Category Archives: Space Music

Tomita’s “Dreamers in Space” – a space-ballet symphony

Isao Tomita was a pioneer in electronic music who first began experimenting with synthesizers in the late 1960s. Space was a favorite theme of his compositions and recordings and before his death in 2016 he was working on a “space-ballet symphony”: Dreamers in Space – NHK WORLD (incl. video) –

Tomita didn’t manage to finish the project but after his death, his collaborators kept working and the production debuted in Tokyo last November.

Called “Dr. Coppelius,” the production involves a young scientist who dreams of flying into space and a mysterious girl from another world who comes to help him achieve his ambition. It’s a space-ballet symphony in which the 2 characters transcend space and time.

The “young scientist” was inspired by Japanese rocket pioneer Hideo Itokawa.

Kazama’s character, Coppelius, is modeled on Itokawa. He and Hatsune Miku reach out to one another, dancing happily in space. At the end of the story, Coppelius goes traveling in search of unknown worlds. On the way, he finds the space probe Hayabusa floating alone in space. Once again, he encounters Miku. By reaching for the stars, Coppelius finds hope.

Go to the NHK WORLD article for a video showing a clip from the Tokyo performance.

I can remember listening often to Tomita’s recording of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” while in college in the 1970s. Although today I prefer orchestral performances of The Planets, I still find Tomita’s version of Venus quite appealing:

Here is the complete album with all 7 movements:

Videos: Rocket landing music

On December 21, 2015, a SpaceX Falcon 9 delivered 11 ORBCOMM satellites to low-Earth orbit and the first stage booster came back and made a powered landing on a pad at Cape Canaveral. That was the first time an orbital vertical launched rocket had done such a thing. Here is a video with highlights of the event set to music from the movie Interstellar:

More SpaceX landings to music:

Vangelis, Rosetta, and electronic space music

The arrival of the new Vangelis album Rosetta, inspired by the ESA mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that just ended, led to this brief history of space inspired electronic music: Albedo 0.06: Vangelis returns – The Space Review 

Some other space inspired electronic music:

Find more electronic space music resources in the HobbySpace Music section.

Music videos: Grace Potter – “Look What We’ve Become” and “Stars”

Grace Potter has a new song and video in praise of women in STEM: Initiate: Grace Potter Mission | NASA

NASA Johnson Space Center and recording star Grace Potter have collaborated on a new space-themed music video released Monday, September 19. The video, which was shot at Johnson, features Potter performing her song, “Look What We’ve Become” and highlights NASA women engineers, scientists and astronauts in their workplace.

According to Potter, the song has an empowerment theme with a message that you can do anything you set your mind to, no matter who tells you otherwise.

“So much of this song is about when you are coming up through any part of your life and you face challenges, there are so many different ways that that can affect you and change the course of your life,” Potter said. “I think that it creates a strength within you if you do make the choice to push onward and say, ‘I know that this might be more difficult than another path. That’s why I want to do it.”

Here is another space themed music video from Potter: