International Space Music

Listening Guide

International Space Music

Víctor Estrada (2014)

This work is a tribute to Sci-Fi literature, comics, cinema, video games, music, and philosophy; but above all, it is a homage to every person who inspired me with their ideas, concepts, and creations that made us dream and enjoy with different kinds of future that they conceived.

Throughout this work there are many exposed tributes. We can see concepts, idea, text or musical style that is connected with the ones that are being tributed, but

you must be a fan of the album topic.

The title

It is dedicated to the international space station (ISS). The album could have been named “International space music station” but…It is such a long name!!!! So It’s going to stay the same.

Prophets l and ll 

I consider that both, writers and script writers are true prophets. There are lots of examples of prophets whose future predictions occurred with amazing accuracy, as Jules Verne for example, and also Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. The latter inspired one of my themes with his robotic laws in French and Russian.

Galaxian 2013

This name is dedicated to my favorite video game “Galaxian”, which reminds me of the typical sounds and rhythms of that pixelated games in the 80’s and 90’s. After that, the theremin also makes us go back to the Sci-Fi  famous soundtracks in the 50’s.

International Space Station Suite

The “international space station” is a dream come true!!!. After years and years of watching space stations in Star Trek, Star Wars and lots of films series and space comics; we have one around the Earth!!! The lyrics are minimal, although very descriptive. In the final theme there’s a text in catalan, which is an ode to the universal union of the human beings.

Hubble

The title says all. The Hubble Telescope is “the eye” that brings us the most beautiful images of the universe, so it is fair to make it a tribute

La vie électrique

This, and the following two themes are dedicated to electronic music. There are rhythms of the 80’s like techno-pop, and a great homage to the singer TACO.

In the lyrics, a horde of futurist characters are mentioned. Some of them are the homo computers, the auto-replicants, the atomic super men, nano robots, cyborgs…lots of creatures extracted from films, and some of them are of my own creation.

in this theme the homage are so many, that the listener will patiently discover them. They can hear, of course, the phrase “I sing to the body electric” (The old theme’s title) is extracted from a Ray Bradbury’s story. In the radio-edit version we find a tap dance solo and a festive atmosphere at the end of the theme that is plenty of joy. It mainly suggests the background of the work.

Electronic Genesis

The rhythmic and melodic coldness of this theme is related to German electronic music like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream…they are are bizarrely connected in the lyrics of the homaged style.The lyrics  are minimal but very descriptive.

Electronic Réquiem

Its title was chosen in a random way, maybe it should have been named differently, like “Electronic funeral march”. I found out that the title “Réquiem” is more suitable for the feelings that this work represents. It is its musical shape, that is the one that gives its name. Physicists, Interpreters and instrument designers. Although instruments last on Earth, their creators don’t. I dedicate this work to Robert Moog, Lev Thermen, Carlos Guirao and Clara Rockmore.

Guido Fantoccini

This theme was especially placed after the “Réquiem”. It represents a placid trip to an unknown place, accompanied with the sound of the theremin. The final text of the theme is an extract of Ray Bradbury’s theme “I Sing to the body electric”

In my opinion it is one of the most emotive speech that a robot has ever pronounced. “I am every person that thought and constructed me…” Without detracting, of course, the iNexus-6, from Blade Runner. “Guido Fantoccini” it is a curious character inside the “I sing to the body electric” story. It is the creator of the concept and one of the most emotive robots, a philosopher of robotics, although it is barely mentioned in the theme.

To end up, I also dedicate this work to two very important musicians, both for electronic music, and for me: Barbara Buchholz and David Vessel, both great theremin players that passed away, almost at the same time, and too soon from this world.