VIA PRESS RELEASE | On Friday the 13th of January, Modern Harmonic celebrates their “Winter In Space” event with a handful of space themed records!
“Winter In Space” launches the first ever vinyl LP reissue of Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans’ Space Songs, a record created for children in the ’60s but coveted by adults today. Attilio Mineo’s Man In Space With Sound, a platter of beautifully textured space sounds with period-perfect narration (created for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair) will be reissued on a custom colored vinyl LP and deluxe CD with a coloring book style insert. The Space Age Is Here To Stay, recently released in a limited fashion, will get a full release on CD and LP. It is the first-ever collection of Arkestra vocal tracks, so they’ve been appropriately released as Sun Ra & his Interplanetary Vocal Arkestra.
Speaking of Sun Ra, “Winter In Space” will feature the release of three 7” singles from the man from Saturn. Each features a celebrated Sun Ra recording on the A-side with an unissued cut on the B-side with incredible illustrations from the cream of the sci-fi artist crop. Friday the 13th of January should prove to be a treasure trove for fans of modern space art and music.
Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans – Space Songs – LP | The first ever vinyl reissue of an extraordinarily unique space age educational LP on red vinyl. Includes the oft covered “A Shooting Star Is Not A Star” and “Why Does The Sun Shine?”, popularized in recent years by They Might Be Giants. The album features Leo Leonni cover art and pressed from the original atomic-era 1959 master tapes. The music was written by Hy Zaret and sung by famed folk singers Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans. Zaret (co-author of “Unchained Melody”) turned his attention to educational children’s music in the late 1950s, collaborating with Lou Singer on a six-album series called “Ballads for the Age of Science.” Space Songs stands alone as the most essential volume in a series that also featured songs about energy and motion, experiments, weather, and nature.
Attilio Mineo – Man In Space With Sounds – LP / CD | Taxi to tomorrow with this saucer of space-age sounds! Created for the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle (famed for the unveiling of the iconic Space Needle), this album bundles beautifully textured interstellar sounds with period-perfect narration. In anticipation of the World’s Fair, Attilio mined these pieces from his archive and paired them with out-of-this-world narration to guide the journey. Featuring an inebriated burlesque of circus organs, tipsily galloping bongo beats, and electronic hydrazine expectorations, the unearthly musical tracks were released in 1959, but its roots go as far back as 1951 when Mineo carved out many of the uncanny melodies. The narration is a milky way of recognizable sound bites that have been widely sampled over the years. Available on a choice of cosmic swirly green and yellow vinyl and packaged in a stunning gatefold jacket or a CD with a coloring book style insert; this is the kind of future the Seattle State World’s Fair promised!
Sun Ra & His Interplanetary Vocal Arkestra – The Space Age Is Here To Stay – Double Album | The Space Age Is Here To Stay contains over 75 minutes of vocal performances—audible perfection. This is the very first collection of Sun Ra’ s vocal tracks—two albums’ worth of mind-blowing tunes from the mind of the Man from Saturn. Featuring album art interpreted from the work of “the father of modern space art,” Chesley Bonestell, including extensive liner notes from Charles Blass of Sun Radio. It is available on CD or a double LP: cue this one up and get ready to visit other worlds in Sun Ra’ s jazz rocket ship!
The Modern Harmonic Sun Ra 7” Singles Series | Modern Harmonic has created a set of three 7” Sun Ra singles for the “Winter In Space” event, featuring six collectable interplanetary releases featuring art from the cream of the crop of science fiction illustrators. The singles will all be issued on colored vinyl, packaged in custom-made space-age style envelope sleeves with liner notes by Charles Blass of Sun Radio and cover artwork by icons of the Sci-Fi world including Dune artist John Schoenherr and “the father of modern space art” Chesley Bonestell, each adapted for Modern Harmonic by John Sellards. The 7”singles will feature a celebrated Sun Ra recording on the A-side with an unissued track on the B-side.
