The Crew

Core SPACECRAFT Band Members

Tony GerberGiles Reaves John RoseDiane Timmons - Rose

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L to R- Giles Reaves, Diane Timmons-Rose, John Rose, Tony Gerber


Brief History

Spacecraft is a live performing electronic space music group, an exception in the sub-genre of space music which is usually populated by solo composers and performers. What Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and other Berlin-school pioneers started in the late 1960's Spacecraft has continued magnificently. Yet the band's love of "in the moment" produced music has not simply recycled the past; their best albums have a cosmic sound that is at once familiar and fresh. Like Jonn Serrie, the trio and sometimes quartet, performs planetarium shows and soundtracks during their time together, but airy, minimal drone music ala Serrie is not their defining style. It's a more intricate style of spacemusic than most of their peers.

The story of group's genesis is often told but worth repeating. In 1996 inspiration struck when friends Tony Gerber and John Rose (later joined by Diane Timmons to make a trio and by their 3rd release was joined by long time friend of Gerber, Giles Reaves) listened to "sound mappings" collected from the space probe Voyager. Intrigued as to its deeper meanings and musical potential, they used this data as the genetic code to create banks of new sounds and samples on their digital synths. Blending these sounds with some classic analogue electronic instruments and leaning towards an improvised approach, Spacecraft was born. Their first album was a studio recording that included noise based experimental musical artist, Chris Blazen. This was Chris' only appearance with the group as he soon after moved to Roma, Italia.

Their discography of releases are all first-rate and they are currently in the studio working on a new surround sound release slated for a 2013 release. Their albums, Earthtime Tapestry, Kaleida Dreams and Cybersphere offer music in bite-size pieces with tracks averaging five to six minutes in length. Live percussion, processed guitars and Timmons' choral-like vocals add variety from time to time but even without these elements Spacecraft's sonic range is extraordinarily wide for an e-music group and the flow of each album is ever-changing. This richness is undoubtedly due in part to Gerber and Rose's extensive solo careers pre-dating Spacecraft and their experience across a range of genres going back to the 1970's. As well a regular member on many of their recordings is synthesist Giles Reaves who also makes significant contributions on these albums.

The live recordings Hummel and Summer Town are mostly beatless and capture the band at its most subtle. Hummel unashamedly recalls the quieter moments of the Berlin-school legends and it's done with tremendous style. Timmon's wordless vocals take on the quality of a boy soprano, adding a strong sacred music dimension. Summer Town consists of a single extended track and is the band's most meditative album, drifting from one phase to the next with the kind of lunar grace that makes for exquisite late-night or early-morning listening.

Over the years, the band has been joined by different guest musicians including Chris Blazen, Matt Oakes, Josie Phelan, Todd Gerber and most recently Bryan Burnett and on their surround project, guitarist Mason Stevens and vocalist Essra Mohawk (from Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and Jerry Garcia Band.)


Thanks to Mark G from AmbientMusicGuide.com for part of this history description writing. I kind of rewrote what he had on the website as there was some inaccuracies. I hope Mark will update his page on us with this newer information.

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