first aired: April 25 2023
the creators and fans of contemplative music have always gravitated to explorations of deep space — both in science fiction and through the efforts of astronomy and science. In my generation, many of us first came across space music through the works of Vangelis on the TV documentary Cosmos, hosted by the late great Carl Sagan
on this week’s edition of Convergence Zone, we’re putting the “space” in space music, with a show focused on space exploration, space travel, and plotting the depths of the human imagination in the great void
recent music from Seattle artists Hello Meteor, Terminus Void, and Hello Meteor transport us to Jupiter and to contacts with civilizations beyond our imagination
extended travels to distant stars with ARC, and nearby destinations with Caterina Barbieri and Public Service Broadcasting
Convergence Zone departs to the sky and the sun, the moon and Jupite, and outbound to the Tannhäuser Gate — Tuesday night at 10:30pm PDT
90.7 KSER-FM, 89.9 KXIR-FM, and streaming around the world at kser.org and on other internet radio services
| Artist | Song | Album | Label | Notes |
| Hello Meteor | Reitoru Skyport | Earth Journos | Feb 2023 ambient cozywave | |
| Vangelis | Heaven and Hell Part 1 (excerpt) | Heaven and Hell | RCA | Opening music to “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan |
| Public Service Broadcasting | Sputnik | The Race for Space | Test Card Recordings | Includes signal from Sputnik 1 |
| Vangelis | Atlas Push | Juno to Jupiter | Decca | Includes audio from NASA’s Juno launch |
| Vangelis | Apo 22 | Juno to Jupiter | Decca | Samples from JPL control room |
| Terminus Void | Inception | Origins Unknown | Brand new! Includes audio recorded by NASA’s Juno spacecraft at Ganymede | |
| Vangelis | Albedo 0.39 | Albedo 0.39 | RCA | The Earth’s reflecting power is 39%, or Albedo 0.39 |
| Pink Floyd | Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun | Saucerful of Secrets | EMI | We set the controls for the heart of the sun, one of the ways we show our age |
| Steve Roach | The Sky Opens | The Sky Opens | Projekt | Live in Pasadena, CA, 2019 |
| Dreamstate Logic | First Contact | Starbound | Brand new from Seattle’s Colby Sixx | |
| End | Segment | One | Segment | End |
| Public Service Broadcasting | The Other Side | The Race for Space | Test Card Recordings | Apollo 8 – first human orbit of the moon |
| Public Service Broadcasting | Go | The Race for Space | Test Card Recordings | Apollo 11 moon landing |
| Remote Vision | The Temporal Sequence | The Architecture of Time | Synphaera | Dedicated to the electronic pioneers |
| Vangelis | Blush Response | Blade Runner | Atlantic | Do you like our owl? |
| Transponder | Running Binary Nightside | Starmaps, Vol 1 | Synphaera | Steve Pierce and Don Tyler |
| Caterina Barbieri | Closest Approach to your orbit | Ecstatic Computation | 2019 LP from Italian composer | |
| ARC | Arcturus Pt 1 | Arcturus (DiN 19) | DiN | Live at the Hampshire Jam, October 2004 |
| Vangelis | Tears in Rain | Blade Runner | Decca | I’ve seen things you humans wouldn’t believe |