For those of you who love space music but have been in a different universe the past several decades: there is a truly wonderful space music program on XPN called "Star's End" that has been broadcasting for the better part of a half century. To me, Star's End is one of the preeminent venues for space music available today anywhere in the world. An outstanding weekly program that you can and should check out at:

starsend.org
xpn.org

So when Chuck van Zyl of Star's End contacted me with an idea for a 60 minute longplayer in celebration of his summer "Space Camp" series, I could not have been more honored or excited. Wow!

Immediately I set about composing an album but with what theme? At the time, I was enjoying the lovely mountains of Colorado for the summer and had been exploring the areas around me for several weeks, so I was in tourist mode. And I wondered: why not create a piece about a tourist trip to a "local" attraction in our galaxy? Thus was born the idea of a tourist spacecraft setting sail for the Pleiades purely for the joy of seeing them up close and exploring their wonder.

I decided upon a longplayer in 10 movements, each representing a distinct phase of such a journey but with a few common elements bringing them together as a whole:

Part 1 Cryosleep
Part 2 Deceleration
Part 3 Merope
Part 4 Alcyone
Part 5 Maia
Part 6 Asterope
Part 7 Celaeno
Part 8 Taygete
Part 9 Electra
Part 10 Voyaging Home

This album, called "Grand Tour of the Pleiades" was the result.

I don't usually go into the detailed equipment that goes into albums but I thought I'd make an exception this time by request. Most of the sounds were made using software synthesis, the primaries listed below:

- Spectrasonics Omnisphere
- Korg Collection (Wavestation, TritonX, Polysix, MonoPoly, miniKorg)
- Arturia Pigments
- Arturia V-Collection
- NI Reaktor + a lot of custom ensembles I've developed over the years
- NI Kontakt + large personal library of samples
- Roland 606, 808, and 303
- A lot of others in minor roles

Recorded in my virtual "Studio A", which is built around an SSL9000J console model, the Elysia Alpha compressor, the Voxengo GlissEQ, and the ArtsAcoustic reverb.

Also some outboard instrumentation made its way in:

- Kurzweil PC3K6
- Clavia Nord Modular
- A large rainstick from the Sonoran desert
- A smaller rainstick from the Mojave desert
- Native rattle and shakers