Departing from usual Nostramus D&B flavours, this doublet of songs takes a more surreal path, with the concept of looking back into the past where predicted futures failed to materialize in Proxima Ultima. Part Two - Dream Nebula describes a dream becoming a reality albeit an hallucinated one.
Nostramus has a long tradition of embracing sci fi, blending ideas with social comment in past material, including the stunning 1997 album “Earthlights”, so this theme is set to continue with these coming releases.
In 2019 I envisaged producing a new album I would call "Alien Ear Flowers", but fate decreed that this album could not come to fruition at the time. However, I already began composing two tracks to open this theme and here in 2023 they have arrived, perhaps where they were meant to land, a few years into their future.
The first track, “Proxima Ultra” and the second “Dream Nebula” are now heading for release as I have decided to release both tracks together, as one would have once released a double ‘A’ sided single, a long time ago.
“Proxima Ultra” will be released Friday 6th October and the second “Dream Nebula” will be one week later on Friday 13th October (Hurrah!)
In general, my work reflects a fascination with the concept of Time, the great uncontrollable force. The planets, Proxima Centauri and Ultima are planets belonging to the nearest star system to our own and I can envisage a time in the future when we send probes there, if we survive the next hundred years or so! Maybe we would send people or AI proxies!
An earlier version of “Proxima Ultra” has existed as a demo on my website for some time and I used it as a soundtrack on a couple of my 'Dronescaping Britain' Youtube films. But these 2023 editions are a new crisp mix with added ambience and mood effects.
The music reflects a cosmic-type journey or how contact with our closest stellar neighbours might even sound. Remember this is an ambient vibe, look out for the hashtags before purchasing. These tracks do not represent ground shaking Drum and Bass - these tracks are more nuanced, like the background music aliens would listen to whilst visiting an interplanetary cafe, so these tracks are for seekers of a profound ambient and immersive sci fi type of experience!
An earlier version of “Proxima Ultra” has existed as a demo on my website for some time and I used it as a soundtrack on a couple of my 'Dronescaping Britain' Youtube films. But these 2023 editions are a new crisp mix with added ambience and mood effects.
Spon oct 23 for Nostramus
lyrics
Background ideas that inspired me to write Proxima Ultra:
The dream that never materialized was a concept named the Orion Project. The (genuine) idea was to send a massive ship into space, powered by atomic bombs. This ship would be able to visit the planets of the solar system and eventually fly out to the nearby solar systems, namely Proxima Centauri, situated about 4 and a quarter light years away.
The Proxima Centauri configuration is the closest system to Earth, comprising of three stars including Alpha Centauri, a red dwarf and the closest star to the Sun. As well as possible Gas Giants orbiting the stars an Earthlike planet has been detected in the habitable zone, but it is not yet known if it could harbour life.
Many have imagined voyages to the Proxima system, a journey that could take hundreds if not thousands of years by chemical rockets. An idea that gained consideration for powering this journey involved an aircraft-carrier sized object such as a multigenerational spaceship, powered by rapidly exploding atomic bombs!
The writer, Stephen Baxter has written a duology about a fictional journey to Proxima, to visit a habitable planet in that system which he called “Ultra”. My song toasts that idea, and why not?
The James Webb telescope recently focused closely on many planets or objects orbiting the three stars of Proxima, and may return with exciting results!
The Orion mission was ultimately cancelled by President Kennedy, rightfully horrified at the prospect of creating a thousand atom Bomb blasts to propel this huge ship into orbit. Thus the dreams of Freeman Dyson, the acclaimed British Physicist in charge and his enthusiastic team, ended.
credits
released October 6, 2023
- Mixed in immersive Binaural Sound
Concept written and produced by Steve Spon for Nostramus
Big thanks to Ella Jo for ideas, inspiration and typing
Inspired by "To Mars by A Bomb" The Orion story.
Nostramus creates high energy music which can explode a club’s dance floor, or float a raver down again at the end of the
night. Steve Spon is the man behind Nostramus, whose releases can be found on the UK's Diamond Seeds label. Utilizing futuristic Drum and Bass to make surreal sound-scapes, he appeals to European music lovers, and receives interest from the international underground....more
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