What was this album that combined NASA recordings with ambient music?
September 20, 2022 10:51 AM Subscribe
When I was a kid hanging out at a friend's house I heard an album that was a mix of music and NASA communications from the Apollo program (launch status checks, go/no-go polling before stage separations, etc). It was on vinyl and would’ve been made in the 70s or 80s. The music was kind of drone-y and ambient, definitely with no singing. Any idea what this could've been? It’s also possible I’m mis-remembering there being any music at all, and it may have only been mission recordings packaged in album form.
This wasn’t ‘wake up’ music that NASA plays for astronauts during a mission and it pre-dated anything by the band Spiritualized.
This wasn’t ‘wake up’ music that NASA plays for astronauts during a mission and it pre-dated anything by the band Spiritualized.
It's probably not the album you're looking for, but Mare Tranquillitatis from Vangelis' Albedo 0.39 is in this genre.
posted by offog at 11:12 AM on September 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by offog at 11:12 AM on September 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
in related: not an album from the 70s, but 24/7 ambient drones with NASA bleeps:
Soma FM Mission Control.
posted by ovvl at 11:21 AM on September 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
Soma FM Mission Control.
posted by ovvl at 11:21 AM on September 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
Just in case you're off on the timing with Spiritualized, it's not The Orb is it?
There's definitely something else in my collection that's late 80s/early 90s ambient vibe that I remember having Apollo samples mixed in but I'm blanking on who it is.
posted by Candleman at 12:05 PM on September 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
There's definitely something else in my collection that's late 80s/early 90s ambient vibe that I remember having Apollo samples mixed in but I'm blanking on who it is.
posted by Candleman at 12:05 PM on September 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I like the suggestions so far, but it definitely wasn't any of them. The NASA mission control stuff and communications with the astronauts were pretty central to the whole album that I remember -- to the extent that I recall very little of the music. I'm only like 60% sure that there was any music - maybe just drone?
It could have been something like this, but I remember there being some amount of artistry to the arrangement that gave it somewhat of a psychedelic feel, rather than just straight mission recordings.
posted by theory at 12:07 PM on September 20, 2022
It could have been something like this, but I remember there being some amount of artistry to the arrangement that gave it somewhat of a psychedelic feel, rather than just straight mission recordings.
posted by theory at 12:07 PM on September 20, 2022
I immediately thought of Brian Eno's soundtrack for the documentary For All Mankind, released as Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks in 1983. But now that I think of it, there was no audio from the movie present in the soundtrack album (in fact, it came out 6 years before the movie was actually released)...
posted by zsazsa at 12:28 PM on September 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by zsazsa at 12:28 PM on September 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
Brian Eno - Apollo : Atmospheres and Soundtracks is the right era but also much more on the musical end of the spectrum. Beautiful album in any case...
For future finders of this thread, I hope you don't mind me also linking Biosphere - Autour de la Lune which is from 2004 and uses samples from the Mir space station ; it's a much dronier, very minimal and austere piece of excellent space-ambient.
posted by protorp at 12:29 PM on September 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
For future finders of this thread, I hope you don't mind me also linking Biosphere - Autour de la Lune which is from 2004 and uses samples from the Mir space station ; it's a much dronier, very minimal and austere piece of excellent space-ambient.
posted by protorp at 12:29 PM on September 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
I know it's not Public Service Broadcasting's The Race for Space because that came out in 2015 but I have a vague memory of some interview where they mentioned being inspired by someone's earlier project. I know that's not a lot to go on but maybe might point you in a direction to do more research.
posted by edencosmic at 1:55 PM on September 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by edencosmic at 1:55 PM on September 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’m going with PSB’s Race for Space album above. It’s modern but the samples are from that time period. The go/no-go that you mentioned makes me think that this is what you might be remembering.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:10 PM on September 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by iamkimiam at 3:10 PM on September 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
The 1980 soundtrack to Carl Sagan's "The Music of the Cosmos" by artists including Vangelis - is from the right kind of era. Sagan's golden record, packed onto Voyager - might also be interesting.
posted by rongorongo at 2:28 AM on September 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rongorongo at 2:28 AM on September 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
It wasn't Space, was it? 1990, so just outside your date range, but most definitely fits the description (and a fine album, to boot).
posted by offmessage at 6:40 AM on September 21, 2022
posted by offmessage at 6:40 AM on September 21, 2022
Songs of Distant Earth by Mike Oldfield has some. In the first track, "in the beginning" has an "(Extract spoken by Lunar Module Pilot Wiiliam Anders, from the Apollo 8 crew live television broadcast, made when the first manned mission to the moon entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24th, 1968)"
posted by lalochezia at 3:19 PM on September 21, 2022
posted by lalochezia at 3:19 PM on September 21, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by aubilenon at 10:58 AM on September 20, 2022