The Jagged Gyre of Galactic Fire

The Jagged Gyre of Galactic Fire is a 3-part planetarium overture in a cinematic pop style for synthesizer orchestra.

1960's & 1970's Cinematic Synth music inspired by Vangelis, Tomita, Gershon Kingsley, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, & many other influences from space-age pop.

Notes:
No AI music tools were employed in the production of these tracks. Everything was through-composed. The orchestration aims for the “synthesizer orchestra” sound of the 70’s and 80’s, before sampling was available.

You say you hear sampled choirs and brass instruments? Nope! That’s the Ensoniq SQ-80 wavetable synthesizer. If you consider wavetables to be “samples”, you’re like one of those people who break a donut in half and leave it in the breakroom: You might think you are doing a good thing, but everyone considers you a monster.

Thanks to SpaceCinema Vecteezy.com for some additional space renders.

All the movie posters in the 60’s section are fake (except for “Wild Wild Planet”).

About the Soundstage:
Big stereo sound is baked into this mix. As with most of my music, it exists as surround stems intended for multi channel performance. Atmos users will benefit from the Dolby Surround DSU setting. The encoded surround should unfold well with most matrix decoders.

About the structure:
Intermezzo restates the sound collage that opens the overture. In support of the Italo-disco first section, I have constructed this overture in the Italian sinfonia overture format (fast-slow-fast).

The "intermezzo" (not strictly the right term for the middle section of an Italian overture) is an analog noise sculpture taking inspiration from 1970s work for the Rochester’s Strasenburgh Planetarium. The Strasenburgh famously had its own synthesizer when the devices were as rare as a round Rubik’s Cube.