Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing (July 20 2019) Axis Records unleashes a brand new Jeff Mills LP, which showcases the legendary producer's interpretations of Earth’s Moon.

In his own words...

“There are influences of the Moon we can detect, measure and document as scientific facts. If these are perceived as rational explanations, then it should raise questions about the possibility of other unseen mental and metaphysical connections humans have, not just with the Moon but with all other celestial bodies in and outside this Solar System. On the flipside, as we recognize that our Sun gives us light and a lifespan, what does an even greater force in the Cosmos, perhaps the darkness [or absence of anything] affects us.

If we look at the Moon as a component in a vast configuration of integral connected parts, then an intuitive sense might lead us to a wider understanding about how deeply our relationship lies.

This album and the imagination that helped to produce it should be considered as a proposition with open-endedness and no foreseeable conclusion. It is a chemistry of facts and feelings based on then, now and forever”.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl
A. Control, Sattva And Rama (7’03”)
B1. Stabilising The Spin (5’04”)
B2. The Tides (4’25”)
C1. Sleep-Wake Cycles (8’32”)
C2. Erratic Human Behavior (4’45”)
D1. Lunar Power (5’20”)
D2. Electromagnetic (5’35”)

CD
1. Control, Sattva And Rama
2. Stabilising The Spin
3. The Tides
4. Sleep-Wake Cycles
5. Erratic Human Behavior
6. Lunar Power
7. Electromagnetic
8. Decoding The Lunar Sunrise
9 Peaks Of Eternal Light
10. Measuring The Doppler Shift
11. Theia
12. 180-Degree Repositioning Phase
13. Absolute
(total Timing: 69 Min)

The history of Planets…

It has been 100 years since the British composer Gustav Holst introduced his most famous score «The Planets». An elegant musical tour to each one of our Planets in the Solar System, Holst brought forth imaginary visions of space that would survive many generations and decades after. As an important piece to the classical universe, “The Planets“ is regularly played throughout the World every year as it had been the most vivid translation of our cosmic neighborhood until now.

Jeff Mills pays tribute to this century of incredible musical production. He embarks to compose a sonic journey to re-discover our neighboring planets in a 18 piece suite that explores the nine planets, including the portions of space in between the Planets, the nine regions Mills calls Loop Transits.

Deeply inhabited by science-fiction, Jeff Mills adopts its ideas, concepts, stories and esthetics from the outset. For him, Space is an obsession and his music almost becomes a musical science-fiction. Conquering space, his music embodies the future while both respecting the past and remaining well into the present. Mills takes the rotating principle of the solar system as aesthetics, concept and model for creativity. From the beginning, his first releases explore futuristic and science fiction topics and continue to do so to this day. For Jeff Mills, the future is a powerful creative drive which explains the artist’s ceaseless activity.

Since its creation and like the intention of Holst, each track is musically imagined to invoke the psychological affect, emotions and ideas of each planet. But unlike in the year 1918, when the score was first publicly heard on the last week of World War I, 100 years later, we now have a more accurate knowledge about what each Planet is made of and what they look like. The piece should bring the audience closer to confronting each planet in ways that audiences in 1918 could only dream of.

With the French composer Sylvain Griotto, the arranger of Planets and Mills’ previous work on the album and classical score about the NASA astronaut and doctor Mamoru Morhi’s space journey in 1992 and 2000 from the album “Where Light Ends“, Mills has created an electronic music album that have been translated for symphonic and philharmonic orchestras and will accompany them in their live debut and all performances. Starting to conceptualize and produce music for it dating back to 2005, Mills constantly worked on the project over the years to bring it to fruition.

In July 2016 Jeff Mills has completed the last production stages of the Planets album at the world famous Abbey Road Studios in London. Recorded and will be released in 5.1 surround on the Blue Ray digital format, the soundtrack needed a particular high level of expertise that could only be attended to at hands of the renowned senior studio engineer Jonathan Allen. The expertise and quality associated with the legendary Abbey Road Studios is recognized globally and undeniably the most famous studio in the World. It is with acclaim from the Beatles, Pink Floyd, or more recently Radiohead before him, that Jeff Mills will bring Planets at this legendary music institution.

The mastering sessions occurred on August 2016 with the acclaimed Mastering engineer Darcy Proper in Holland. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Legendary hardware pioneer and Detroit legend mills concepts the hell out of the planets on this suite of planet-themed symphonic works. Perfectly balanced ambience, mixed with soaring orchestration and pure analogue thumps. Listen to the master at work.

TRACK LISTING

Blu-Ray Tracklisting:
PLANETS Classical Version (HD 5.1 Surround Sound / Stereo Sound)
1. Introduction 2. Mercury 3. Loop Transit 1 4. Venus 5. Loop Transit 2 6. Earth 7. Loop Transit 3 8. Mars 9. Loop Transit 4 10. Jupiter 11. Loop Transit 5 12. Saturn 13. Loop Transit 6 14. Uranus 15. Loop Transit 7 16. Neptune 17. Loop Transit 8 18. Pluto
CD: Original Sketch (electronic Version)(stereo) 1. Mercury 2. Venus 3. Earth 4. Mars 5. Jupiter 6. Saturn 7. Uranus 8. Neptune 9. Pluto

2 CD Set: 
CD1: PLANETS Classical Version (stereo) 1. Introduction 2. Mercury 3. Loop Transit 1 4. Venus 5. Loop Transit 2 6. Earth 7. Loop Transit 3 8. Mars 9. Loop Transit 4 10. Jupiter 11. Loop Transit 5 12. Saturn 13. Loop Transit 6 14. Uranus 15. Loop Transit 7 16. Neptune 17. Loop Transit 8 18. Pluto
CD2: Original Sketch (electronic Version)(stereo) 1. Mercury 2. Venus 3. Earth 4. Mars 5. Jupiter 6. Saturn 7. Uranus 8. Neptune 9. Pluto