NASA’s Apollo program ended roughly four decades ago, and humanity’s lofty hope of establishing a colony on the Moon, where we could then harness the rock’s plentiful cheese resources — thereby effectively ending world hunger — was dashed along with it. Furthermore, despite the considerable amount of information that we’ve accumulated about the Moon as a result of the program, one can surmise that, had we followed through with it to the present day, lingering questions — such as those not at all ignorantly pointed out by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly — might well have been answered by now. How did the Moon get there, floating about in space, all willy-nilly like? Who put it there? You can’t explain that. Well, supposedly.
Apollo, along with NASA’s Space Shuttle program (which was retired last year), certainly captured our imaginations for as long as those programs were operational. Now that they aren’t, what can we do to replace that sense of wonder and curiosity about worlds not of our own? Prometheus is out now; that looks pretty sweet. More relevant to reality, though, is Apollo, a rendition of Brian Eno’s legendary 1983 album Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, performed by 12-piece ensemble Icebreaker and innovative pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole. After being commissioned in 2009 by the Science Museum of London to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1969 moon landings, and after a series of successful live events, the performance is being put to record — on an album due out June 26 via Cantaloupe Music.
On producing the original album, Brian Eno reportedly commented, “…so many processings and reprocessings - it’s a bit like making soup from the leftovers of the day before, which in turn was made from leftovers…” In this sense, the Icebreaker/BJ Cole Apollo is inherently a different beast, with the presence of various instruments (most notably, the pedal steel) being quite apparent, and their unprocessed sound marking a contrast between it and the distinctly fuller (and less airy) Eno version. Don’t take my word for it though; check out the blissful preview below.
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Apollo tracklisting:
01. Signals
02. Stars
03. Drift
04. An Ending (Ascent) I
05. The Secret Place
06. Under Stars
07. Matta
08. Deep Blue Sea
09. Under Stars I
10. Silver Morning
11. Weightless
12. Always Returning
13. An Ending (Ascent) II
• Icebreaker: http://www.icebreakerapollo.co.uk
• BJ Cole: http://www.bjcole.co.uk
• Cantaloupe: http://cantaloupemusic.com