Let's explore a few musicians who celebrate the glories of hard science.

DWELLER AT THE THRESHOLD: Generation/Transmission/Illumination (CD on Eurock Records)

DAVE FULTON: Hard Particles (CD on Eurock Records)

Dave Fulton is one of the three members of Dweller at the Threshold. This 52-minute solo outing by Fulton is certainly a superb electronic endeavor, capturing the cosmic sparkle of quantum physics and applying trancey keyboard patterns to harness such forces. Soft electronic riffs blend with breathing tonalities, sweeping to a mildly melodic sense. This music captures the feel of astral horizons, both vast and microscopic. You drift through regions of shimmering atmospherics, a tourist in this sonic landscape filled with exotic worlds...or are they minuscule clusters of electrical charges masquerading as planets?

The catalytic effect of this music is deeply ambient. The melodics are cerebral and delicate, but not fragile, seething with a captured charge that slowly burns itself into your psyche.

NEWT: -273C (CD on Quantum Loop Records)

Newt is Daniel Meyer (from Haujobb) and Tehanu (from Forma Tadre). This is an electronic instrumental project, applying E-perc beats to alien territory, forbiddingly dark auralscapes of the strangest sort. Refreshingly, the music has a strong melodic presence even without the rhythm. Even when the music gets abstract, it retains an element of flow that often builds into lusher melodies.

Harsh sounds mix with sultry in the construction of these tunes. Weird effects reverberate and ricochet around the mix. Lively and entertaining, the music on this 64-minute CD is a curious blend of ambient sensibilities with industrial attitude.

A 51-minute long CD EP "Phaseshifting" (also on Quantum Loop Records) pursues variations and alternate tracks from the album. These extra pieces are just as intriguing as their LP versions, frequently mutating far beyond the original forms.

RealAudio samples:

The Abyss
Motive One

RED SHIFT: Down Time (CD on Zomba Music)

Similar in sound to the old European electronics scene, this 60 minute CD displays considerable vibrancy and sonic enthusiasm. The music strains to escape ambient ground, bursting with energetic riffs and inspired melodies. Whether the mode be frolicking celebrations or desperate dirges, the interweaving sweeping keyboards, haunting electronics and sinuous E-perc achieve a glorious grandeur. While the celebrations scamper in heavenly heights, the dirges reach from gloom into hopeful illumination. The soft wail of a masterful guitar injects a breathtaking appeal to the ethereal energy of the driving synthesizers.

Fans of '70s Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze will be ecstatic with this album (and the band's "Ether" release).

RED SHIFT: Ether (CD on Zomba Music)

Spinning keyboard patterns, rolling sequencer tones, pulsing ricochet notes...one would almost think one had stumbled upon an unreleased masterpiece from the European electronics scene of the Seventies. But no -- it's veteran synthesist Mark Shreeve and J. Goddard as Red Shift!

Wondrous dueling rhythms are heavily laced with surging crescendos; this is lively music that cavorts across a normally ambient landscape. Patterns accrete through repetition, slowly mutating and merging with the rhythms that arise. The pieces are ongoing evolutions, wringing an entertaining series of variations on each theme. Some very tasty guitarwork can be expected, adding fiery glisten to the heavenly chords.

Only 13 of this CD's 65 minutes are studio recordings, the rest featuring live music from their Jodrell Bank Planetarium performance in 1996. This is space music conceived in the shadow of the eyes and ears that our race points skyward.

SPACETIME CONTINUUM: Double Fun Zone (CD on Astralwerks)

Spacetime Continuum is Jonah Sharp.

Easy-going electronic music. Nimble E-perc livens the gentle tone of the music. Saxophone riffs pepper the mix, adding a funky edge to the trance. Keyboards prance through a backdrop of electronics, blending with a pleasantly energetic flair.

Despite the subtle pep found on this 63-minute CD from 1999, the general mood of the music is one of relaxation. The compositions interlace serpentine rhythms with dreamy electronics, producing a meditative sound that is alive with interesting breaks and hypnotic cycles. Yet all the while, the music retains an entertaining driving tempo.

Imagine -- a relaxation soundtrack that bristles with dance sensibilities.

RealAudio samples:

The Ring
Microjam
Freezone
Biscuit Face
Beveled Edge

DR. FIORELLA TERENZI: Music from the Galaxies (CD on Island Records)

For her doctoral thesis, this astrophysicist transmuted radio signals from distant galaxies into sound waves. For her debut record of electronic music, Terenzi chose to collaborate with this distant galaxy, producing 39 minutes of space music.

The sounds are actually quite harsh during six of the seven songs, lashing out with almost vicious impact. Growling, screeching, spinning, pulsing, many sounds that are undeniably cosmic in nature (very reminiscent to the alien sounds that comprise the Forbidden Planet movie soundtrack). These noises are structured into pulsing waves which overlap in ambient compositions, unfolding like solar winds coursing through an turgid vacuum. Sound mirrors arrangement here, with both aspects conjuring the void of deep space-- but not an empty cold void, for space, like this music, is littered with wondrous moments.

The last song [RealAudio sample] adds traditional earthly instruments to the electronics: orchestra, ethnic percussion, flute, harp ... but the galactic voice will not be upstaged, overtaking the piece for a passage before the soft hand drum and acoustic guitar reappear, only to become enveloped by the extraterrestrial roar of the crescendo.

RealAudio sample:

Sidereal Breath