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Galactic Travels Monthly Special Focus Log - 2008



The Special Focus for January was
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Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the artist's website.
Before Klaus Schulze started his solo career with the release of his first solo LP "Irrlicht" in 1972, he was instrumental in the development of Krautrock and the Berlin School of electronic music.   Since then, he has continued his leading role in the field of electronic music as well as performing in collaborations with important artists such as Solar Moon, the Cosmic Jokers, and Pete Namlook, just to name a few.

This month's Special Focus on Klaus Schulze centers around the Deluxe Edition reissues being released by InsideOut Music's Revisited Records sub-label.   (And you thought InsideOut only dealt with Progressive Rock!)

Klause Schulze has previously been the Special Focus on Galactic Travels:

Date Title
01/03 Dosburg Online
01/10 Are You Sequenced? disk 1
01/17 Are You Sequenced? disk 2
01/24 Timewind disk 1
01/31 Timewind disk 2



The Special Focus for February was
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Manikin Records is the home of many important artists. The disks played this month celebrate the tenth anniversary of the label. That was in 2002!  

Manikin Records has previously been the Special Focus on Galactic Travels: Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the label's website.

Date Title
02/07 First Decade 1992 - 2002 disk 1
02/14 First Decade 1992 - 2002 disk 2
02/21 Liquid Sound Volume 2 disk 1
02/28 Liquid Sound Volume 2 disk 2



The Special Focus for March was
Gert Emmens
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Click on the name or photo above to visit the artist's website.

Gert composes music in a style which is somewhere between retro Electronic Music (Berlin School) and symfo. His influences include Tangerine Dream, Ashra, Ennio Morricone, Hans Zimmer, Genesis, Manfred Mann, Wally Badarou, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Richard Barbieri. To date, Gert has released ten solo albums and three albums in collaboration with Ruud Heij (Free System Projekt). All the Featured CDs at Midnight are on the Groove Unlimited label.

Gert's new album The Nearest Faraway Place - Volume 1 will be released in April. It's the first album of a trilogy of The Nearest Faraway albums. The style of the album is more like a mix between the Wave of Dreams and When Darkness Falls Upon The Earth albums, rather than the last two rather symphonic albums.

Become Gert's friend on MySpace.

Gert Emmens has previously been the Special Focus on Galactic Travels: Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the artist's website.

Date Title
03/06 Waves of Dreams
03/13 When Darkness Falls Upon the Earth
03/20 The Tale of the Warlock
03/27 A Boy's World



The Special Focus for April was
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Create is Steve Humphries from the U.K. The Create project was started in September 2002 when Steve took the plunge into making music for the very first time. His influences are Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, RMI, Airsculpture, Ron Boots and Ulrich Schnauss to name but a few!:)

Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the artist's website.

Date Title Label
04/03 Kindred Spirits none
04/10 Reflections From the Inner Light Groove Unlimited
04/17 From Earth To Mars Groove Unlimited
04/24 Biospherical Imagery Groove Unlimited



The Special Focus for May s STEPHEN PHILIPS
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Multi-instrumentalist Stephen Philips has been a musician for more than 30 years. He founded Dark Duck Records in the late '80s as a way to expose his musical endeavors to the general public. Music has always been a way of life for Stephen. He began his musical sojourns at the age of 8 with the Clarinet. At the age of 13 his interest moved to the guitar, bass, piano, and synthesizer which led him into several pop bands through his late teens. He recorded 3 albums for the alternative/college band Troubled Thought before exploring electronic music in the early '90s. His fascination with the vast space of ambient music and an interest in the godfathers of ambient (Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, John Cage, etc.) led him into full-on experimentation with ambient music and an indepth study of the history, roots, and methods of ambient music composition.

His music places a strong emphasis on time and place, desiring to take the listener to a virtual location and/or to create an aural postcard or an aural description of a feeling or a mood evoked by a location. To obtain his trademark sound, Stephen Philips uses a variety of synthesizers, samplers, and effects as well as a vast array of electronic and acoustic percussion instruments.

In the past he has rarely recorded under his own name rather choosing to record along side other artists under the names of Experimental Psychology, Excelsior, and Deep Chill Network. Most of Stephen's solo releases are very ambient, deep chill, and/or experimental.

Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the artist's website.

Date Title
05/01 Mile High Chill 1
05/08 Desert Landscapes
05/15 Cycles 4
05/22 Cycles 6
05/29 The Sobbing Stone



The Special Focus for June was
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Radio Massacre International comprises Steve Dinsdale (Keyboards, Electronics, Drums) Duncan Goddard (Keyboards, Electronics, Bass) and Gary Houghton (Guitar, Keyboards). Since 1993 they have been building a catalogue of epic electronic improvisations, distilled into permanent records by the wonders of digital editing.

After accumulating a library of 30 such pieces they finally released the double CD Frozen North in late 1995, and appeared live for the first time at the Emma festival in Sheffield. The band was also featured on the BBC's World Service, thus finding a truly international radio audience for the first time. RMI had a website long before it was obligatory, and this has enabled the forging of relationships with listeners, promoters and radio stations across the world.

Veterans of TV, radio, and concert performances all over the UK, Europe, and the US, they are coming back to the US to play at NEARfest in our very own Bethlehem. Incorporating elements of Prog/Krautrock into their more established electronics they broadened their horizons, making them ideal for NEARfest, a Progressive Rock festival.

In December 2006, they released the long awaited six CD compilation Lost in Space, a career retrospective but containing entirely unreleased studio material from 1987 to 2003. This will be featured all month long.

On June 19th, RMI will perform a live, in-studio set of music while they are in town for NEARfest. This will preempt the Featured CD at Midnight.

Become RMI's friend on MySpace.

Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the artist's website.

Date Title
06/05 Lost In Space Disk 1 of 6
06/12 Lost In Space Disk 2 of 6
06/19 RMI live, in-studio
06/26 Lost In Space Disk 3 of 6



The Special Focus for July is
STEVE ROACH
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As a pioneering cornerstone of electronic music, internationally renowned artist Steve Roach has dedicated over three decades to exploring uncharted soundworlds that connect with a timeless source of inspiration.   From the expansive, time-suspending spaces reflecting his spiritual home in Arizona to the fire breathing, rhythmic-shamanic expressions woven from all things electric and organic, Roach has earned his position in the international pantheon of major new music artists through a long list of groundbreaking recordings, fueled by his prolific nature and uncompromising approach.   The core of this innovative world of sound has been nourished by years of intense live concerts in many extraordinary settings worldwide, further enhancing the emotive, cinematic soul-stirring depth of his music.

Click on the name or photo above to go to the Steve Roach web site.

Steve Roach has been a Special Focus on Galactic Travels a few times before:
You can visit Steve on MySpace and become his friend.

Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the artist's website.

Date Title
07/03 Texture Maps
07/10 All Is Now disk 1
07/17 All Is Now disk 2
07/24 Solitaire: Ritual Ground
07/31 Trance Spirits



The Special Focus for August was
FRANK VAN BOGAERT
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Frank owns and operates ACE Studio, a commercial recording studio near Antwerp.   This is where Frank set up his business as a professional composer, producer and engineer.   This is also where he creates his own music.

Frank Van Bogaert creates electronic music that has a very organic feel to it.   For him, it's all about putting his emotions into the music to reach people at their core.   The joy of playing and creating also are apparent in his music.   Since 1997, with the release of his first album, Frank has gone on to win awards for his music and find a label. All the CDs featured this month are released on Groove Unlimited.

You can visit Frank on MySpace and become his friend.

Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the artist's website.

Date Title
08/07 Docking
08/14 Human
08/21 Closer
08/28 Nomads



The Special Focus for September is
KELLER and SCHONWALDER
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In 1994, Detlef Keller met Mario Schonwalder at Klemdag.   Within a short time, Detlef was performing with Mario (and Bas Broekhuis) in a planetarium.   Now they are veterans of many concerts, including the major festivals such as E-Live, Alfa Centauri, and Hampshire Jam.   Each performance is unique due to their habit of improvising much of their music.   They have released numerous CDs on Mario's Manikin record label to critical acclaim.   Click on the photo above to go to the Detlef Keller and Mario Schonwalder fan page.   They have previously been featured on Galactic Travels:
Most recently, they have been making music with Dutchman Bas Broekhuis as BK&S.

All the featured CDs this month are on Manikin Records.

Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the artist's website.

Date Title
09/04 disk 1 from Concerts
09/11 disk 2 from Concerts
09/18 Noir
09/25 The Reason Why... Part Two



The Special Focus for October was
RICOCHET GATHERING
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The Rocochet Gathering is a unique event that moves to a new location in the world each year. This month will feature music recorded in the Okefenokee Swamp (2001) and in Poland (2004). Many fine musicians are represented in these years representing one of the smallest and one of the largest gatherings in the series.

Each year, fans and musicians alike converge on an inspirational locale that is somehow tied to a Tangerine Dream-related theme. There, the musicians create music, the fans listen, and together they all share a week of their lives together.

For complete details about the Poland 2004 boxed set, please visit Discogs.

Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the event's website.

Date Title Label
10/02 Okefenokee Dreams 2001 Quantuum and NeuHarmony
10/09 Poland 2004 disc 1 Ricochet Dream
10/16 Poland 2004 disc 2 Ricochet Dream
10/23 Poland 2004 disc 3 Ricochet Dream
10/30 Poland 2004 disc 4 Ricochet Dream



The Special Focus for November was
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Awakenings is a series of live ambient and electronic events in the UK organised in conjunction with AmbientLive and Neusonik, showcasing new and established acts in the fields of live ambient and electronic music.

The list of musicians and bands that have played at an Awakenings concert is impressive. 4m33s, Airsculpture, Astrogator, Awen, Binar, Ron Boots, Create, Edge Effect, Entity, The Glimmer Room, Hashtronaut, HyperEx Machina, Ion, Modulator ESP, Mooch, N_Phay, The Omega Syndicate, Brendan Pollard, Radio Massacre International, Nick Robinson, Second Thought, Skin Mechanix, Spiraleye, Peter Tedstone, and Vietgrove. Many of these have been heard on Galactic Travels.

Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the event's website.

Date Title
11/06 Awakenings 2006 Volume 1 disk 1
11/13 Awakenings 2006 Volume 1 disk 2
11/20 Awakenings 2006 Volume 2 disk 1
11/27 Awakenings 2006 Volume 2 disk 2



The Special Focus for December is
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What can be said about Tangerine Dream? They created the popular electronic music genre using instruments and techniques that were just as new as their music. Many members have come and gone but TD is still vital and creative as ever. Many copy and emulate TD, but few create an entirely new genre of music.

Become a friend of TD at their MySpace page.

Click on the name, photo, or logo above to go to the artist's website.

Date Title
12/04 Views From A Red Train
12/11 Tangram 2008
12/18 Summer In Nagasaki
12/25 Autumn In Hiroshima

Galactic Travels is designed to bring WDIY listeners hour-long soundscapes of electronic, ambient, and space music.
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