Some reflections on the past, present and future of space rock music / Некоторые размышления о прошлом, настоящем и будущем космической рок-музыки

Синеокий Олег Владимирович доктор наук по социальным коммуникациям (специальность "документоведение, архивоведение", 27.00.02), научный сотрудник, профессор издательского дела 69002, Украина, г. Запорожье, ул. Александровская, 84 Synieokyi Oleg Vladimirovich Doctor of Science in Social Communications (specialty "Document Studies, Archive Studies", 27.00.02), Scientific Associate, Professor of Publishing Industry, Publishing Group "Helvetica" 69002, Ukraine, g. Zaporozh'e, ul. Aleksandrovskaya, 84 vinyl-doc@email.ua Другие публикации этого автора

‘When I was a boy, I had a dream…’

Jeff Lynne’s ELO ‘Alone in the Universe’ (2015)

In general, very little has been written about Space Rock. There is a fairly voluminous layer of journalistics works dedicated to specific musical groups and individual musicians who working in Space Rock. In a journalistic vein are of certain interest the few publications of both domestic (N. Antipova, A. Vilgotsky, A. Gaginsky, D. Zlotnitsky, S. Kanunnikov, A. Kiselev, V. Novoseltsev, S. Serebryansky, A. Skorobogatov, E. Kharitonov, etc.) and a number of foreign (M. Bartkowiak, K. Donnelly, P. Hayward, D. Simpson, A. Slavov, etc.) authors. But there is still no systematized full-fledged scientific research in which this direction in modern popular music is investigated. We offer our own, in a sense, an alternative view of this problem. We emphasize that this article offers only a part of our large research material. The study of the problem continues and, possibly, in future publications, we will continue to highlight this interesting scientific issue.

The Big Bang happened 13.8 billion years ago! Then, from polyvinyl chloride and a magnetic material of chromium dioxide, dark matter, consisting of unknown particles, with the help of dark energy created a new world, raising in it children of Rock and Roll...

1584 year in London a book by the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno ‘On infinity, the universe and the worlds’ was published. In this book he criticizes the dominant cosmology of Aristotle and defends the theses about the infinity of the Universe and the existence of many worlds. Thus a new picture of the structure of the Universe was created.

Part I. The Start of Fantastic Flight to the Vinyl Planet

The history of early Rock and Roll has already been told more than once and our story about familiar topics does not pretend to be objectivity in the highest instance but we will add a little complexity to their usual simplicity.

Bill Haley's single ‘Rock Around The Clock’ sparked a sharp increase in interest in the new style and this hit quickly became a kind of anthem of Rock and Roll and the date of its studio recording April 12, 1954 was considered the birthday of this new shaking music.

Exactly 7 years later, Yuri Gagarin made the first orbital flyby of the planet Earth for the first time in the world and since 1962 this day has become the ‘Day of Cosmonautics’! On October 3, 1963, at exactly 20:00 the Big Bang occurred and London became the center of the Pop Universe. It was at this fateful hour that THE BEATLES appeared on the ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’ program. Since 1963 Rock has developed to its own rhythm – the demand for records with records of this music grew, the lyrics became social, they touched upon more serious problems than the school adventures of teenagers and teenage love ^[18].

Rock and Space... Do we know everything about this singlet system?

I assure you that no: not all secrets have yet been made public, covered pages have been read, events have been established and facts have been rethought... Background sounding began 380,000 years after the birth of the universe. Cosmic sounds are too low for human perception. Everything we hear is just an illusion created by our brain based on signals received from our hearing organs. In reality there are no sounds but only vibrations of the environment. Everyone lives in his own universe which he creates and fills himself with meaning. Actually according to Trevor Cox there are many acoustic wonders in the world that are waiting to be heard by people... In the early years of the conquest of space many felt the need for new sounds of a special kind, significantly different from the usual timbres of musical instruments. 1959... The appearance of the synthesizer AНС by Evgeny Murzin, named after the composer Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin. Its principle of operation was based on optical recording of sound. The most famous appearance of AНС in pop culture is associated with the soundtrack of ‘Solaris’ by Andrei Tarkovsky...

1963... Eduard Artemyev, on the ANS, the first polyphonic photoelectronic sound synthesizer, created the electronic-space music for the fantastic film ‘A Dream Towards’ based on the story ‘Heart of the Universe’.

1964... Robert Moog released the legendary Moog Modular Synthesizer! This marked the beginning of an important stage in the development of new music as a result of numerous recordings, overdubs and mixing, sound movements in the studio, etc. As a result of the recording of electronic music, a different model of artistic creation emerged, significantly different from the original…

In the 1960s members of the Norwegian instrumental beat group THE SPOTNICKS were the first to use stage suits in the form of space suits.

In August 1965, the US garage band THE BASKERVILLE HOUNDS recorded the instrumental single ‘Space Rock’… Interest in space music began when psychedelic drugs came into vogue. And a strange journey began across fantastic worlds, where visible sounds and audible colors awaited travelers. A combination of distorted sounds and improvisation, Acid-rock emerged, which changed the direction of rock as much as the electric guitar or even the blues. And now the summer of 1965 – THE CHARLATANS from San Francisco became the first acid rock band. In 1967, the psychedelic pop group THE LOST recorded the soundtrack for the children's Sci-Fi radio show ‘Space Kids’. In the same year, the acid extraterrestrial envoys GRATEFUL DEAD, moving away from folk, country and blues, began to popularize space rock with lingering jams. ‘Surrealistic Pillow’ (1967) JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, which became the voice of the San Francisco underground, was a short description of the era of hallucinations and politics of the left. In addition to this cream, QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE, MOBY GRAPE, ELECTRIC FLAG, THE ELECTRIC PRUNES, LOVE and many others were brought to the new hypnotic spaceport ^[15].

The tumultuous end of the 1960s marked the beginning of introspection, when immature teenagers, turning into weird long-haired guys with beards, began to leave home and wander around the world or settle in tiny ‘bedbugs’, indulging in meditation and flying into space. All this symbolized new social relations, when crowds of high young people preferred to gather in huge numbers on fields, farms or test sites for cars in order to take part in a joint ‘space ritual’. Such large-scale events demonstrated with their own eyes that the underground came out of the underground and turned into the mainstream ^[29].

It was then that the structure of show business changed dramatically, when frivolous three-minute songs seemed inadequate in response to people in conflict with the whole world. So, Pop music has actually become an anachronism, giving way to Rock.

In 1969, the ROOM quartet from Dorset (UK) took second place in the prestigious Melody Maker competition, which helped them sign a contract with Deram. The enigmatically charming album ‘Pre-Flight’ (1970) was recorded in one day and evokes a general sense of cosmic darkness. There are rushes from Jazz Rock to Progressive, Classical and Blues, with psychedelic notes, plus heavy elements in the rough, raw BLACK SABBATH style. However, the musicality is sustained throughout the entire record, proving that the group is one whole. Guitarist Steve Edge pulls out killer guitar solos, and Jane Kevern ranks among the best progressive vocalists of the time.

But all these musicians, although they flew into magical ‘trips’ in the fairy-tale universe of dreams, did not play Space Rock. And not all of them landed successfully... The pioneers of Space Rock include, of course, PINK FLOYD 1966-1971, HAWKWIND and GONG. In 1969, the French POPERA COSMIC surprised with the psycho-acidic album ‘Les Esclaves’. In the same year, American Jim Sullivan released the folk-rock album ‘U.F.O.’ (one of the versions of his disappearance in 1975 was an alien abduction). Jack Linerly with his friends from Los Angeles in 20 minutes of rare acetate recording LYD (1970) showed what kind of Cosmos they have after a cocktail of Psychedelics, Garage Proto-Punk and Hard Rock ^[13]. Suddenly, from somewhere above, a deafening, truly hellish rumble falls – tearing eardrums, driving you crazy. The guitar makes such a fantastic roar, which is very difficult to reproduce these days. Furious bass loads the amp to its fullest. It feels like someone is sticking hot knitting needles into the eardrums. And you gradually go deaf. A real volcanic eruption, a planetary catastrophe, the start of a white-hot rocket leaving the atmosphere... Such a sound picture of the music was performed with unrelenting energy and stunningly loud, up to distortion.

1977 year. ‘Voyager 1’ was launched to explore distant celestial bodies. First of all, the interest was aroused by Titan – the second largest satellite in the solar system, the dimensions of which are comparable to the Earth. This small planet is the only body in our solar system besides the Earth, on the surface of which liquid exists stably and the only satellite with a dense atmosphere. Perhaps life even exists there in some unknown form. In case of possible contact with representatives of the alien intelligence, they decided to prepare a package. The spacecraft was packed with a 12-inch gold-plated record. On it, among other works by world composers of different times, was placed ‘Johnny B. Goode’. This sound standard of 1955 Chuck Berry, became the ideal model of Rock and Roll, for a long time, according to the Rolling Stone magazine, it leads the rating of the ‘100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time’… ^[25].

Let's imagine that a capsule with a gold plate fell into the hands of aliens and they figured out how to turn it on. Will the fantastic humanoids understand how, in the second half of the 20th century, Rock completely possessed mankind, and why by the beginning of the third decade of the third millennium its grip had noticeably weakened? The phenomenon of cosmophony, despite its external eccentricity, is conceptually comprehended in the context of reflections on global communication problems, one way or another related to Humanity.

Rock is our Cosmos. We’ll talk about this closely, making the author's reconstruction of the general picture of space rock and something else... How successful this symbiosis is – for the readers to judge.

What is Rock?

This word usually denotes a direction in music and subculture.

Rock is music that has absorbed the culture of virtually all peoples and, in general, times. This is the music of the 20th century. In no other direction has there been created such significant works that we see in rock. Rock is a contemporary music in the world, the most flexible, democratic and viable form of contemporary music – is developing and is not going to ‘curtail’. The rules of the game for recording rock were formed. And then many albums marked the beginning of a new cultural era. Over the years, the verbal set of unwritten provisions of Rock and Roll life has changed more than once. The transformations of these relations are caused by reasons of a social, political, technical and technological nature...

Rock music has changed the consciousness of millions of people, gave its literature, its cinema, its painting, even its urban planning... Rock is a special substance, born as a result of the violation of the symmetry of the Universe of Music. And in this ritual sacred experience is embodied... Almost all the achievements and contradictions of the second half of the 20th century found expression in Rock. But Rock is not only freedom of expression and creativity; it is a huge layer of the cultural field with a complex multi-level structure, including music, literature, visual arts with visual techniques and decorative forms; it is a means of communication, a socio-musical mirror of society. Thus, Rock is a special communication. You can endlessly talk about the giants of rock, but still want to see more variety. In addition, the boundaries of this civilizational phenomenon continue to expand actively.

The changing situation of digital interaction creates new norms, rules, principles, and logistics. All this has led to the fact that it becomes more and more difficult to accurately determine the outer and inner boundaries of Rock.

Yes, they were previously very conditional... After 1960 young Rock became stereotyped – verse, chorus, verse, chorus, then maybe a little instrumental play and fade out. Some special kind of Beat Music magic was until the mid 1960’s. But soon it began to dissipate. Technological and economic changes directly affected the progress in the music sound recording in 1966. Many, even not very rich people, could have portable radios and household tape recorders. Teenagers began to spend more money buying new vinyl records. The unique energy of 1966 is still a kind of standard in building the civilization of the Big Rock – so far we are trying to match the greatness and perspective of 1966. In 1966 experiments began with the search for some new unearthly color of sound. The musicians constantly experimented with many styles and ambitious approaches creating varied and often surprising combinations. Until now the very word ‘Prog’ evokes a violent reaction: some like him, others hate him. Since its inception ‘Prog’ has forced music to move in unpredictable directions – it has developed new concepts that went much further than the standard formulas of Rock and Roll; he completely redrawn the musical canvas, impregnating it with genius, madness and intemperance.

Traditionally it is believed that Progressive Rock originated in England in the late 1960s. Sometimes, with reference to a specific event in the Rock history, a more precise date is also called – October 10, 1969, when the debut album ‘Court of the Crimson King’ by KING CRIMSON was released. In the early 1970s YES created three stunning albums which formed the basis of the band's many years of career, as well as determined the laws of an entire genre. A new picture of the structure of the musical universe was created...

Part II. Sci-Fi vs Space Rock: JULIAN'S TREATMENT

London of the late 1960s can be called without much exaggeration the ‘Musical Mecca’ on the map of Europe – the most powerful center of communication for many thousands of young people who are tuned in to the creative wave. The English capital of that time was a place that gave birth to several sociocultural layers at once... In the early 1970s, not only musicians who composed endless space epics in changing keys with protracted solos inserted into their bodies were classified as progressive rock in Britain, but also most of the ‘stadium rockers’.

Next, we are waiting for a fascinating sci-fi odyssey of the seeker Julian Jay Savarin (Julain Jay Savarin, sometimes – JJ Savarin, Julian J. Savarin, Julian J. Sararin – this is exactly what is indicated on two singles of 1970) – a black Dominican is a British musician who has released two stunning psychedelic progressive rock albums. The future poet and science fiction writer was born in 1950 in Dominica. On November 1, 1493, this island was discovered by Christopher Columbus, and subsequently colonized by Europeans, from the 1690s – mainly by the French. After winning the Seven Years' War, Great Britain established English as the official language in 1763. The indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean are called ‘Dominicans’ or (less commonly) ‘Kalinago’. In 1838, Dominica became the first British Caribbean colony to be dominated by a majority of Africans in the legislature. The legal status of this British colony was permanently improved during the first half of the 20th century. Between 1958 and 1962, Dominica was part of the short-lived Federation of the West Indies. As a result, in 1978, the island republic gained independence, legally securing its name – Commonwealth of Dominica.

Julian Jay Savarin was one such youth. In 1962, Julian and his family moved permanently to the UK. In the late 1960s, this extraordinary young man served with the Royal Air Force, where he began writing the sci-fi trilogy ‘Lemmus: A Time Odyssey’, which he dreamed of putting to music. The first part of the original trilogy was published in print in 1972. In 1977-1980, sequels and reprints came out. In an early interview, Savarin said that music is like education in that it gives an idea of what our world might look like (1969). ‘I used to do science fiction writing as a hobby, and then I started writing a book that starts with the colonization of the Earth and takes my ideas about the past, present and the future. When everything is completed, this piece will appear in three music albums. This non-dance music does not imply instant appeal and I expect people may not like this record at first’ (Melody Maker, 1970). In order to sound a practically completed unusual literary creation in 1969, a project was created, which may not have received the most original name in popular music – JULIAN'S TREATMENT.

Julian, 27, has assembled a team of like-minded people of three guys and one girl. The first joint material acquisition was a synthesizer organ, without which it was impossible to realize such an idea. The studio work, featuring competent sound engineers Dave Hunt and Larry Bartlett, took place at ‘Young Blood’ – a recording company set up by producer, musician and songwriter Miki Dallon the day before. Savarin himself was involved in modeling the space of the phonogram, who also acted as a sound engineer. On twelve tracks, fastened together and in the original named by the author ‘Chapters’ – ‘First Oracle’, ‘Ghost City’, ‘Black Tower’, ‘Gemini Centauri’, ‘Fourth from the Sun’ and others, the Savarin’s Space Hammond reigned and the voice of singer Cathy Pruden – the rich, strong and flexible voice of this sweet girl perfectly reveals the semantic content of Julian's fantasy opuses. Short texts in her performance reveal the meaning and context of the compositions. The instrumentalists connected elements of rhythm and blues, the energy of early hard rock, into the canvas of the cosmic psychedelia invented by them and even airy splashes of jazz with echoes of the Baroque era. The rhythm section sounds expressive, emphasizing all the thematic nuances. Amazing ‘Black Tower’, which begins with piano chords, and then majestically unfolds into a polyphonic sound canvas with a delightful chorus, standing kami flute (the lead guitarist Del Watkins was also a very worthy flutist), sprinkled with organ rain. Beautiful themes from the melodic prog in the spirit of the late 1960s a Dutch progressive rock band EARTH & FIRE with lead vocalist Christina Henriette ‘Jerney’ Kaagman, CIRCUS 2000 (Italian progressive rock band with unique singer Silvana Aliotta), RENAISSANCE (British progressive rock band that emerged from the then disbanded THE YARDBYRDS, the vocalist is Jane Reit) or AFFINITY (English jazz rock band with singer Linda Hoyle) according to the general formula ‘Female Vocals + Organ’, to ... an ominous gothic set of combined phonemes with acidic psychedelic components ^[14].

Here you can find flashes of the rhythm section, and deeply desperate and lyrical vocal variations, and an all-encompassing cosmogonic sound, and the timbre of the organ with piercing bursts of mellotron polyphony... As a result of this multi-layered symbiosis, an organic sound pattern is unexpectedly created, without a doubt worthy of admiration. The musical construction includes various elements ranging from psychedelia to experimental space rock, and has an exceptional place in the world of rock recording.

However, regrettable as it may seem, it should be pointed out that the described large progressive creation at one time nevertheless turned out to be unclaimed. Released in June 1970, the double album ‘A Time Before This’ was destined to remain the only soundtrack in global rock history, made in the framework of this working draft ‘Appeal of Julian’ about ‘Time Before This...’. Some sources claim that the album ‘A Time Before This’ was released in 1969, 1971 and 1973, which is not true.

Elements of unreality and superreality are manifested in this conceptual work, which makes it possible to interpret it as a surrealistic phantasmagoria with serious texts of a futuristic and psychological orientation, unusual for a ‘light genre’, which are based on Savarin's philosophical reflections. The songs tell the story of the last human survivor from planet Earth, who travels through interstellar space to the Alpha Centauri system, where conflict has erupted. On one side is Alda, the ‘Dark Lady of the Outer Worlds’, and her ally Mule, a physically weak subject with an overdeveloped brain. On the other hand, this is Altarra – ‘Princess of the Blue Women’ and ‘Supreme Ruler of the planet Alcon’. It is implied that the Earthling will become Altarra's ally and lover and help her overthrow Alda and Mule. In fact, we have before us an interpretive model about the past and the future development of earthly civilization in different dimensions, inspired by the work of Isaac Asimov (in particular, the series of novels ‘Foundation’), and executed in the traditions of the protoprog, laid down at that time by RARE BIRD, QUATERMASS, ATOMIC ROOSTER and a number of other groups, which subsequently collectively formed your sound basis for followers.

Savarin's innovation is obvious. Compositional sophistication was in line with the trends prevailing in the British music scene at the time. As part of the development of prog-art-rock, Julian proposed his own sample of Proto-Prog, one might say with atypical for an early English heavy progressive with Spanish features. However, as a result of poor management of the 2LPs release, the release failed, not providing financial success to the participants. The LP was accompanied by two singles – ‘Phantom City’, released in the UK, and ‘Alda, Dark Lady of the Outer Worlds’, published in Germany.

Julian Savarin returned to literary activity, focusing on the second part of his trilogy. Julian wanted his trilogy to be accompanied by three albums.

In 1971, Savarin, under his own name on the Birth Records label, the distributor of the largest record company CBS Records, recorded his second (and in fact the first solo album, which also turned out to be the only one), ‘Waiters On The Dance’ (Total time: 32:44). Only bassist John Dover remained from the old line-up, the other musicians of the new group were guitarist Nigel Jenkins, drummer Roger Odell and singer Joe Meek (or Lady JoMeek) – a sister of the vocalist of the Jazz Rock band CATAPILLA Anna Meek (one of the sources says that in CATAPILLA they sang both – Anna and Joe Meek). However, the vocals on this Savarina album are great! The record was produced by the same Miki Dation, the sound engineers were Hunt Bartlet and Larry Bartlet. On the one hand, the second album was more musical than the debut, but at the same time on this disc there is still more harsh music, quite characterized as ‘Heavy Progressive’. The thematic disc in a meaningful context continues the Sci-Fi theme of the created literary trilogy, psychedelicly describing a darker vision of our past and future. The songs tell the story of a Galactic organization that supposedly existed long before earthly historical times... Then the author talks about the lost civilization of Atlantis. After the death of Atlantis, several survivors and their descendants try to preserve the knowledge of the Atlanteans, but in the end everything turns out to be useless – the explosion of nuclear weapons practically sterilizes the planet. One surviving former resident of Atlanta gets aboard an orbital ship and travels into interstellar space... It turns out that the Earth is a failed experiment of the Galactic Organization. But the idea of creating a new human race continues to be relevant. As a result, after two thousand years, the Earth is again inhabited, but the development of civilization leads to chaos and violence. Two expeditions to Mars fail... As a result, the Earth is destroyed for the second time in a nuclear war ^[19]. A complex topic that is still relevant today. The lack of advertising in the communication space again led to the commercial failure of this project. Unfortunately, in the future, this powerful ambitious philosophical and musical project was not completed.

Savarin's musical career finally ended in 1973. Nevertheless, he became a fairly successful writer, while working not only in his favorite genre of science fiction ^[18]. At first in Japan, and then all over the world, his novels were successfully published, as well as a series of action films, which told about the exploits of a pilot and navigator of the British Air Force, and a number of other very interesting works ^{[20 ; 21 ; 22 ; 23]}.

‘A Time Before This’ we can be considered one of the first progressive albums to be released in the UK. Currently, these two albums are of the highest collectible value. The third album never came out. In 1990 a CD was released containing 18 tracks. On CD to See For Miles Records Ltd. managed to accommodate the double ‘A Time Before This’, almost 60 minutes long (some sides of the album were still rather short), and the half-hour solo ‘Waiters On The Dance’. Apparently, such at that time still technologically inaccessible sound carrier density was formed by unauthorized cuts in audio tracks and the absence of the fourth (the first from the B-Side on the original 6-track vinyl record) composition ‘Dance of the Golden Flamingoes’. The indicated title of the issue ‘A Time Before This...Plus’ under consideration, quite allows us to assume the following combination: ‘Waiters On The Dance was placed on this medium not as a full-fledged part of a phono document, but only as an addition – the so-called ‘Bonus Album’. The CD-Reissue was produced by the Audio Archiving Company, which was formed in October 1997 following the closure of The Decca Recording Center. The Audio Archiving Company includes employees with 40 years of experience in the recording industry. This collection includes a 12-page booklet.

Most catalogs of audio collections for both Sawarin's albums are labeled Sci-Fi (Science Fiction). Perhaps it was the above discs, as well as other alien characters from science fiction books, that served as a starting point for many musicians, who decided to develop such a direction as ‘Space Rock’...

Part III. The HAWKWIND Story

Obviously, Space Rock has become an overpopulated musical field today. Among the newfangled groups, it has become prestigious to burst into space with a roar and behave there as if an elephant in a China shop. It seems like a reminder of the time when rock bands were not afraid to think broadly and, at least, as in the case of HAWKWIND, were too drunk to show off and worry about other opinions. If you decide to thoroughly study Space Rock, then it is best to start acquaintance with the cosmophone library with HAWKWIND. In this space module, there was a real madness and free places were often formed: musicians came, some left for various reasons, others were fired, and after a while some came back... More than 50 people were outplayed in the group, but the team was particularly stable and the ability to survive. The exposition of a detailed biography of the parent group with branches will take, perhaps, another book of the same volume. For over 50 years these space rockers with an ever-changing line-up have been recording complex and highly significant records. Therefore, we propose to continue the trip in the form of a brief analysis of the fundamental works and events from the history of these true pioneers of Space Rock. Since its inception, being one of the first Space Rock bands, HAWKWIND (the name almost repeats the surname of the prominent scientist-cosmologist Hawking) has gone through many incarnations, including Hard Rock, Progressive, Psychedelia, Blues, Underground, Garage, Proto Punk, Heavy Metal, Experimental Electronics, and science fiction in lyrics. The result is a unique cocktail that has influenced many musicians and authors ^[1].

Summer 1968 in London was a time of violent coups and riots. Eccentricity and eccentricity were considered the norm. 27-year-old Dave Brock returned from a psychedelic street expedition to Amsterdam and, not salty, began to make a living playing music in the fresh air. After experimenting with electricity, grass, LSD, and William Turner's reproductions, Dave realized he had to ‘create the sonic equivalent of an acid trip’. This was the main idea of the future HAWKWIND. The band was initiated by Dave Brock and guitarist Mick Slattery, ex-members of the acid rock band FAMOUS CURE. They were joined by bassist John Harrison, drummer Terry Ollis, saxophonist Nik Turner and keyboardist Dik Mik. The first names for the band were GROUP X and HAWKWIND ZOO. But in November 1969, these guys settled on the name HAWKWIND and showed up without an invitation to a local talent competition in the Notting Hill area and played their first concert. Soon Slattery left and after a cameo appearance of guitarist Dick Taylor (ex-PRETTY THINGS), Huw Lloyd Langton took over. In August 1970, the first self-titled album was released, most of which was given to an expanded instrumental jam in five parts. This reflected the band's live mood, based on jams – the members wanted to convey an acidic experience through musical means, and this effect is certainly felt on the album. In the same month, they were fortunate enough to perform at the major festival ‘Isle Of Wight’, where the band's wild show became one of the most memorable moments of the event. They did such a thing there that they could neither say in a fairy tale nor describe with a pen. A month later, Langton and Harrison split from the team. They did not look for a new guitarist – they thought that Brock alone was enough, and Thomas Crimble took the bass in his hands, who, however, also did not last long in the ranks of HAWKWIND and in May 1971 Dave Anderson (ex-AMON DUUL II) ^[16].

Around the same time, a second keyboardist, Del Dettmar, joined the band. With this line-up, HAWKWIND recorded their second LP, In Search Of Space, which was released in the fall of 1971 and peaked at N 18 on the UK charts. Since that time, the group has been at its peak of success for a decade.

‘We are going together on a space odyssey’, Dave Brook said about the concert album and tour on the topic of travel to Space. At this time, the former Manchester hooligan Ian Willis got into the group – and now he only responded to the nickname ‘Lemmy’. On September 28, 1972, they were in great shape, playing a free concert ahead of the release of ‘Space Ritual’, just as their epic hit single ‘Silver Machine’, which peaked at number three, finally dropped out of the charts. The version of ‘Silver Machine’ with Bob Calvert as vocalist is very different from the one that was later recorded and released as a single. In this version, HAWKWIND sounds like a radical Kraut band and the progenitor of true Space Rock. The most recognized is the lineup of Dave Brock, Robert Calvert, Nik Turner, Lemmy (Ian Kilmister), Simon King, Del Dettmar and electronics specialist Dik Mik. They recorded ‘Space Ritual’ (1973) at their peak. It is an allegorical, metaphorical and metaphysical rock opera that includes alternative realities, travel between galaxies and a Pythagorean approach to sound. Calvert's multimedia concept included nude dancers, space stage and costume designs, and kaleidoscopic lighting and laser shows. HAWKWIND was especially prolific for freaky things like astro time travel on the ‘Silver Machine’ ^[5].

This superb ‘live album’ captures the full-fledged sound at the very rise of the band's career. This album is a masterpiece. Most of the set is taken from the studio LP of the same name, and three new songs have been added to them. Songs from the second and third discs ‘In Search Of Space’ (1971) and ‘Doremi Fasol Latido’ (1972), were combined with dark sound collages and pieces of spoken lyrics. This resulted in a pseudo-operatic story about seven astronauts traveling in a state of suspended animation. The musical hymns became the real hits of the disc. ‘Born To Go’ and crushing ‘Brainstorm’ are driven by metronome bass rhythm and rumbling effects. The phased and incoherent ‘Orgone Accumulator’ and the blissful ‘Space Is Deep’ create a more addictive atmosphere, while the contrasting ‘Master of the Universe’ is a brain-draining explosion, consisting of a hypno-metallic riff, vibrations of an intergalactic generator and comic fantasy. The presence of electronic and textual interludes linking the numbers creates a special atmosphere ^{[30, p. 292]}.

Meanwhile, the cover design was no less pretentious than the musical idea behind it. Based on Pythagoras' theory of sound, in which the entire universe is represented as a single cosmic chord, it was a double album with a colorful opening envelope. The inner six spreads were black and white and featured hilarious things like the cosmic fetus and planets shaped like women's breasts. The exterior spreads have been done in full color scheme. Barney Bubbles borrowed his idea for the cover from such a distant source as the work of the Czech modernist artist Alphonse Mucha, the English avant-garde artist Bridget Riley, Balinese art, Ancient Egypt and Stanley Kubrick's cinematic epic ‘2001 Space Odyssey’. Subsequently, Nick Turner called all this ‘a kind of psychedelic science of space’ ^[26].

The central motif of the cover itself is the sculpture-like Stacia Blake, a naked HAWKWIND dancer. Bubbles' drawing (he achieved great fame as a staff artist for Stiff Records, alas, he committed suicide in 1983) had hounds on either side of it, all superimposed on a photograph of the group's intergalactic show. The album received an alternative title ‘Miss Stacia’. Stasia's body movements became an indispensable attribute of HawkWind's concerts – it was not only eroticism, but also a logical continuation of expressionist music. ‘Space Ritual’ peaked at number nine on the UK charts, but HAWKWIND never made it to the top ten most popular CDs ever again.

Del Dettmar retrained as a group lighting engineer. But while on a tour of Canada, he bought a piece of land there and emigrated a few months later. The vacant place was taken by keyboardist and violinist Simon House (ex-THIRD EAR BAND, HIGH TIDE), who debuted here on one of the most complete albums ‘Hall Of The Mountain Grill’ (1974), which combines pure Rock with psychedelic flow and ambient title track. The track listing includes two live jams that add a spontaneous sensibility. ‘Warrior At The Edge Of Time’ (1975) can be considered the pinnacle of HAWKWIND's creativity. This is a collaboration with writer Michael Moorcock (science fiction writer who coined the term ‘Multiverse’), based on his concept of the ‘Eternal Warrior’. Each song is self-sufficient, but at the same time it is perceived as part of the general flow, creating the feeling of a space rock opera. In 1975, HAWKWIND performed at the Watchfield Festival. On the recording of this concert, Dave Brock sounds as if he is singing in an echo chamber, standing on one side of the field, and his whole group is playing on the other and even in some fantastic portal from where you can go straight to hell. But their cosmic rock is by its very nature such that a dirty festival mix is good for him, not bad. HAWKWIND was a force to be reckoned with. The group produced a noisy harmider like the Large Hadron Collider at full capacity, and produced enough space anarchy to generate envious respect even among the rising punks.

From Lemmy to the amphibious alien Turner in a green rubber frog suit, they were psychedelic in everything. The recording of the show was released in 1997 on four CDs ‘Welcome to the Future’.

Personnel decide everything... Not only did Stasia get married and left the group, so HAWKWIND managed to lose such a talented and colorful character like Lemmy. During the tour, when a group crossed the US-Canadian border, the bassist was found with drugs that the border guards took for cocaine and put it in a cell for detainees. And colleagues, without waiting for how everything would end, dumped. When it turned out that it was amphetamine sulfate sold in the United States without a prescription, the poor guy was released. But relations with classmates were ruined. This incident inspired the name of his team – MOTÖRHEAD (this was the name of one of the last HAWKWIND songs, written under Lemmy), meaning in slang a person who uses amphetamines (at first he wanted to be called ‘Bastard’ and thereby throw a stone into the garden of his former colleagues)... ^[3]. And the new bassist of HAWKWIND is Paul Rudolph (PINK FAIRIES, UNCLE DOG, THE DEVIANTS).

‘Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music’ (1976) is, in a sense, a concept album that pays homage to the second-rate sci-fi magazines of the 1930s and 1940s – each song tells a different sci-fi story. It turned out to be successful also because all its members got involved in the process of songwriting and arrangement. The cover design promotes a sense of sci-fi nostalgia with a touch of pungent parody. The 1976 and 1977 tours were spectacular with Calvert's theatrical freaks. On stage, the frontman managed to completely transform himself into the heroes of his songs – he, leaving reality, easily crossed the boundaries of time and space and ended up in a given place. ‘Bob went wild and freaked out to the fullest’, Brock recalls. In October 1977, right at a Paris concert, he tried to really cut off the head of the bassist of the Adrian Show with a sword – they barely had time to strike. Then the dude, who was tightly integrated into the image, was blown off the roof in an adult way. But even though Calvert was nuts, he was still a good-natured fellow. The music of that period was also very rich. Although ‘Quark, Strangeness and Charm’ (1977) set a course for a commercial sound, Calvert's lyrics reach their peak here. The album is embellished with Calvert's thoughts on genetics, nuclear war and Islamic fundamentalism. The title track turned out to be a killer single, while other things stood out ‘Damnation Alley’ and ‘Spirit Of The Age’ – a song about a space traveler who curses his girlfriend's dad for refusing to deep-freeze her so she can wait for her traveling boyfriend to return, who travelling across the Galaxy. Astronauts from Notting Hill then gradually abandoned their former space style and began to play so much more bizarre and whimsical music that not long before Calvert left, the group was already mistaken for a slightly changed ROXY MUSIC. After undergoing treatment, Calvert joined HAWKWIND in early 1978 when they were working on ‘P.X.R.5.’. Then there was an American tour, after which the group disintegrated like a starship that had lost its protective field. Brock and Calvert, upon returning home, without further ado, almost immediately reorganized the project and, in order to avoid legal problems, called themselves THE HAWKLORDS. The line-up includes new members, keyboardist Steve Swindells from PILOT and bassist Harvey Bainbridge, whom they once played with as part of THE SONIC ASSASSINS (nicknamed HAWKWIND). They began by recording a concept disc called ‘25 Years On’ in Devon in the summer of 1978. The main driving force behind the revived group was Brock and Calvert. An intricate structure painted in a variety of colors was created for the stage design of the concerts of the ‘25 Years On tour’. ‘There were six dancers on the stage at all times, and there was a huge multi-tiered structure on which hung rotating mirror wheels’, says Bainbridge ^[27]. As it turned out, THE HAWKLORDS age was short-lived – the personnel shake-up began again: Martin Griffin was fired, and Swindelle left on his own... In 1979, the restless Brock revived HAWKWIND. The new incarnation went through yet another round of career, culminating in ‘Levitation’ (1980). The album presents a mixture of different styles and ideas, becoming one of the pinnacles of the intricacy of this collective. In the lyrics, post-punk harshness is inscribed in a sci-fi panorama. The instrumental numbers and songs are well balanced, and the drums and percussion of CREAM's Ginger Baker give the music sharpness and clarity. ‘It was one of the first digital recordings’, explains Brock. – All musical accents were placed in it with extraordinary precision. The presence of Ginger Baker, one of the best drummers in the world, also affected’ ^[5]. Baker worked with Brock for a year and a half. ‘Levitation’ peaked at # 21 on the charts. Then again there was a change in staffing! Drummer Martin Griffin returns to the band, and Blake is replaced by Keith Hale. At the same time, HAWKWIND is once again changing the record company – after parting with Bronze, the musicians sign a new contract with RCA, under which the next three albums ‘Sonic Attack’ (1981), ‘Church Of Hawkwind’ (1982) and ‘Choose Your Masques’ (1982), and all three hit the Top 30 national charts. Before the start of work on ‘Choose Your Masques’ Blake's place of keyboardist is taken by old acquaintance saxophonist Nick Turner! However, having recorded another live album ‘This Is Hawkwind, Don't Panic!’ (1984) Turner leaves again, and not alone, but with Bainbridge and Griffin. The new members are bassist Alan Davey and drummer Clive Deamer. The musicians strictly adhered to the rule to promote their own vision, and the album ‘The Chronicle of the Black Sword’ (1985) became a triumphant one. ‘Space Chaser’ features some of the best moments from the 1980-1985 albums, when the band returned to the underground. After that, HAWKWIND actually broke up and only collected in the spring of 1988. But on August 14, 1988, Robert Calvert, at the age of 43, died of a heart attack ^{[6 ; 9]}.

To the phonographic portrait of HAWKWIND ‘The Flicknife Years: 1981-1988’ with second-tier songs, studio cuts, archival and side recordings adds noticeable brightness and madness ^{[10 ; 11]}.

In May 1988, the album ‘The Xenon Codex’ was released and another purge of the HAWKWIND ranks followed: Brock, Bainbridge and Davey remained, Simon House returned, and drummer Richard Chadwick and vocalist Bridgett Wishart joined the huge family of the group. Surprisingly, with this line-up, the band ‘decided to return to their space-rock roots’ and recorded four albums ‘Space Bandits’ (1990), ‘Electric Teepee’ (1992), ‘It's The Business Of The Future To Be Dangerous’ (1993 ) and ‘The Business Trip’ (1994). Some of the compositions from these albums are a whirlpool and recall the most aggressive themes of PINK FLOYD. Recorded in the mid-1990s during the so-called psychedelic techno era, when keyboards dominated HAWKWIND, ‘Strange Trips & Pipe Dreams’ became Dave Brock's third solo album. This disc bears little resemblance to both modern HAWKWIND and any of their early incarnations. This work is well recorded and includes two classic songs ‘Bosnia’ and ‘Parasites Are Here on the Earth’. The recording is replete with samples from science fiction films and the series ‘Star Trek’... TV presenter Matthew Wright knew the HAWKWIND members from being at Hawkfest, but the idea to sing ‘Take Me to Your Leader’ with them came after the musicians took part in his radio show. This is how this unusual duet took place on the maxi-single ‘Spirit of the Age’ (2005) ^[8].

HAWKWIND's ‘Take Me to Your Leader’ (2005) features lyrics by Bob Calvert. In the 1970s, Bob wrote a book of poems, transcribed them onto cassette tape, and gave a copy to Brock, who for some reason gave the tape to a fan. After a while, in some inexplicable way, this cassette ended up in the possession of the guy who runs the Voiceprint label. He invited Brock to compose music for these poems. This is how several songs appeared on ‘Take Me to Your Leader’. Much of what Bob, who was an unusual person, wrote is still relevant today. ‘Blood Of The Earth’ (2010) with matching psychedelic-space cover is a feast for fans on two CDs (studio and live). These tracks do not belong to any specific time. HAWKWIND has always been somewhere ahead, opening up space and daringly dancing on the brink of chaos, and the trivial reworking of previous achievements borders on retro science fiction ^[7].

The 26th studio counterpart ‘Onward’ (2012) also turned out to be creative. In the composition labeled ‘The Mystery Track’, an artificial voice over awesome riffs and whistling synthesizers says: ‘Become a witness to the chaos of perpetual motion... Watch the beginning of your tomorrow...’.

Sure, it is overly optimistic to think that HAWKWIND has an infinite number of tomorrows ahead of them – they have traveled many galactic miles – but the fact that they are so productive and enthusiastic is both inspiring and inspiring. HAWKWIND may not have had the genius of David Bowie's ‘Star Man’, Mark Bolan's cosmic charisma, or even the astronomical musicality of PINK FLOYD, but their twisted, sci-fi Rock'n'Roll make people dream of their spaceship's spotlight and quite compares with the records of more famous contemporaries. There are not many musicians who can claim to have lived their lives in space rock, but Brock is one of those people, and like other artists and bands who have survived the vicissitudes and vagaries of fashion and commercial trends, he survived due to the fact that remained invariably inventive within the framework of a narrow niche defined for himself.

In 2019, ‘All aboard the Skylark’ was released. New members added freshness and brightness. All the famous HAWKWIND tricks in place – riff pulsation from the engine bay; the often inaccessible rhetoric of the texts preserved their gnomish perfection; synthesizer decorations to achieve the corresponding hallucinogenic effect – and yet they do not look tortured or exhausted. As a bonus disc, this album comes with ‘Acoustic Daze’ – the first acoustic versions of the band's songs. This limited edition addition is included in the official discography as a standalone album.

The intricate HAWK mazes continue to amaze. Bassist Alan Davey, who worked for HAWKWIND from 1984-1996 and 2000-2007, created the spin-off band HAWKESTREL ^[4]. For the band's 50th anniversary, Davie, providing synth textures, vocals and bass in his Adcausa Studio, has restored and mixed unreleased archive recordings featuring musicians who were around HAWKWIND. ‘The Future Is Us’ (2019) was released on double vinyl. The release includes 13 powerful numbers from different years. The album captures the listener with the genius ‘Do What Ya Need to do’ and does not let go until the very end. On May 8, 2020, a triple re-release of ‘Presents Pre-Med’, CD1 ‘Medication Time’, CD2 ‘The Truth About Us’, CD3 ‘Einstein's Day Off’ appeared. On October 16, 2020, another sci-fi gift – the album ‘Pioneers of Space’ with new tracks and covers, including a version of the mega hit ‘Circles!’(Post Malone).

HAWKWIND is a group that refuses to give up. Today Commander Brockhas a new senior crew: Niall Hone – bass guitar, Richard Chadwick – drums, percussion, vocals, Magnus Martin – vocals, guitar, keyboards plus one Polish session player Michał Sosna – saxophone, from the Polish group AKURAT. They still masterfully create fresh music, re-release their most sought-after recordings. So, in April 2020, a reissue of the collection ‘Roadhawks’ (1976) was released, in which singles and rarities from their first five albums are presented on CD and 180-gram vinyl. And although they are far from the anarcho-cosmic avant-garde, they have enough momentum not to turn into a group-dedication to themselves ^[12].

On October 16, 2020, veterans of Rock Astronautics, continuing their journey as HAWKWIND LIGHT ORCHESTRA (this new slightly truncated version of the original band featuring Brock), in isolation released the album ‘Carnivorous’ (anagram of ‘coronavirus’). The lyrics raise contemporary issues, and the dystopian ‘Isolation’ (Keep Calm) seethes with outrage. Once they stated: ‘Space Is Deep’, and now with their powerful galactic glitches they are fighting the pandemic – until they were carried away by the hawk wind...

Part IV. Vintage Rock Universe

Several decades passed and the term ‘Vintage Rock’ began to be used to briefly describe new recordings. However, no intelligible definition has yet been proposed, and everyone perceives ‘vintage in Rock’ in their own way – in sound, mood, atmosphere... For some, this is the use of analog equipment for recording; for others – tight fuzzy riffs, participation in Moog and Hammond instrumentation and other tasty lotions; for the third – a trick in the presentation with a focus on 1970s rock, coupled with heavy blues and psychedelia; for four – all this, and plus something else... ^[17].

We can agree that vintage in rock is a stylization and revival of fashion trends of the past. However, in the absence of regulators, the frames of ‘Vintage Rock’ remain blurred (the tags of ‘Classic Rock 70's’ and ‘Retro Rock’ may be close). ‘Vintage Rock’ bills itself as a publication about old rock and roll and covers the music, artists and culture of the ‘Golden Era’ of the 1950s and until the second half of the 1960s, when Rock became a powerful political and cultural force, reaching triumph on grandiose festivals of the 1968-1969s. However, soon ‘Summer of Love’ made the final minor chord of the 1960s era, and 20 years later the revival of ‘that’ guitar music began – Brit Pop emerged in the person of OASIS, BLUR, SUEDE, THE VERVE, RADIOHEAD, COLDPLAY, FOOL'S GARDEN ... style was not THE BEATLES at all, but THE KINKS. Strength, to remain in full growth, was enough until the mid-2010s ... But a holy place is never empty, and those who were not yet born again wanted to be in ‘those sixties’. And in the center of this hurricane of ‘imitations-returns’ were musicians of a new generation, such as, for example, THE MARINERS, who in ‘The Tides of Time’ (2020) succeeded in a very worthy attempt to stylize the ‘pre-Revolver’ Brit Beat. Something similar was done by THE CREATION FACTORY in 2018 and THE TRIP TAKERS in 2019...

Listening to the album ‘Someplace Else’ (2020) by the followers of Goerge Harrison and Pete Ham's BADFINGER – LOGIUDLES & Co diving into some unknown THE BEATLES' archives...

Generations Y and Z have been active in reviving the vintage sound just amazing... When it comes to structuring vintage rock, the watersheds are: Big Beat from the early 1960s, Psycho Prog from the late 1960s, and Hard Rock from the 1970s, plus traditional Brit Pop. Someone is tired of understanding these musicological wilds and, with a wave of his hand, he calls all this Rock and Roll – one of the most frequently used words in history over the past half century. And he's right. Indeed, why all these abstruse subtleties, if there is a lot of music – maybe even too much?

The term usually applied to the farthest reaches of progressive rock experimentation is ‘Space Rock’, but both parts are incorrect. Then what is Space Rock? The answer is that all this exotic music seems strange to the average listener: it relies on electric keyboards, especially synthesizers. Space rock is not isolated. A combination of distorted sounds and improvisation, Space Rock has changed the direction of rock as much as the electric guitar or even the blues. Cosmos implies a strong connection to science fiction. And although space mythology is often used in the titles and album covers, the music itself does not contain it. It has already been said that the paths of science fiction and rock music often intersect, mutually influencing each other. Representatives of the intellectual directions of rock often turned to science fiction topics. In addition to the fantastic texts themselves, such music is characterized by the use of synthesizers, long, slow instrumental melodies, etc. ‘Rock’, in turn, implies a non-connection with the fundamentals of Blues and Rock and Roll. Most of the cosmic music is not related to Rock in the classical sense, but is related metaphysically. The term usually applied to the farthest reaches of progressive rock experimentation is ‘Space Rock’, but both parts are wrong. ‘Cosmos’ implies a strong connection to science fiction. In its original understanding, the Greek term ‘Cosmos’ meant order and world order, the name of the philosophical basis. Sergey Korolev said that «Cosmonautics has an unlimited future, and its prospects are unlimited, like the Universe itself»...

Known methods of recording and reproducing audio information (primarily music) are described separately as phenomena from the field of natural sciences and technology. Many experiments in the electronic music were associated with all the achievements in the field of sound recording. And although space mythology is often used in the titles and album covers, the music itself does not contain it. It has been repeatedly said that the paths of science fiction and Rock Music often intersect, mutually influencing each other. Representatives of the intellectual directions of Rock often turned to science fiction topics. In addition to the actually fantastic lyrics, such music is characterized by the use of synthesizers, long slow instrumental melodies, etc. By and large, space elements were originally woven into the sound fabric of a number of musical directions, first of all – Art Rock, Jazz Rock, Prog... Then what is Space Rock? The answer is that all this exotic music, which appeared even several years earlier than Hard Rock, Art Rock, Jazz Rock and some other directions, seems strange to an unprepared ordinary listener: it relies on electric keyboards, especially synthesizers. It is also important to understand the fact that Space Rock is not at all isolated. It is surrounded on all sides by Space Metal, Space Jazz, Space Disco, Space Prog, Space Blues, Space Stoner, Space Grunge, Space Garage and even Space Pop Estrade. The special space-technogenic style of music of a number of iconic projects was largely fertilized precisely by the enthusiasm of their leaders for science fiction. A line should be drawn between science fiction and fantasy in music. If the fantasy theme for the most part is the prerogative of the performers of the Heavy Metal camp, then the themes and plots of science fiction turned out to be a wider circle of musicians working in various subgenre planes – from Art Rock ... to Disco.

Part V. Titan Calling or Our New Life in Space Vinyl

People have always wanted to know if we are alone in the universe. Cosmic pluralism, as a hypothesis of the existence of many other worlds, includes the idea of transforming planets under terrestrial habitat conditions.

The discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet, K2-18b, which may be suitable for life, brings us closer to answering the fundamental question: Is the Earth unique? However, the planet is located in the system of a red dwarf located in the constellation Leo – at a distance of 111 light-years from us, and this is too far to launch a probe there. Computer simulations suggest that up to 50% of this planet's atmosphere is water. Over the next 10 years, astronomers will know if there are chemical elements produced by living things in the atmosphere of this Super-Earth.

Don't be surprised, but Titan is the perfect place for human survival. In any case, many respected scientists in the world think so. On December 25, 2004, the European probe Huygens (named after the Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens, who discovered the largest moon of Saturn in 1655), separated from the mother ship Cassini and headed towards the most mysterious moon in the solar system. At that moment, the first bars of the composition ‘Music for Titan’, specially written for this occasion, sounded in the distant expanses of Space. In general, the colonization of Titan is a fairly popular topic in literary, cinematic science fiction.

The first works related to this issue appeared in the 1930s – 1940s. Stanley Weinbaum and Isaac Asimov literally anticipated subsequent scientific discoveries. Nowadays, science fiction projects have been embodied in computer games and music ^[2]. The fashion for space music is again in trend and the result of this revival was that cosmophiles, after almost half a century, were finally recognized by the music press. ‘Space 2.0’ has become a symbol of change not only in astronautics, but also in space music.

In 2020, MAGIK SATURN expanded the boundaries of space rock with a wonderful LP ‘Moon Water’ with atmospheric music saturated with funk, blues, jazz-rock and psychedelia. The post-Floyd ‘Mars’ stands out among all the mesmerizing themes. The presentation of the material is accurate: on the moons of Saturn, the main thing is water! On Titan, hydrocarbons fall out in the form of rain and collect on its surface in whole bodies of water. It contains carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, as well as acrylonitrile, known as vinyl cyanide. Although there are reasons that may complicate the colonization of Titan: the air is not breathable; low gravity and temperatures of minus 170–180° C will not allow you to be there without a protective spacesuit. However, all this does not prevent Titan from being considered the most promising target of colonization in the outer solar system. If ‘titanium water’ is methane, can these molecules create ‘vinyl life’? It is possible that Titan will become the place where earthlings will create colonies-settlements. Since the design of the aircraft is not suitable for the atmosphere of Titan, scientists propose the ‘Titan Explorer’ – a Zeppelin-like aircraft with remote control.

Over time, cataclysms await the Earth: water from the surface of the planet will disappear completely and all living things will perish. This will happen in 3 billion years and will be caused by an increase in the brightness of the Sun by almost doubling. Then it will take another 5 billion years before our star turns into a ‘red giant’. This will entail the expansion of the outer shells of the luminary and, most likely, the Earth will be irretrievably absorbed by energy flows. By that time, in places in the solar system, where it will hypothetically be possible to create colonies-settlements, there will be satellites of the ‘gas giants’ – first Europe, its ice will melt and it will be seen whether there are islands with a solid surface in the ocean that has been splashed out, and a little later Titan – and also for a relatively ‘short time’.

This phase of existence, when the satellite of Saturn will be in the belt of life, will last only about one hundred million years. Then the Sun, over many millions and billions of years, will begin to decrease in size, fade away and eventually cool down, and a planetary nebula consisting of an ionized gaseous envelope will form from its remnants. In the center of this formation, our ‘white dwarf’ will slowly and painfully freeze to death... And this is not a fantastic plot for post-apocalyptic rock, this is our future...

A world without music would be completely unimaginable, the emptiness would remain unfilled... And you understand this more sharply in self-isolation. In the spring of 2020, THE ROLLING STONES single ‘Living in a Ghost Town’ was released about life in a ghost town during a pandemic. German heavy-space trinity KADAVAR called their album ‘The Isolation Tapes’. The eerie picture of a divided world in ‘666 – World Divided’ is painted by the thrash veterans of KREATOR. The meaningless life of ‘lost generations’ in the world of cruelty, based on the philosophical concept of Ernest Hemingway, is discussed by THE ABSURD (US) in ‘The Sun Still Rises’. Multi-instrumental frontman Ed Wynne of one of the most influential bands to emerge on the British space rock scene in the 1980s, OZRIC TENTACLES, who produced their 15th instrumental album ‘Space for the Earth’, believes that self-isolation has somehow strangely provided time for people to rediscover healing the nature of the earth. The listener is transported on a harmonious journey through sound landscapes with incendiary guitar solos, space grooves and ambient atmosphere. This is a great trippy album with space music for people from Earth…

So why not reread Efremov, Belyaev and Azimov for the night?

The interplanetary probe ‘New Horizons’ flew past Ultima Thule – the farthest studied trans-Neptunian object. Hopefully, new horizons will open up for earthly music as well. Today, structural transformations of collecting forms are taking place as one of the forms of demonstration behavior, which is based on the need to consolidate a certain status prestige. This is due to the dynamics of cultural trends in the consumer society. Millions of collectors live in the world, but, by and large, all this may end when the last of us – ‘titanists’ leaves ... So will we be satisfied with the global end of wars of formats, speeds and other physical parameters? Nobody can know this...

Let the Cosmos Rock! (Main Conclusions)

From the «cosmophonic position» the matrix of progressive music was somehow structured:

1) macrocosmic music as such – with all subtypes, directions, branches and steps;

2) multifaceted music with cosmic elements – from Sci-Fi texts, fairy-tale fantasy ... and to post-apocalyptic rock;

3) chaotic abstractions.

Further, we propose to be based on periodization in the development of space rock music:

1) 1963-1968: Sound Proto-Space-Rock Experiments;

2) 1969-1974: Cosmological Progressive Concepts;

3) 1975-1979: Space Disco & Electronic & Sci-Fi Rock;

4) 1980s: Cybernetic Synthesis Robots Music & New Age;

5) 1990s: Fabulous Metal Fantasy Power;

6) Since 2000s: Postapocalyptic Stoner & Space Neoprog.

So, there is a wide range of performers who associate themselves with space music and science fiction. And although the terms space rock and space disco have firmly taken root, we see that there is no exact definition of ‘Cosmic Music’, and the picture turned out to be incredibly variegated (this has not yet been said about space punks SCHIZOPHASIA, PUNK 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, ZOLAR X...). And hardly all this variety can be reduced to one separate genre... Although the astroboy has advanced from Dave Brox's sketches of ‘The Weird Tapes’ ... to ‘Last Flight to Pluto’ in 55 years, there are still many ‘blank spots’, controversial issues, torn pages on the back of the vinyl planet. In that distant world there were other treasures hidden from human eyes, to get where not every curious person is given. Initiates are allowed through a special portal and only accompanied by ‘vinyloids’ ^[24].

Blackdown! You look, and black vinyl will become intolerant...

The consciousness virus has infected the brains, driving thinking and keeping it in check. If wars, freedom, democracy, rights, laws, morality, family have become hybrid... then there is a great threat and degeneration of fate into some kind of hybrid-freak. Here is Rock'n'Roll stuff and breaks out of the tenacious clutches of the nightmare of Anti-music. The whole meaning of being on the star map of the universe is life. In its depths, the Cosmos is a dance of spinning and clicking sounds, where energy and metadata are equal partners. And although the rock down is still going on, everything will be good for each of us. 100%... and let the green men stick out from the cannabis, continuing to carry the blizzard: as you know, such stubborn dumbass «are not taken as astronauts». And don't give them matches...

A world without music would be completely unimaginable, the emptiness would remain unfilled... And you understand this more sharply in self-isolation. Viral epidemics have cosmic root causes. They trigger the mechanisms of rapid multiplication of pathogenic viruses that are in a ‘dormant’ state, opening the ‘gates’ for epidemics... And although now a worldwide touring crisis has come in show business, rock continues to live in a remote existence... And maybe the fibers of dark matter were created by the Creator from primary vinyl? Who knows...

So we got closer to the main secret of the vinyl planet – and it is that such a celestial body is not yet known to astronomers. This is the image born of the collective consciousness of the ‘vinyloids’ that came to our book from the rock portal of the Mirror Universe. Such an unusual planet without a star is young by cosmic standards – on September 26, it turned only 133 years old (however, the protoplanetary disk was forming 2.5 thousand years), and the beat music brought into its atmosphere from Space became real Rock in 1966. 55 years have passed... Globalization has moved into a parallel world and now everyone is wearing masks: «Only under the mask can you remain yourself». And ‘Isolation’ sounds like Lennon's message, but perhaps we need his words now more than ever! «Everyone is trying to suppress us... We are afraid of everyone...». That's it! Our paraphilosophical walk has come to an end: «It's time to fly away – soon the end». We tried to fantasize about how ‘cosmians’ became ‘cosmophonists’, adding a little something else – without making apocalyptic prophecies about the state of popular music. And even though THE BEATLES destroyed Rock and Roll (Elijah Wald), the world did not collapse after their disintegration ^[28].

Tsiolkovsky said that one day both matter and time will run out. Perhaps the space will run out too. What do you think, does the world still have a chance to change for the better, or is this complete nonsense? Rock and Roll got vaccinated and survived, but the coronavirus could kill it...