“Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.”
Haruki Murakami
Since the first spark gave birth to our first fire, since the first rounded wheel has been developed out of nowhere, since we started to find an explanation about the beings and events which surround us, we've always looked at the stars, wondering about their nature. We started by thinking that we were at the universe's centre, a miopic vision which survived in our society for almost a millennium. We got past it, and it was hard. At first we rejected the idea of being just another rock in a solar system. Time passed and our universal relevance dwindled. We shifted from being God's creation to specs lost in an ever expanding universe made of rocks and ashes. One thing was necessary at this point: we decided to get on another star, to conquest another unexplored world, because here everything was discovered. We dreamed about it for ages but, when the project started, it seemed unreal. We were working toward reaching the moon, our only and lonely satellite. We've always considered it far, unattainable and pure. Until July 20, 1969. After 7 years of tests, which started with the Sputnik 1 by URSS, mankind has been able to bring 3 men on the lunar surface. Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins conquered the pale planet.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
An event which influenced our story in a radical way. Science and Society changed. Art changed. A lot of different artists where influenced by it. David Bowie, Elton John, The Police, Pink Floyd, Europe and more composed songs to celebrate this events. Space and the Universe are a great source of inspiration for a lot of musicians and bands, because it's fascinating and unknown.
This is what inspired JM Mantecon, a young music composer and multi instrumentalist from Sevilla, to compose A Brief History of Space Age.
JM's passion for music goes back to when he was only 6 years old, when he started playing the piano. From that moment he knew that he was going to be a musician and he did evertyhting to reach his goal. An interest which has been nurtured by his favourite, who is a music lover too. He introduced him to artists like Vangelis, Pink Floyd, Jarre, Supertramp, and many more.
"He used to play songs by these artists on the piano, though he also had his own musical ideas"
Later JM entered music school but he left it after a few years and he finished self-teaching it himself. At 14 years old he entered a recording studio and from there started his career, which perfectly overlapped with other technical aspects of his first job.
Music has had a relevant role in his life so far and for him is more than just sounds and tones:
"For me, music is a physiological need. I need to create, play, listen, and feel music every hour of every day. It’s what I make a living on, and it’s my way of communicating with the world.
My life orbits around music. I live off of it as a producer, composer and sound engineer. Every single day I’m either studying piano, going to the recording studio, or performing live"
An idea which is heavily noticeable in his creative process:
"I think music has to come before technology, which is why I mainly compose on the piano or directly on my mind. Later, I enter the phases of musical arrangement, formal construction, etc. I usually do composing sessions in which I improvise for a while on the piano, the synthesizer or the guitar. Also, while walking through the fields, I can visualize the works and at the same time work on them on my mind"
As his inspirations:
"I search for inspiration in literature and movies, and also in documentaries. Basically, anything that fills my mind with emotions so that I can later on portray those feelings in sound form. My works are sort of movie sound tracks, which take you through many sensations and emotions in a musical trip, sometimes also a physical one"
And his tastes about music, movies and series reflect all of that. Not only Spiral by Vangelis, Flight from the City of Johan Johansson and Lacrimosa by Mozart have a relevant role, even though his favourite songs could vary with his mood and the time, but there's also a myriad of movies which have left a mark in his works. He is into different kind of movies and series, I'm really impressed. For him is hard to choose because his likings are pretty wide and varied: the original Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, all the 80's sci-fi movies, all Kubrick and Woody Allen movies. That's a lot. His series tastes are narrower: Mr. Robot, Raised by Wolves and Mozart in the Jungle.
The album we're going to talk about today is A Brief History of Space Age. It's a tribute to all the artists and movies which influenced JM imagination and music.A lot of great minds has brought him to create what could be considered his best work. I'm talking about Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Nikola Tesla, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Stanley Kubrick, Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, Kitaro, Jean Michel Jarre, Félix Rodríguez De la Fuente, José Luis Comellas, Tomás Hormigo, Iker Jiménez...Well, I think that no one has been left out.
All started right after the quarantine, many years after his previous albums Odyssey and Magallanes. It's a returns to the origin for JM Mantecon who discovers himself in this electronic and cosmic work, surprising with his spectacular power and current sounds having being recorded on a tape recorder and mixed in an analogue way.
A Brief History of Space Age is a celebration of the greatest milestones of mankind's journey in the Universe, all the while paying tribute to spectacular stellar phenomena. You'll notice it just by taking a look to the songs names. I find it original and particularly clever, because it shows how much JM cares about the album's theme.
On June 9th 2021, it became available for digital and physical purchase, and it will soon be launched as a vinyl. This vinyl will include a special bonus that will not be available in the digital nor the physical versions of the album.
To realize this album JM has decided to go against the norm and do something more natural and spontaneous:
"For this album I mainly used improvisation on synthesizers and the piano. I could look for an arpeggio in the Arp 2600 and then play with it while I added other elements with the rest of keyboards, all the while being recorded on multi track. Once I selected the interesting parts, I did the arrangement and the programming of the rhythms with the drum machines. We then went to the studio and we recorded all the material on tape recorder"
In Translation is the first track of this album It starts with a speech by JFK and after that the music kicks in. It's techy and it makes me think about all the people who worked and are still working on lunar modules, shuttles, rockets and such. It has a fast pace and it's dreamy. Wow, this is a great way to start an album. It hooks you up because it's incredibly exciting. It's an ascending track, which evolves and it's particularly dynamic. The ending is quiete and terminates the song with JFK's speech.
"This track is an overture of the album, a description of the immensity of space, with the not-so-empty emptiness that surrounds it and the violent energy activities that take place in it, such as supernovas, quasars, etc. The track opens to an excerpt of President Kennedy's famous speech exalting the American population to support the Space Race and the first trip to the Moon.
The main motif is an arpeggio that appears shy at first, but then evolves accordingly with the song, to finally reach an explosion, a climax, together with the symphonic percussions and a polyphonic choral, to later dilute again little by little, ending, once again, with Kennedy and his clear statement of wanting to send a man to the Moon and bring him back safe and sound before the decade of the 60's was over"
The next one is Ignition. And the pace is still high, maybe higher than the first one. It has a first part where it sets the mood, a second where new sounds are added. It's an hopeful song and it seems like a celebration. The fact that there're shades of 80's music is the cherry on top. It's dreamy but it's also incredibly. There's a singed part which starts toward the middle of it and it's beautiful. JM is a master with keyboards.
"This song is probably the most metamorphic one of the album, dedicated to Elon Musk, all the SpaceX team, and to their project of wanting to take humans to Mars in this decade. Music-wise, it is a piece that changes its form constantly, starting with a series of intertwined arpeggios that later introduce synthetic strings and the song's leitmotif with a lead of the synthesizer. After a several-hand improvisation with more synthesizers, the vocoder emerges singing the main melody and, to top it off, a powerful chorus is interpreted by a main voice and choruses in the background. The song finishes with a powerful movement that describes the rise of the space rocket and its exit from the atmosphere, to then return to the arpeggios of the beginning as a form of coda"
Oort Cloud, named after the theoretical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals, starts slowly, to build up an atmosphere of awe. It feels like drifting in space, lulled by the stars and novas lights. It's quiet and soothing. You lose yourself in it. Space is a beautiful place. It would work well as soundtrack for a sci-fi movie.
"This is a transition track; gliding music in the style of Klaus Schulze. It describes the hypothetical space located in the most distant region of our Solar System, source of the non-cyclical comets that orbit just once around the Sun. It starts with gliding pads and ghost-like choir voices created out of synthesizers. While it develops, its harmonic form changes into an arpeggio ad libitum. The synthetic metals appear with an epic chant, which the choir voices repeat in unison, reinforced by symphonic percussions, reaching the climax and, finally, slowly vanishing while the signal that the Sputnik satellite sent to Earth in 1957 can begin to be heard, thus linking together with the next song of the album"
Sputnik is, I think, the most beloved track of JM. It's the kind of music I would put on in my car to feel like David Hasselhoff in Knight Rider. It has a consistent rythm and in the middle it becomes slower, to take a breath I think. Then it slowly pick up speed but it remains restrained, without exceeding in virtuosity. As Ignition, it has a singed section but it's shorter. There's a sudden stop toward the end, to introduce us in the last section, which seems like a goodbye. It's an homage to the first object which has ventured in space.
"This song is dedicated to the first artifact that humans sent into space. It was the first satellite ever to send a signal and for this one to be picked up by Earth. Back in its time it was a big sensation, with everyone going out on the streets to see how that tiny light passed by through the stars. It begins with a sequence composed of seven sequencers that enter progressively, creating a hubbub of intertwined musical notes, entering and exiting. Classical and descriptive electronic that takes us back to the coldness of the USSR and to the scientific images of those times. The sequence develops until the main synthesizer comes in with a typical Moog sound, with an evocative melody, which takes us into the next part: an explosion and a rhythmic pause, opening the way for the pads and the synthetic strings, describing the moment in which Sputnik goes into outer space and starts orbiting the Earth. Galactic effects escort this moment jumping from one side to the other of the panorama. The sound of a theremin and the boost of the rhythm both stand out in the following part, which takes us to the climax of the song, with more rhythms entering and with a strong synth-wave sound, with a manual arpeggio and a clear Roland Jupiter 8 sound. Next, a brief vocal melody comes in, singing the story of the Sputnik, to later enter in a musical bridge with a few intertwined melodies, and in the end, an ambient moment in which the pads, with distorted effects, leave us floating again in the immensity of the cosmos"
Hawking Piece is the oddest track. It's short and it seems like a transition piece. It's characterized by the mechanical voice of Stephen Hawking. I think that him describes it in a better way.
"This track anticipates and introduces the next song, Space and Time, with the narrative of one of the well-known speeches of Stephen Hawking, interpreted with the genius' voice synthesizer and with a series of sound effects that describe explosions and the massive energy splurge of black holes, on which he focused his career"
The next one starts with a bang and it feels like a voyage through Space and Time. It's wonderful and uplifting. It's the only track which is to all effects a song. It's also one of the few without an underlining speech.
"Metaphor of a love relationship with the Universe as its background. It is the only sung pop song in the album. A powerful up-tempo hymn, with an evocative main melody interpreted by synthetic leads and the vocal track interacting with them, referencing giant red stars and the Bible with the expression: “dust we are and to dust we shall return”, thus also resembling Carl Sagan's thought that "we're made of star stuff"
Mr. Hubble starts quietly and after a while it becomes similar to disco music. I don't know but it remembers me Flash Gordon, with its quirky and weird style. It's a track which works well for dancing, because it has a good pace and nice sounds. I think that a singer is missing here, because it would have been more impactful in my opinion.
"This song has a strong Italo-disco character, in the style of Giorgio Moroder. It contains a rhythmic part highlighted by a Linn Drum and a pounding bass, and a casual melody interpreted with the Italian monophonic synthesizer Jen SX-1000.
It's dedicated to the space telescope that broke the barriers of modern astronomy and, at the same time, to the astronomer after whom it is named, Edwin Hubble, who proved the expansion of the Universe"
Sagan Piece starts with Sagan's voice. Some inspiring word by a person who has stimulated our world to reach out of hearth's atmosphere. This is a transition piece.
"This is a small piece that anticipates the next song, Neowise. A strong change is contemplated in the dynamics of the album, coming closer to a more sober sound, with an Easter Egg to Vangelis' song Heaven and Hell, which was interpreted in Cosmos. Sagan's voice plays along the whole piece"
The next one is Neowise. Starts as a tender composition and seems like a lullaby. I think that this is one of the less dreamy pieces of the album. It distances itself from the previous tracks by being less dynamic. Now it remembers me the 80's He-Man Movie. It sounds like an anthem for space, to celebrate its beauty. The use of drums makes it similar to a royal march.
"This is a song with a strong symphonic character. It is the perfect tribute to Vangelis: a repetitive bass marking the rhythmic base and the synthesizers' melody acting as a guitar together with the acoustic piano describe the calm arrival of the comet while it approaches the Sun and begins its activity, its gas and dust tail being born due to solar radiation. The song reaches its climax when the symphonic percussions, symphonic kettle drums, snare drums, plates and the symphonic choral all come in, thus culminating in an epic apotheosis, describing its orbit around the Sun, to then return to the calmness of a piano solo, while the comet NEOWISE wanders off forever"
The Last Goodbye it's a symphony. It continues the style brought in by the previous track but is so much slower. It sounds like a music for wanderers, who like to look at the sky and fancy new, unexplored worlds.
"This song is an orchestral adagio, but creating the timbre with the synthesizers, following the trail of the previous track. Also, reference items to Isao Tomita, a Japanese musician famous for interpreting classical music scores with synthesizers, are added. This work, sad but at the same time epic and hopeful, is dedicated to those who died for the Space Race, and especially to the Challenger crew. A melancholic melody accompanies the mourning while a heroic chorus begins as a tribute to the space heroes. The culminating moment occurs when the choir and the symphonic percussions enter. After that, the feminine voices remain in a suspended wail, giving way once again to the main melody, which now acts as a coda"
Oumuamua, named after the asteroid which is believed to be a planet killer or an alien ship(interesting theories), is here celebrated. I think that this track could represent the voyage made by the extratterestrial object. It's inteesting the fact that JM uses for a while sounds which are usually attributed to aliens, I think to recognize the asteroid's theories. It's an uplifting piece which could bring you happiness with an alien-ish style.
"In the year 2017 a space object approaching our Sun was discovered. It was first catalogued as a comet, later as an asteroid. Its high eccentricity, its behaviour and its peculiar shape jolted the whole scientific community, making them reach the assumption of it being an interstellar object. Its own name suggests it: "the first distant messenger". Some scientists even declared it to be an old extra-terrestrial ship wandering through space. This track begins with synthetic strings, which precede the entrance of a simple and cheerful melody. It is a clear reference to Jean Michel Jarre. The song reaches a chorus which is interpreted with a common sound in Jarre's Oxygene. Later, it outbreaks in a festive chorus of synthetic metals and bell sounds, celebrating the conquest of Space by humanity. All of this while being surrounded by the choir. In the end, it breaks in a closing musical part where sounds and effects from the Space Race can be appreciated: Neil Armstrong with his famous phrase "one small step for man", Sagan, Hawking, Gagarin... All of them can be heard as an interference while the music dilutes, leaving only the sound of Saturn, captured by the Cassini space probe, until its complete fading"
The last one is Neowise Piano Version. In my opinion this version is even better than the original, because it's more graceful and plush.
"This Neowise piece, interpreted on piano with variations in its arrangement and harmony, evokes the escape of humanity into outer space, towards the stars. It is accompanied by a small sound effect alluding the space emptiness"
JM Mantecon is a pretty talented composer who is able to revive the 80's and celebrate the universe with a cool, original and dreamy style. I like how every track's name has a reason and every song has it's own narrative. I like his style a lot and I think that you could too. Look for his album and starts a fully immersive and outworldy experience. You won't regret it.
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