V.A. - Space Age Santa Claus

Here are 24 space-sci-fi songs (mainly from the 50s and 60s) ideal for these holidays! Merry Christmas and a happy new year to everyone.

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Redshift - Life To Come (2015)

Redshift is a British space-rock group which has become famous for its sound which pays homage to the classic "Berlin school" space music of the 1970's.

Redshift came into existence in 1994, initially as a solo project by Mark Shreeve. Shreeve had already established himself with his own more "structured" style of electronic music, along with pop songwriting, film score, TV and Library music output.
The idea behind Redshift was to create a darker, organic style of electronic music using mainly, though not exclusively, old analogue synthesisers.

"Life To Come" is their latest album full of electronic berlin-school music that sounds both vintage and new. A really good album with an overall dark atmosphere!

Here

V.A. - Cosmic Machine (1970-1980)

This overview of French electronic music during the 1970s is a useful, entertaining compilation of artists and sounds, both obscure and well-known. Its context is especially welcome due to the plethora of music from other cultures --the many comps and reissues from Africa, German electronic music, and works by American and British electronic composers from the same period that have been reissued and/or unearthed -- and made widely available in the 21st century. Cosmic Machine is striking for the sheer range of its tracks. It makes no attempt to portray the building of a particular scene. This is the place where the cheesy electro-disco of Pierre Bachelet's "Motel Show" and Serge Gainsbourg's "Le Physique et La Figure" are juxtaposed with the atmospheric sound-library jazz of Alain Goraguer's "Le Bracelet" and the fragmented experimentation of Bernard Fevre's "This Is to Be" (an exclusive that is one of the set's finest moments). Some of the best-known names in French electronic music -- like Cerrone and Jean Michel Jarre -- are given to minor fancies in this setting. That said, more marginal talents, such as Jean-Jacques Perrey, with his beautifully seductive "E.V.A.," and Rene Roussel, with his proto-techno "Caramel," offer the other side, where accessibility and real adventure are balanced and offer surprise. (Allmusic.com)

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Synco - Motodrom (1988)

Synco is Frank Klare & Mirko Lüthge, composers of electronic music from Germany. This duet made several cassette album releases during the 80s. Their music has beautiful-easy listening melodic tracks made with analogue synths and drum machines. Despite their simplistic approach, their music is really interesting!

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Software - Chip-Meditation Part 2 (1988)

The second part of "Chip-Meditation" by German electronic band "Software".
Highly recommended for the fans of vintage electronic music (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze).

Here

Software - Chip-Meditation (1985)

The project "Software" was founded by Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser in 1984. Last release was "Mystic-Millenium Vol.2" in 2000.

"Chip-Meditation is one of the better efforts from the Software "team" of Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser. The inspiration for the set comes from contemporary philosophers. Their statements regarding rapid change, technological advancement, and the unpredictable stretching of boundaries and human imagination sent Weisser and Mergener to the studio to examine new limits. They have found several questions to ask. The examination of these issues manifests itself in Software's Berlin-school electronica and metallic textures. This is a fairly strong CD. It will appeal to fans of Klaus Schulze, Dweller at the Threshold, and Ashra." (taken from allmusic.com)

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Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser - Beam-Scape (1984)

Peter Mergener (born 28/11/1951, in Birkenfeld) was best-known as half of the synth duo Mergener & Weisser (aka Software the prolific IC duo). In 1984 he also formed a group called "Space ship". As a soloist he has continued to explore new musical avenues and explore new horizons. Furthermore, Peter Mergener explored the technique of the analogue and midi sequencers and sampling.
Michael Weisser (born in 1948) studied experimental arts and design in Cologne as well as communication science, art history and sociology in Marburg and Bonn. He wrote the successful science fiction novels SYN-CODE 7, DIGIT, OFF-SHORE. Free-lance writer with emphasis on Art & Science tries to express the possibilities and risks of our current and future technology-oriented society.
Beam-Scape is a wonderful album of Berlin-school / ambient electronic music, inspired by Klaus Schultze and Tangerine Dream.

Get it here (one large track-full album)

Mythos - Mythos (1972)

The debut album of German krautrockers "Mythos". The style of music is classic krautrock but with variety in instruments - fuzzy guitars, Sitar sounds, early analogue synthesiser experimentation, mellotron, flute solos, and lots of fx. A classic album, very popular among fans of krautrock and psychedelia.

Here

Mythos - Dreamlab (1975)

The second Mythos LP was originally released on Kosmische Musik, and encoded for Quadrophonic playback. The Peter Geitner cover had semi-metallic grey print that was prone to crack or rub-off!

Dreamlab contains floating, mainly calm and relaxed music. A part of the album was used for the film The Superspider. Often echoes of guitar and flute define the meter and are accompanied by Mellotron sounds. Like on the first LP, effects on voice and drums are frequently used.

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Mythos - Strange Guys (1977)

A great krautrock album from the legendary band "Mythos" with hard rock guitars, psychedelic flute melodies, and moog synthesizer solos.
Mythos was a German rock band established in 1969, when they were known as The Lovely People. They debuted live in November 1970 under the name of Kraftwerk, until they realised there was another band with the same name, so then they chose the name Mythos. Always at the core of the band, through many line-up changes, was the multi-instrumental talent Stephan Kaske. He also was the lead singer, with a very strange voice and thick German accent, he's odd enough for you to love him or hate him. Mythos were always largely instrumental, rooted in the acid rock and cosmic sounds of Pink Floyd and Hawkwind, but with a much wider sound palette. The early albums are more cosmic Krautrock, whereas the mid/late 70's incarnation were heavier electronic rock, after which the band fell apart becoming the project of Stephan Kaske alone, doing electro-pop, and later soundtracks and library music.

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Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Selbstportrait (1981)

Selbstportrait is the third solo album by German keyboardist Hans-Joachim Roedelius, best known for his work with Cluster, Harmonia, and Aquarello. The title is German for "Self Portrait", a title which clearly reflects the gentle, introspective nature of this album of ambient or new-age music. The original Sky Records release was subtitled Teil 1 Sanfte Musik, German for "Part 1, Soft Music."

Selbstportrait was recorded by Roedelius at his home in Forst, in the Weser Uplands of West Germany between various Cluster sessions from 1973 until 1977 on his ReVox A77 reel to reel.[1][2] The music actually predates the two previously released solo albums: Durch Die Wüste and Jardin Au Fou. The final mix was completed at Gorilla Studio in Vienna, Austriaat the end of April, 1979, with the exception of "Prinzregent" which was edited in Conny's Studio (owned by Conny Plank) in 1976.[2] Selbstportrait was originally released by Sky Records in 1979.[3] Phillipe Blache, writing the review for Prog Archives, describes the album, in part: "The music in itself is another exploration in electronic, pre-ambient 'picture' music but really orientated to the most 'mainstream' side of it."[4]

Selbstportrait and seven of 11 tracks from the follow-up album Selbstportrait - Vol. II were reissued as a single CD by Sky Records in 1996 under the title Selbsportrait I & II.[5] It was reissued in its original form on both LP and CD by the Bureau-Blabel on December 3, 2010.

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Xisle - Winter's King (1985)

Xisle is Chuck van Zyl and Tom Gulch, composers of ambient electronic music. This album was recorded in real time on December 22nd 1985. There are two tracks (almost 30 minutes each) with atmospheric analogue synth drones-fx, warm pads and slow evolving melodies. "Winter's King" was released only on tape and is considered to be a hard to find album.

Here

Thomas P. Heckmann - The Lost Tales vol.II (2013)

The second volume from the famous "Lost Tales" by Thomas P. Heckmann , an ambient-electronic composer from Germany.
The "Lost Tales" series (FAX Records) contains the unreleased stuff - that for whatever reason - was never released and were still big favorites for him and his surroundings.
They show the different side of Thomas with his big influences of the 60s,70s, Science Fiction and anything obscure, that he has last let out into public with his Exit 100, Age, Drax project in the nineties !

Here

Thomas P. Heckmann - The Lost Tales Vol.1 (2008)

Thomas P. Heckmann is a Techno and electronic music producer from Mainz, Germany. His first release was as Exit 100 in 1991 on the Force Inc. Music Works label out of Frankfurt. In 1993 he founded Trope Recordings, and its sub-label Acid Fuckers Unite (A.F.U.) the following year. In 1998 he succeeded those labels by starting Wavescape, and its sub-label Sub~Wave in 2000. He restarted AFU Music with the new name of AFU Limited in 2005 with much success with his own and the massive releases by Popof and Butch. The sub label AFULAB was followed some time later.
He currently produces Techno and all forms of electronic underground music for AFU Limited, Nachtstrom Schallplatten, Carpe Sonum and the like.

"The Lost Tales vol.1" is a nice "Fax records" release and one of the best releases of Heckmann

Here

Photis Houliaras and Thaneco - Migration (2015)

"Migration" is about the migration of people, ideas, feelings. All music is inspired by Berlin School Electronic music of the 70s and ambient techno of the Pete Namlook style. Some of the instruments used in this album include the new Moog Sub37 and the new mini Korg Ms20. You can listen and buy the album here

Happy The Man - Crafty Hands (1978)

U.S. progressive rock band (in the "canterbury school" style) that released three albums between 1977 and 1983 (the third was recorded in 1979, but first released in 1983). After a long hiatus, released a new album in 2004 with a new drummer and new additional keyboardist.

"Crafty Hands" has nice progressive rock moog solos and is my favourite one!

Here

Takla Makan - 1632 (2003)

"Takla Makan is the artist name of Tony Allgood. During the 1980s Tony played keyboards in a variety of bands including 'Cairo' and 'Not Before Time'. In 1986 he started producing his own synthesizer instrumental music under the name 'Takla Makan'. His musical output is very much inspired by the work of Mike Oldfield, Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream. " (taken from Takla Makan bandcamp page). 

Also, Tony Allgood is the founder of the "Oakley" Modular synthesiser system.

Here

Dweller At The Threshold - Generation Transmission Illumination (1998)

Dweller At The Threshold is Dave Fulton, Paul Ellis, and Tom Geiveitt (guest star). They come from Portland-USA and they write Ambient/Berlin School electronic music. Their music is also inspired by Vangelis.
Here

Jean Michel Herve - Town (1983)

Beautiful electronic-library album by Jean Michel Herve. Most of the tracks are melodic and create images from everyday life of the big cities. He is using the Korg Polysix and Sequential Circuits Pro One synthesizers.

Here

Peter Reno - Synthesizer Contact (1973)

Clifford "Cliff" Twemlow (14 October 1937 – 5 May 1993) was an English actor, nightclub bouncer, horror paperback writer and library music composer, under the pen name Peter Reno he wrote more than 2000 compositions. 

"Synthesizer Contact" (the title was misspelled) is a really nice electronic/Psych/Funk LP from Reno, and one of the best library albums of Music De Wolfe. The track "Contact" was even used on the comp "Dramatic Funk Themes Vol 3" .

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Gong - Live At Sheffield (1973)

This Gong live album was not sanctioned by the band, and It has absolutely nothing to do with Sheffield, nor anything to do with 1974. The source gig is the first half of 1973 in France (like its companion release on Mantra 'Live au Bataclan'). But where and when? Nobody knows. Nevertheless its one of their best live recordings in my opinion!

Here

23Fish - Unforgiven Machine (2010)

23Fish is David Paredes and Javi Canovas and they write Berlin-school electronic music. "Unforgiven Machine" has sequencer-driven melodies, beautiful layers of synth pad and ethereal electric guitar solos. A nice addition to any electronic music lover.

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Gilles-Luc Laurent & Armand Frydman ‎– Minimal Plus (1987)

An excellent french library album with compositions written by Rolando Tambin (tracks: A1, A3 to A6, B1 to B6), and Terry Lipton (tracks: A1, A3 to A6, B1 to B6). Laurent and Frydman play analogue synths.

Here

Atmosphere - Crystal Emotion (1990)

Atmosphere are Attilio Casati, and Sergio Pisano , a new age/downtempo synthesizer duet. This album was released from Innovative Communication label. Nice chill-out music made with synthesizers and drum machines.

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Rudiger Lorenz - Taklamakan (1995)

Rudiger Lorenz was mainly a pharmacist and collector of synthesizers (modular systems) and he made experimental music in his Lorenz-Park studio. He also made his own modular synthesizers. Taklamakan is an album of "new age"/experimental music made with early digital synths such as the Roland d-50, Korg Wavestation, Yamaha TG-77 and many more.

Here

Astral Sounds - Scorpio (1982)

A wonderful release from music De Wolfe. It has nice vintage analogue synthesizer solos and old and dusty drum machine rhythms. This could have been a nice synthesizer soundtrack of an 80s action movie.

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Remy & Synth.nl - Primitives (2013)

"PrimiTiveS" is the debut-album by the established Dutch synthesists Remy (aka Remy Stroomer) and Synth.nl (aka Michel van Osenbruggen). Although they are both musically influenced by Jean Michael Jarre, classically-trained Remy and autodidact Synth.nl both have developed their own style, character and approach in their music.

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Cluster & Eno - S/t (1977)

Cluster & Eno is a collaborative album by the German electronic music group Cluster and English ambient musician Brian Eno. The style of this album is a collection of gentle melodies: a mixture of Eno’s ambient sensibilities and Cluster's avant-garde style.

In June, 1977 the duo of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius joined with Brian Eno for recording sessions at Conny Plank's studio. The first release from those sessions on Sky Records was Cluster & Eno. Guest musicians on the album included Can bassist Holger Czukay and Asmus Tietchens on synthesizer. The association with Eno brought Cluster a much wider audience than previous albums and international attention.

Here

Eno, Moebius, Roedelius - After The Heat (1978)

After the Heat is a 1978 album by Brian Eno, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius (last two were the core members of Cluster). The album represents the second collaboration by the trio, the first being 1977's Cluster & Eno. As with the previous album, After the Heat was created in collaboration with the influential "krautrock" producer, Conny Plank.

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Daniel Bloom - Thorn (1996)

Daniel Bloom's real name is Daniel Thomas Borcuch, a keyboardist and composer of electronic music from Poland. He has also written music for various films and in 2010 received an award from the cinema festival "Prowincjonalia  ".
"Thorn" is his debut album and has the mysticism of Steve Hillman and the music wizardry of Tangerine Dream. A great discovery!

Here

Hydravion - Stratos Airlines (1979)

Experimental French rock band featuring lots of electronics courtesy of band leader Philippe Besombes. They use analogue synths, vocoder fx and psychedelic/funky guitar solos.


Here

Tyndall - Sonnenlicht (1980)

"Sonnenlicht" is the first album by the german synthesizer duo "Tyndall". Very atmospheric music similar to Cluster, Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk.


Enjoy

Tyndall - Traumland (1981)

A German synthesizer duo under the single name Tyndall. Their four released albums were typical for Electronic Music at that time. After the duo split, Jurgen Krehan continued to release albums in a different style, going the way of New Age and relaxing music, and changed his artist's name to Nik Tyndall.


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Leon Lowman - Syntheseas (1980)

As well as a devoted painter and surfer of the East Coast, the synthesizer loving Leon Lowman privately released two albums “Syntheseas” (1980) and it’s follow up cassette only “Sound Horizon” (1982). Something of a homage to his love of the local seashore, the albums also express Leon's pure love of the synthesizer sound and reflect his unique melodic wanderings. With Leon's albums meeting little commercial success at the time of there release, both albums have in recent years become highly sought after.


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Amorphous Androgynous - A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble vol.1 disk 2 (2008)

This is the second disk of the wonderful psychedelic rock compilation from Amorphous Androgynous. Compiled with love, style, and eclectisism. Cranium Pie, Hawkwind, Donovan, Devendra Banhart are some of the highlights. Some tracks are really rare!

Here

Amorphous Androgynous - A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble vol.1 (2008)

Amorphous Androgynous is one of the Future Sound Of London's most well-known aliases. Used for their early-1990's album Tales Of Ephidrina and their more recent releases The Isness (2002), Alice In Ultraland (2005) and The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds Of Superconsciousness (2008).
"A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble" is a gorgeous compilation of psychedelic rock music and some songs are really rare and beautiful. This is a compilation put together by someone who obviously has a taste for good music and its maybe one of the best for that genre.

Here

Quiet Force - Flow (1988)

Quiet Force is Stephan Töteberg (fretless bass, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, drum machine, drum 

programming,engineer, mixing), Sophie Peycke (vocals), Diana Baden (vocals), Thomas Zander (trumpet), Jörg Jahn (saxophone), and Steve Wieters (saxophone). This is their first album and its mostly melodic new age music with some drum machine driven tracks. Its not hard to recognize the Yamaha DX-7 and E-MU synths used throughout the album. A perfect album for your summer vacations!

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Serge Ramses - Secret (1978)

Serge Ramses is a french keyboardist/composer and his real name is Serge Lafosse. The music is undeniably progressive electronic, influenced by the Berlin School but without the sequencers. Serge Ramses has a cinematic approach to his compositions.

Here

Zorch - Glastonbury Live (2001)

Formed in 1973, Zorch were England's first totally electronic band, pioneering integrated performances of synthesizers and lightshow. Originally a four-piece, by 1975 Zorch were performing as a duo: Basil Brooks and Gwyo Zepix played just three monophonic EMS analogue synthesizers, but were augmented by Silver (dance) and a full-on psychedelic lightshow.The great Zorch concert :The clean, clear multi track recording is by Graham Hinton, Gwyo and Basil were in top form and it's simply a great record of the best Zorch gig I have witnessed to date. Plus Basil has come up with just the right cover.

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Roedelius - Selbstportrait VI ,The Diary Of The Unforgotten (1972-1978)

Hans Joachim is a pioneer in the field of the exploitation of electrically generated tones, sounds and noises, and belongs to the founders of contemporary popular electronic music. His discography lists about 80 releases, and there are more than 10 productions ready to be released in the future.
He was a founding member of groups such as:
"Geräusche", "Plus/minus", "Per Sonare", the free artslab "Zodiak" in Berlin, "Kluster", "Cluster", "Harmonia", "Meeting Point Vienna", "Friendly Game", "Aquarello" and "Tempus Transit".

The Diary of the Unforgotten gathers a variety of home recordings crafted between his duties in Cluster and Harmonia and collaborating with Brian Eno during the years spanning 1972 and 1978. These are primarily lo-fi, improvised sound sketches, or “self-portraits” as the artist calls them, that reflect the pastoral calm of the riverbank behind his house. Synching up the synthesized atmospherics of the studio so they move as one with the water, meadow, farm animals, and passing wildlife outside his window, Roedelius offers listeners a glimpse into the solitude of his creative process with these ten compositions—something that anyone who has been following his legendary career can appreciate. The Diary of the Unforgotten is an essential piece of Roedelius history and a diary well worth remembering

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Pulsar - The Strands Of The Future (1976)

French progressive rock band whose influences include Pink Floyd and King Crimson, plus classical musicians such as Gustav Mahler. During the early 1980s, the group performed and composed the music for a Franco‑Austrian musical theatre production.

Line-Up:

- Victor Bosch / drums, percussion
- Gilbert Gandil / guitars, vocals
- Roland Richard / flute, strings
- Jacques Roman / organ, Mellotron, bass, synthesizers
Here

The Nightcrawlers ‎– Stellar Tunnel (1985)

Early synthesizer space-music group centered around Peter Gulch. Formed in 1980, disbanded in 1991, after releasing 3 full-length record albums and more than 35 cassette albums.

Please note: I have the rest of their albums in cd-r format. You can buy these albums here: http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?artist_id=249113&ev=ab


download this album here

Analogy vol.2 (compilation - 2006)

Here is the second analogy compilation which is equally beautifull.
tracklist:

ROGUE ELEMENT - Mellowtronthoughts [4:05] FRANΗOIS-POL CORNEC - Tτle Ondulιe [5:16] 4M33S - Sunrise on Cyderia [2:49] GERT EMMENS & RUUD HEIJ - Velvet Sky [7:14] RUSSELL STOREY - Cosmic Kiwi II part 1 [1:48] JAMES J CLENT - Black Tails [4:01] CRAIG PADILLA - Improbability Drive [4:40] KEES AERTS - Branch Hopping [6:40] ZEN PARADOX - Creation Garden [4:03] STEPHEN PARSICK - Electromagnetic [7:03] CREATE - Reaching Out [5:06] ALTRES - Dusktreader [2:16] RUSSELL STOREY - Cosmic Kiwi II part 2 [2:22] REMOTION - Sonar Vision [5:21] REMY - Expectations [6:57] EM2 - Where two worlds meet [5:07] EM2 is Gert Emmens and Embrase RON BOOTS - Sneak Preview [5:00]

Here

Analogy vol.1 (compilation - 2005)

Create - Analogue Revival [8:02]
Remotion - Freeflight [5:17]
Loren Nerell & Steve Roach & Chuck Oken - Zone Patrol [8:14]
Paul Ellis & Steve Roach - Where are you? [5:58]
4m33s - Elegy [3:56]
Gert Emmens - The Morning after [6:23]
Syn - Viking Mission II [7:52]
Russell Storey - Cosmic Kiwi [6:43]
Kees Aerts - Grey Keys [7:45]
Altres - Brain Flame [7:54]
Modulator ESP - Tsunami [5:18]
Ian Tescee - Aquamarine [3:49]

The "Analogy Vol. 1" compilation was spawned under the ruling that each artist could use no more than 3 analogue synths (not counting drum machines, effects units, etc.). The music ranges from traditional sequencer-based berlin school (create, syn, altres, modulator esp), via melodical (remotion, emmens, aerts, tescee), ambient (ellis and roach, 4m33s) to experimental (nerell, roach and oken, storey).

Here