Loftmatic
Fantasy in Orbit An astronaut’s impressions while orbiting the earth Electronic music by Tom Dissevelt Animations by Henk Lamers and Jeanne de Bont Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 by Kees Tazelaar
Fantasy in Orbit
Thomas (Tom) Dissevelt was born March 4, 1921 in Leiden, The
In 1962 Philips asked Tom Dissevelt to compose an entire LP of
Netherlands, and died at age 69 in January 1989. Between
electronic music. This LP project (14 songs) was called ‘Check-
1939 and 1943 Dissevelt attended the Royal Conservatory
points’, and depicted a journey around the world. The tunes
in The Hague. He took trombone lessons for three years, then
had titles like: Africa, Pacific or Australia. However, with the
attended classes in clarinet, music theory and piano. Upon lan-
success of Dick Raaijmakers Song of the Second Moon in mind
ding a job in Groningen in 1942, he interrupted these studies.
Philips wanted an album that would appeal to the at that time
After returning to The Hague Dissevelt took private double bass
popular curiosity of outer space. Upon its release in 1963, the
lessons from Herman Stotijn. He never did attain his degree
LP was renamed to ‘Fantasy in Orbit’.
from the Royal Conservatory. When Jeanne de Bont and Henk Lamers listened to Fantasy in After the war Dissevelt traveled to the Dutch Indies with the Jos
Orbit (more than 40 years later), we were so enthusiastic about
Cléber Orchestra and other bands. He fell in love with Rina
it that we decided to animate all 14 tracks. We made an ap-
Reys, and married her in 1946. In 1947 he did an internatio-
pointment with Ronald Dissevelt (the son of Tom Dissevelt) and
nal tour with Wessel Ilcken, Rita Reys and the orchestra of Piet
he gave us permission to use the music of his father.
van Dijk. This tour lasted three years, and they performed in Spain and Northern Africa. In 1955 Bep Rowold, leader of the
Together with the LP descriptions of the tracks were published.
Skymasters, hired Dissevelt as bassist and arranger.
We do not know who wrote the text for each track. But we used those descriptions to create 14 storyboards for 14 animation
In 1957 Dissevelt became intrigued by twelve-tone and serial
films. The pieces of texts were very abstract and we had to
music. he studied these composition techniques and became a
improvise a lot. Which turned out to be a good thing because
regular listener to German radio-programs devoted to mo-
that gave us a lot of freedom. Much later when Kees Tazelaar,
dern and electronic music. During one such radio-program he
director of The Institute of Sonology saw the result he said ‘it
heard a premiere of Kontakte by Karlheinz Stockhausen. At
seems as if the music was made for the animations instead of
the recommendation of Philips, Dissevelt was commissioned to
the other way round.’ Fantasy in Orbit was released on DVD
produce electronic entertainment music at the NatLab studios
in 2010 and Kees Tazelaar transformed all the music of Tom
in 1958. His assistant was Dick Raaijmakers, who had just
Dissevelt into Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.
completed two popular compositions, Song of the Second Moon and Colonel Bogey. After the NatLab studios relocated to Utrecht, Dissevelt completed Intersection in 1960.
LP Cover ‘Fantasy in Orbit’ as released by Philips in 1963.
2
Fantasy in Orbit
1 Ignition 3’23”
2 Atlantic 3’16”
3 Spearheads 2’50”
4 Zanzi 2’52”
Three, two, one and zero. Countdown
The bird is flying now, pitched in free
As if switched off, the vague blue color
And even where no people live, from
is over, the biggest-ever lift begun.
flight, like a tossed stone. No engines, no disappears. It doesn’t fade, it’s simply
jungles and from virgin land, the voices
Voices come from below – asking after
trust – just Nature’s forces. And Nature
replaced by a dampish green. Another
of this continent are overhead. The
fuel, oxygen and amps. All neces-
works without noise. No more vibrations
slide into the viewer just that effect. If
tom-tom of the insects joins the bird-calls:
sary of course. They get the replies and
and no wind – the atmosphere, the
colors have a temperature these are
the chorus of life rises up. And in the
answer ‘Roger’. Roger, Flight path is
waves, lie below. A deep bleu veil covers HOT. Bright yellow flashes beat the
good: 69 degrees. Is someone playing
the ocean, where ships sail and seagulls
scenery, a leaden sunshine weighs on
an accordion? Impossible, there are no
cry and fly. Up here, no waves – except
the beaches and the woods, where
accordions within miles. And yet there’s
those that bring in the talk of system
natives dance.
music – does it exist or is it just
checks. But these are smooth and gentle:
imagination? Roger. Cabin pressure
no vibration.
background – is a crowd cheering?
holding at 6.1, okay. Gravitation forces building to 6. What a view! Roger, they say again. You’re off: seven orbits. Surrender.
5 Anchor Chains 2’47”
6 Tropicolours 3’57”
7 Gamelan 3’06”
8 Woomerangs 3’08”
Sometimes, a strange unwritten music
Birds in red, green and blue swell the
How strange they are, how far away
The blue turns to dark green – another
sounds. Music never meant, played
chorus; their cries pass over woods
– the gods and ghosts they worship there continent. Two eras meet: the space age
on instruments never meant to play.
and waves. Meanwhile, the sunlight
with gongs and other exotic instruments!
and prehistory. Up comes the cry of
And yet, as a child, lying in your little
slips away behind – the days up here
But which heaven do the gods live in?
animals, that have not changed since
attic room on summer nights, you knew
are short. And when nights falls, for
Their dwelling-place is far below this
time began – a strange, unseen fauna in
such symphonies existed: composed
just a while, the man on board feels
orbit, closer to the Earth. They are within
woods where even the trees have shapes
by trains that talked together as they
lost in space. Where is Earth? A gleam
call – human call from Earth. They hear
unknown in other lands.
clattered to and from in far-off goods
of light is visible – there must be people
the strains with which these people
yards. And at this very moment, poised
below.
accompany their dances. Here, a man in
high above the second sea, the old
space, and there, these deities that
dialogue is faintly heard. A ship down
summon up the silhouettes of temples and
there is working hard. And then harps
dancers with their gentle movements.
and trumpets join to sing a Gloria from
Which is more real?
ship to ship, from sea to space.
3
Fantasy in Orbit
9 Waltzing Mathilda 1’52”
10 Pacific Dawn 3’49”
11 Gold and Lead 2’40”
12 Mexican Mirror 2’16”
And suddenly an organ seems to play.
A new fresh day – an endless plain of
The Sun is gold now and the water fluid
Bassoons herald the appearance of
A name is in the air, a girl’s name,
water. And never in one’s life did a day
lead. What a tremendous heat – the
another coast-line, vaguely visible at
evoking a familiar face. This is the end
break like this. Nor were one’s thoughts
atmosphere below vibrates with energy.
first, but soon clearly seen. This is where
of an Old World and the beginning of
ever so light – are even thought’s
This was the scene when life emerged on
life is now – birds sing, animals cry and
a new. Electric lights are on – prehistory
weightless? But as the hour passes,
Earth, five billion years ago or more.
people dance to their local instruments.
is over and a date-line is crossed. A day
things become heavier. Thoughts regain
A living cell – the first of myriads – was
An outburst of life, borne on ancient
line, too. A faint glow lies ahead, for
their weight, the water gets deeper, its
generated when the solar rays worked
rhythms and drowned from time to time
time goes fast in orbit.
color goes darker than a while ago...
this chemistry on leaden waves like
by cheers which mingle with the radio
these. Thus live began – and life crept
signals.
out of water on to land.
13 Seconds to Eternity 3’40”
14 Re-Entry 3’12”
But beneath this colorful surface, an
A sudden outburst of activity, on the
antique grey face calls the observer
ground and up in space. The journey’s
to order. A deeper rhythm than the
over, but there’s no time now for proud
one hammered out by crazy drums is
reflection – a job must be taken to the
being measured out by gently clock’s,
end. The heat-shield cleaves the
which mark off time in accordance with
atmosphere. Ships and helicopters beat
age-old calendars. The seconds fly and
off to the search, while drum-sticks
fly, each stroke leading to a cadence: a
rehearse the triumphant message soon
prolonged, downward parabola.
to be radioed to the world. And the ship begins its long and fiery fall into the ocean.
4
Fantasy in Orbit
FiO Fonts
For each of our projects we design a font that fits in with the
The fonts contain just the characters that we need to display all
esthetically language we develop for the project. For the FiO
the written text in the film. They are not worked out in detail but
fonts we got inspired by a the typography on two airplanes we
are so-called screen ready which means that they can only be
photographed in the Deutsches Technik Museum, Berlin.
used on a low-res display.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890,.:; FiO TITLE
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890,.:; FiO TEXT
5
Fantasy in Orbit
Poster for the premiere at November Music Festival in Den Bosch
6
Fantasy in Orbit
Project team
Commissioned by
Released on DVD with the financial
Concept and idea
Philips Phonographic Industries.
support of the Société Gavigniès, The
Henk Lamers and Jeanne de Bont
Assistant final synchronizations
Hague, The Netherlands.
Music Reconstruction, Supervision,
Frits Weiland,
Original Mono transfer and remastering
Realization
Trailer
Kees Tazelaar
STEM, Utrecht.
http://vimeo.com/9979086
Analog to Digital transfers of the
Source
production materials
Sonology Archives B-tape mono
Permission
Casper Schipper
full track 38.1 cm/s.
Granted by Ronald Dissevelt.
Maarten Hoogenboom
Released as
Henk Lamers and Jeanne de Bont
DVD production
Fantasy in Orbit – Round the World with
www.loftmatic.com
Tapes, Rotterdam
Electronic Music by Tom Dissevelt
Kees Tazelaar
Philips mono B 633 302 L
www.keestazelaar.com
Special thanks
Philips stereo 840 233 BY
© 2010 Loftmatic, The Netherlands
Renee Jonker of Société Gavigniès
Fantasy in Orbit – An astronaut’s
© 2010 Kees Tazelaar, The Netherlands
The Institute of Sonology
Impressions while Orbiting the Earth
Frits Weiland
– Electronic Musical compositions of
Dolby Surround 5.1 and stereo mix
Thomas Dissevelt Tom Dissevelt: Fantasy in Orbit
Philips mono PHM 200-189
‘An astronaut‘s impressions while
Philips stereo PHS 600-189
orbiting the earth.’ 1963. Originally entitled Checkpoints, this work is filed in the Sonology archives under that title. The individual sections originally had different titles as well: 1 Start, 2 Caribbean, 3 Atlantic, 4 Africa, 5 Zanzibar, 6 Indian Ocean, 7 Bali, 8 Australia I, 9 Australia II, 10 Islands, 11 Pacific, 12 Mexico I, 13 Mexico II, 14 Slot (Conclusion)
7