') and also Distant Early Warning (esp. 'Melody for NATO,' 'Co-Prosperity Sphere' and 'Listening Station.')
(links to boomkat for preview purposes: 1 2)
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:44 PM on February 24

Or, how about Twilight Circus Dub Sound System? aka Ryan Moore

Thunder Mix (mp3) -- more here

Youtube: 1 2 3

Might be spacey but it sure isn't light.

I'd suggest Other Worlds of Dub and Dub Voyage.

Debussy also occurred to be--like the preludes ("La cathédrale engloutie")--but that seems more restrained than you're looking for.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:59 PM on February 24

Summer Madness by Kool & the Gang, from the Light of Worlds CD. Not sure it would work, but it sprang to my mind. Very trippy and hypnotic.
posted by Sal Monella at 8:14 PM on February 24

Toumani Diabate's recording, the Mande Variations. He plays the kora, a West african harp. Check it out on Amazon or the Nonsuch website. It's a recording of startling clarity that evokes feelings from hushed reverence to effervescent exuberance. And he squeezes in a bit of Ennio Morricone to boot!
posted by Origami_Guy at 8:21 PM on February 24

Lux - 100 Billion Stars

Instrumental, downtempo and spacey.
posted by csimpkins at 8:46 PM on February 24

Additonally, Lux - Northern Lights.

Really, there's a lot of good music for this type of thing on the Cafe del Mar downtempo collections.
posted by csimpkins at 8:53 PM on February 24

Your mention of ideograms made me think of Japanese composerToru Takemitsu. There is an extraordinary dialectic between sound and silence in his music that I think would be great for a planetarium. If you want to play it safe, later stuff like Rain Tree is tonal and beautiful, while earlier stuff like November Steps is more experimental and mysterious, but just as good.

Other composers with similar leanings include Oliver Messiaen, Morton Feldman, and the aforementioned Avro Part. John Cage even has a piece based on star charts (Atlas Eclipticalis) but it might be too sparse for what you're looking for.
posted by speicus at 12:38 AM on February 25

I would suggest the early seventies Alice Coltrane records. This maybe
posted by dydecker at 5:15 AM on February 25

Specifically, Alice Coltrane's music might fit. Reasons why:
- the harp is a really spacey instrument!
- no structure or beats on many tracks
- Indian-influenced, but not specifically Indian
- kinda has a mystical feel
here's a sample
posted by dydecker at 7:39 AM on February 25