Top artists of music of space and cosmos

Oldfield's "The Songs of Distant Earth"

Space music is used by some amateur astronomers to enable states of relaxation, contemplation and inspiration. This style is a mix of New Age, Ambient and Electronic music. Space music appears in many film soundtracks and is commonly played in planetariums. The golden age for cosmos music were 60’s -  80’s. Since then, public interest in the space programs (also in sci-fi movies and space music) have dimmed a bit.

The best known and most popular space music artists are:

1. Jean Michel Jarre.  This French composer was a pioneer in the electronic genre, as well as an organiser of outdoor shows which feature lights, lasers and fireworks. Jarre has sold an estimated 80 million albums and holds the world record for the largest ever audience at an outdoor event -  3.5 million were watching his concert at Moscow’s 850th anniversary in 1997. The best space albums are: Oxygene (1976), Equinoxe (1978) and Rendez-Vous (1986).  A Main-belt asteroid 4422  (discovered in 1942 ) was named after Jarre.

2. Vangelis is a Greek composer of electronic and orchestral music. He composed more than 40 albums. The Chariots of Fire soundtrack’s single “Titles”, won Vangelis the Oscar in 1981. Best space albums are Albedo 0.39  (1976), Spiral  (1977), Direct (1988), Blade Runner (1994) – score to the 1982 Ridley Scott film. An asteroid 6354 (discovered in 1934) has name … Vangelis.

3. Mike Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer. Oldfield has had more than 30 charting albums. He is best known for his hit 1973 album Tubular Bells, and for his 1983 hit single “Moonlight Shadow”. Best space albums are The Songs of Distant Earth (1994) and Tr3s Lunas (2002). Oldfield is also immortalized  in the night sky – asteroid 5656 (dicovered in 1920) was named after him.

4. Didier Marouani is a French composer and musician. He is also one of the pioneers in the Electronic music genre. Didier Marouani and his band Space gained quite a large popularity in France and many Eastern European countries and sold over 20 millions records. Until now Didier is giving huge concerts in different countries. The best albums are Magic Fly (1977), Just Blue (1978)  and Space Opera (1987). As I know, none of asteroids carries name of Marouani yet…

And who is your favourite artist of space music?

Tagged as: Asteroid, Jarre, Marouani, Oldfield, space music, Vangelis