Electronic Sound Magazine Issue 55 Back Issue

We couldn’t let the 50th anniversary of the moment the first human stepped foot on the Moon go by without comment. Our little rocky satellite is about 4.5 billion years old, so it’s no wonder it holds us in its thrall.

The Moon belongs to us all. There’s even an international treaty, the Outer Space Treaty, signed in Janaury 1967, that says so, and commits the nations of the world to only using the Moon for peaceful purposes. It prohibits the placing of nuclear weapons there. It’s a treaty that recognises that the Moon somehow embodies hope for mankind, that the Moon is a physical embodiment of the benign and peaceful counterbalance to humanity’s impulsive id. And so visiting the Moon, with all the effort and co-operation and awe-inspiring organisational skill and technology it took, represents the best of humanity.

Which is why Hannah Peel and Clint Mansell get cosmic and talk to us about the influence of the Moon on their work. We get the inside story on the making of the astounding new documentary ‘Apollo 11’ from its director and the composer of the score, while author Andrew Smith waxes lyrical about his own relationship with the Moon and the music of the era as his must-read book ‘Moondust’ is published in an updated edition.

There are plenty of other heavenly bodies orbiting the pages for you to gaze at, like the preview of Buried Treasure’s Delaware Road festival, The Orb’s Alex Paterson telling us how he made ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’, Clark on his influences, the story of Dutch Beatles sonic cloners The Analogues, Ian Boddy of classy electronic label DiN, newcomers WH Lung and much more. Ready your telescopes!