I would have included Boards of Canada in my short list, as I’ve become infatuated with them (thanks to my good friend Greg), but I think given their proclivity for bass beats, they fall outside the scope of my list. But they definitely have a brilliant spacey sound no doubt influenced by some of the things I mentioned in my post. (And I bet they watched a lot of Nova back in the day, heheh.)

Two comments:

First, after working with this music for many years, it became clear that “spacemusic” itself was a subcategory of a much older, broader tradition of slow, space-creating, contemplative music.

This realization broadened the scope of the program as Ubertramp says above. We actually list some 30 subgenres within the HOS Archive. Click PROGRAMS in our menu bar to see the whole list. The point is that under the electronic gloss, this is a really, really old kind of music.

Second, the Internet makes it possible for us to deliver our entire 26 year archive of programs to anyone on earth on demand. Every show we’ve done since 1983 (the show was local only from ’73 to ’83) is there. You can now listen to them without the voiceovers for a completely uninterrupted musical/spatial experience.

To support the show and the web service we charge for full access, but we’ve worked really hard to get the price as low as possible, and the quality is better than lots of FM stations. Advertising is not an option for us.

So, no need to miss a Hearts of Space show ever again. They’re all waiting for you at http://www.hos.com.

Regards :: Stephen Hill

There was a resurgence in the early-mid 90′s with a dance-influenced feel: The Orb, Tetsuo Inoue, Phil Namlook are good starting points.

Conservatively, I listened to each side several hundred times….

When yer a jet, yer a jet all the way, from yer first cigarette to yer last dyin’ day…

Back on the original topic. Michael Stearns’ “The Lost World,” is another CD I can’t play enough. As for Hearts of Space…I used to tape the show and play those tapes over and over. It wasn’t just space music, though. I remember a lot of ambient celtic, indian, various african and mid east influences. I think that was when I first got hooked on world music. It was also around the time I was exploring different religions. As a consequence, some genres of music just seem to go together with religion for me. I suspect that’s how Brian feels about early Enya or Clannad or Loreena McKennitt.

I’ve played Dreamtime Return over and over and over and I still love it. Here are a few other names Robert Rich, Brian Eno and, more recently, a group called Biosphere. I think Roach and Rich did a lot of stuff together. I love how they toss in a lot of tribal stuff, too. There’s also a CD that Windham Hill put out called “Path” that included a lot of different ambient artists. I played it to death as a tape and then bought again on CD.

I bet you’d like a band called Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Especially “F#A# (Infinity).” Slammy turned me on to them a few years ago. Not quite like Roach, but the eerie waves of noise kinda wash over you.

Ann: Spielberg’s made some great movies, but ‘Close Encounters’ is… well… closest to my heart. I’m soon going to be watching it with my own 7-year-old daughter, who seems to totally dig space and the music I associate it with. And as for ‘In Search Of’… weren’t the pre-Internet days a wonderful, spooky, mysterious mess? Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

And Close Encounters – those tones give me goosebumps just thinking about them. I first saw it at a drive-in when I was… eight, maybe? Most of it didn’t interest me, but when the ships started darting and the music talked and the mother ship appeared I started crying because it was all. So. Wonderful. I wanted to GO. I wanted it to be true. Now, at 39, that scene still makes me cry every damn time and the music is so much a part of the response.

TMI, huh? What a great post. I’m downloading that Vangelis right now and checking out the rest of your suggestions.