Ambient space with: moon:and:6 x [zoethecat], and Metro Riders

Ambient Sunday comes with a space face in tracks from moon:and:6 x [zoethecat], and Metro Riders.

moon:and:6 x [zoethecat] isn’t the two artists they appear. It’s all aliases of returning Canadian multi-instrumentalist and music producer Michael Chambers.

Last time we were in the age of the Apollo space missions. This time, we’re a bit further back to the start of it all following the US systems shock to the Sputnik mission by the USSR in 1957.

The centrepiece of Sputnik 1957 is the JFK speech that “Finally, if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere…” (President John F. Kennedy’s Special Message to Congress on Urgent National Needs, 25 May 1961)

Musically, the track isn’t weighed down by the burden of history or even the space race. Its light and airy nod freed of gravity’s constraints. It’s got quite a lot in common with 90s classics from people like Air or Télépopmusik.

It’s a bit trip hop, a bit chill, a lot Gallic cool. But it’s also its own creation. It soars in glittering wonder. An orchestrated and orchestral space symphony in three minutes. Totally cosmic.

Switching to Sweden here’s new artist Metro Riders (real name Henrik Stelzer). He’s been a bit quiet since 2017s Europe By Night but he now has a new album Lost In Reality (out at the end of the month) from which Aenigma is a the single.

Aenigma is inspired by Italian horror director and icon Lucio Fulci’s 1988 film of the same name. It also looks back to the 80s in terms of musical inspiration. The synths have an 80s analogue hissiness to them. Strings ripple round in horror movie skirls.

But the track isn’t especially spooky. There’s much more a sense of ‘other’ and ‘otherness’ and strangeness and awe rather than dread. Wheezy synths apart, what makes the track is the way it delivers wide eyed wonder within the hazy tones.

~ by acidted on September 3, 2023.