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Space: The Vinyl Frontier

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01/09/2015

BBC Radio 4 - Space: The Vinyl Frontier

A spoken word concept album linking space and music.

A spoken word concept album, including the words and music of Carl Sagan, George Clinton and more, exploring the connections between music and outer space in popular culture.

A spoken word concept album linking space and music.

Track 1: Carl Sagan on The Voyager Gold Disc.
In 1977 the Voyager space probes set off on their journey across the Solar System. On board are gold discs with the music of planet Earth in the hope that they are one day intercepted by alien life.

Track 2: Peter Pesic on the Music of the Spheres
The ancient Greeks first found a connection between maths, music and the movement of the planets. The idea was developed in the 17th century by Johannes Kepler into the Music of the Spheres.

Track 3: Lydia Kavina on the music of the Theremin and the space-age pop of Vyacheslav Mescherin's Orchestra of Electronic Instruments.

Track 4: Space and Race, the music of Afro-Futurism by Ken McLeod.
Although many exponents of space-related pop music are white Anglo-American artists, some of the most vibrant uses occur within the realm of Afro-Futurism with artists such as Sun Ra and George Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic.

Track 5: The Race for Space - Public Service Broadcasting
J Willgoose Esq., one half of Public Service Broadcasting, talks about the band's latest and critically acclaimed album, The Race for Space, which uses archive recordings to chart the American-Russian space race.

Space: The Vinyl Frontier is voiced by Tom Bevan, Ben Crowe and Ben Onwukwe.
The linking drama Space Oddity was written by Danny Westgate

The interview with Carl Sagan was first broadcast in 1983 as part of the programme Music From A Small Planet produced for BBC Scotland by Martin Goldman and R. Carey Taylor.

New music and sound design by Nick Romero

Produced by Julian Mayers
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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