SF Music: Traveler's Guide to Mars

Scott Iwasaki, who writes a music column for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, recently reviewed the album A Traveler's Guide to Mars, by composer Ian Tecee.

As Iwasaki notes, “Some works such as "The Wooden Prince" ... and "Dust Red Sky" are vast and airy. Others, such as "Passport" and "Space Tourist Mars," lean to the contemporary jazz feel like that of Tangerine Dream's "Mars Polaris." ... the vocal delivery on "It's Time to Go Back, Part 2," brings to mind another spacey musical group called Pink Floyd. ... some of the music on this CD is the soundtrack to the planetarium production of the same name, which has been seen at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The idea for the movie came from the book written by W. K. Hartmann, who first contacted Tecee about doing the music.”

Iwasaki is a self-proclaimed sci-fi nerd, his favorite book is Frank Herbert's Dune, and he digs music from Rush's 2112 album.