Syngeneia

Science fiction masterpieces in the form of music tracks by Rasmus Vishma

«Avatar», «Dune», «Star Wars»… Music label Syngenia presented «Space Odyssey» — an international collection of music tracks written based on the outstanding science fiction films and books. Thom Brennan, Otto K. Schwarz (Ephilion), Alex Diakov and Nick Klimenko (Chronos) reveal the stories beyond the collection that will be of interest to music lovers, directors, and connoisseurs of space electronic music.

 

Syngeneia records’ team, known for their international music compilations, unveiled a cinematic immersion in which musicians from around the world have prepared eight beautiful hyperspace electronic tracks dedicated to each artist’s favorite fantasy story. Thus arose a new «book» of musical fiction, a study of the genre’s best stories.

 

Thom Brennan, an American ambient music veteran, considers that science fiction and electronic music activate the same parts of the human brain — the area of imagination and seeking to see to cross the next horizon.

“It’s probably what most distinguishes humans from every other animal, — Thom says, — we always want to create and find something new to experience, to see or to hear. That human drive and imagination has driven civilization, sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse”. 

He continues: “When I created the track “Pandora” for this collection I wanted something that was organic sounding and could easily describe the fluorescent flora and fauna of the forest in the movie “Avatar”. I wanted to be organic, mysterious and a little bit soothing.”

 

The composition by Otto K. Schwarz, sound designer and composer, takes us to the inspiring world of the “Star Wars” series. His track reflects the difficult life choice of Anakin Skywalker, who stands between two paths, between light and dark. Despite the fact that the light in his soul is gradually fading, there remains a ghostly hope for his salvation. 

Otto notes that now, more than ever, the role of music in enlightenment and setting the human mind “on eternal values” is very important. “Despite the fact that our reality is being artificially made “mundane”, we must continue to look at the sky with the inner smile, generating new ideas, concepts and projects,” Otto notes.

 

«I love the illustrations for the unreleased “Dune” of Jodorowsky. This is a very psychedelic reconstruction Herbert’s heroes consciousness altered by spice,» says Alex Diakov, producer of the collection and creator of ambient music all rolled into one, «Dune’s cosmic musical instrument, the baliset, has always awakened my imagination. And once I programmed a very complex sound of an imaginary baliset on my Virus Ti synthesizer”. That is how the first track appeared. 

After Alex read the “Blindsight” — an incredibly complex prophetic novel by Peter Watts, he composed the second track for the compilation. The deepest dive into Chaos and the suspense of which I reflected in the drone ambient piece Blindsight”.

 

Nick Klimenko, who stands behind the Chronos music project with worldwide releases across the U.K., Europe and Canada, says that he has been drawn to space since childhood. He studied painting, listened to electronic music on cassettes, watched the science fiction films and developed his imagination dreaming of the space worlds in his thoughts”.

”My heroes have always been Bradbury, Asimov, Lem, Philip Dick, Efremov and Strugatsky brothers,” — Nick admits, — “Our family has a large library. The works of these founders of world fiction truly expand consciousness without any stimulants“.

Nick notes that the idea of the future dystopian world of Philip Dick and Ridley Scott’s “Bladerunner” captivated him at the time. His composition on the “Space Odyssey” collection is dedicated to these two brilliant creators, but also to the Greek musician Vangelis, who unfortunately passed away in the recent year. «I used original samples from the film to create the atmosphere in my composition, and Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer as well — which is as close as possible to the legendary Yamaha CS-80, by which the original soundtrack for the film was scored», Nick says.

 

The producer of the collection, Alex Diakov, followed the motivation to ‘hear’ the worlds of science fiction through the eyes of his favorite electronic music projects. “This is how the idea of alternative soundtracks for books was born, the first attempt was the music collection «The Martian Chronicles» based on the book by Ray Bradbury,» Alex Diakov recalls. 

«All the musicians have done excellent work — beautiful, deep, visual. The collection is definitely a success: I can see it from the reaction of the listeners and reviews in the social media. And I hope that the sci-fi theme, coupled with filigree electronics and such names of the participants like Brennan, Chronos and other talented musicians, will be arguments enough to get new listeners to join our space odyssey,” clarifies Alex.

 

That sounds to be true. Tonepoet, the creator of ambient music podcast «Spaceman’s Transmissions», said that this kind of ambient music takes “a special place” in his heart. And Kristoff, one of the Syngeneia’s funs, commented on Bandcamp page, “you guys make ambient music great again! ”.

 

And although the collection ends, the space odyssey itself never ends, and will continue through the years and centuries. After all, as the scientist Tsiolkovsky said,  «Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever.»