Albedo 0.39

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Work

Albedo 0.39 was released in 1976 and was the second album that Vangelis recorded in his Nemo Studios in London, his workplace until the end of the 1980s. It contrasts with its predecessor Heaven and Hell, which had a classical tinge and used choirs. Albedo 0.39, by contrast, has blues and jazz colours. It is a concept album about space physics, named after the fraction of light that a planet reflects: for the Earth this was calculated in 1976 at 0.39.

Vangelis plays everything himself, from synthesizers to drums, xylophone and gamelan. Pulstar builds on a pulsating synthesizer sequence and ends with a recording of the speaking clock. Mare Tranquillitatis uses recordings of Apollo moon landings. On the title song, sound engineer Keith Spencer-Allen reads out properties of the Earth. The album reached number 18 on the British album chart, his first record in the top twenty.

Listening

Track list

1. 1Pulstar5:45Apple Music ↗
2. 2Freefall2:17Apple Music ↗
3. 3Mare Tranquillitatis1:46Apple Music ↗
4. 4Main Sequence8:10Apple Music ↗
5. 5Sword of Oríon1:55Apple Music ↗
6. 6Alpha5:44Apple Music ↗
7. 7Nucleogénesis, Pt. 15:56Apple Music ↗
8. 8Nucleogénesis, Pt. 26:11Apple Music ↗
9. 9Albedo 0.394:22Apple Music ↗

30-second previews via Apple Music. Listen to the whole album on Apple Music ↗