Jonn Serrie
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Jonn Serrie is a composer of space music, a genre of ambient Electronic Music, and New Age music. He has recorded at least eighteen albums and worked on various projects for Lucasfilm, IMAX, NASA, the United States Navy, Hayden Planetarium, Expo Seville, and CNN.
Serrie has been composing and performing music for planetariums since the early 1980s. His first album "And the Stars Go With You" was in memory of the astronauts lost in the Challenger disaster in 1986. His second album, "Flightpath", contains six songs that commemorate the pre-space age test pilots of Edwards Air Force Base in the 1950's. Jonn is also a pilot with advanced Instrument and Commercial ratings and flies for the U.S. Civil Air Patrol as a search and rescue pilot.
Jonn's third album "Tingri" was based on a remote village in Tibet and was Jonn's way of infusing more spiritual and romantic emotion into his music, straying a bit from his space music roots but without sacrificing his trademark sound. In 1992 and 1994 he made two albums in which he put his earlier planetarium work from the eighties on CD, on "Planetary Chronicles, volume 1" and "Planetary Chronicles, volume 2". In between, in 1993 and 1995, Jonn composed his own musical science fiction story based on a fictional Century Princess in "Midsummer Century" and "Ixlandia". In 1993 Jonn submitted a song from his planetarium collection called "Soft Landing" to a Various Artists album sponsored largely by Steve Roach, another prominent new age musician. This song is only available on this recording. In 1997 his first Christmas album "Upon a Midnight Clear" was released, in which he rearranged known and less known Christmas songs from around the world in his own unique style. Due to its popularity, Serrie released two more Christmas albums, "Yuletides" in 2001 and "Merrily on High" in 2004.
In 1998 Jonn collaborated with David Carradine on his Tai Chi video series and released a CD soundtrack based on the videos, called "Dream Journeys". Also in 1998 he took a trip to shamanic America, which resulted in his musical collaboration with several Native American Elders on "Spirit Keepers".
In 1999 he appeared as a special guest in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission at Cape Canaveral. As the final act of the after-dinner entertainment he played a specially composed song "Out of the Blue", which has not been officially released to date.
The year 2000 brought Jonn's "best of" space music compilation, "Century Seasons". On this album two new songs appeared, although "Deep Mystery" reappeared on "Lumia Nights" two years later in a slightly shorter version. The other bonus track,"Andromeda Dream", also appeared on this album. In 2000 Serrie collaborated with flutist Gary Stroutsos on the Narada label, on an album called "Hidden World".
Since 2000, several of Serrie's albums have appeared on various independent labels. 2002 brought "Lumia Nights", a space romance release on Valley Entertainment, composed in the style of Ixlandia and Midsummer Century. In 2003 he signed a contract with New World Music, a major label in England which included the reissue of his earlier Miramar releases. 2003 also brought "The Stargazer's Journey" with liner notes from famed astronomer David Levy. This was a return to form in his more traditional space music style for which he is known.
Serrie took an interesting musical turn in 2005 with "Epiphany, Meditations on Sacred Hymns", featuring his arrangement of traditional hymns and psalms which he dedicated to his grandmother, his primary Church Organ and piano teacher as a child. He followed this up in 2006 with "Sunday Morning", an independent release for autistic children and their parents. A portion of the profits from this CD goes to support for autism organizations in the U.S.
Also in 2006, music from one of his albums was used in the hit Hollywood movie "What the Bleep Do Know?!". Jonn also scored the award winning IMAX short film "Galaxies Across Space and Time" as well as the popular astronomy software program "Starry Nights" and Space.com's "Eyes on Mars" DVD.
Jonn founded the Galaxy Music Scholarship in 2001, a $1000 yearly scholarship for graduating high school seniors desiring a career in new age and space music composition. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
[edit] Discography
- 1987 - And The Stars Go With You
- 1989 - Flightpath
- 1990 - Tingri
- 1992 - Planetary Chronicles, Volume 1
- 1993 - Midsummer Century
- 1994 - Planetary Chronicles, Volume 2
- 1995 - Ixlandia
- 1997 - Upon a Midnight Clear
- 1998 - Spirit Keepers
- 1998 - Dream Journeys
- 2000 - Century Seasons
- 2000 - Hidden World
- 2001 - Yuletides
- 2002 - Lumia Nights
- 2003 - The Stargazer's Journey
- 2004 - Merrily On High
- 2005 - Epiphany
- 2006 - Sunday Morning
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