View source for Space (Jimmy Cauty album)

{{Infobox album
| name       = Space
| type       = [[Album]]
| artist     = [[Jimmy Cauty]] ''as'' Space
| cover      = Space_(album_front).gif
| alt        =
| released   = 16 July 1990
| recorded   = [[Trancentral]]
| venue      =
| studio     =
| genre      =
* [[Ambient house]]
* [[space music]]
| length     = 38:21
| label      = [[KLF Communications]]
| producer   = Jimmy Cauty
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title =
| next_year  =
}}

'''''Space''''' is a 1990 [[ambient house]] [[concept album]] by [[Jimmy Cauty]] under the alias '''Space'''. Originally intended to be [[The Orb]]'s debut album, ''Space'' was refactored for release as a solo album following Cauty's departure from that group. ''Space'' was independently released on [[KLF Communications]], the record label formed to distribute the work of Cauty's other project, [[The KLF]].

==Origins==
''Space'' was originally a collaboration between [[Alex Paterson]] and [[Jimmy Cauty]], the original line-up of The Orb. Cauty's record label [[KLF Communications]] planned to release it as The Orb's debut album,<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=web|mu-id=508|publisher=[[KLF Communications]]|title=The White Room - Information Sheet Eight|date=August 1990|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071005024345/http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=508|archive-date=5 October 2007}}</ref><ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=web|mu-id=509|publisher=[[KLF Communications]]|date=June 1990|title=KLF Communications Info Sheet Nine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312052937/http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=509|archive-date=12 March 2007}}</ref> but when Cauty left The Orb in April 1990<ref>{{AllMusic|id=mn0000891575|first=John|last=Bush|title=The Orb|tab=biography|accessdate=5 March 2020}}</ref> to concentrate on producing music as [[The KLF]] with [[Bill Drummond]], he took the recordings with him.  Reworked to remove Paterson's contributions, the album was released by KLF Communications in July 1990 as an eponymous album,<ref name="discog">{{KLFDiscography}}</ref> with Cauty alone receiving credit.<ref>{{Cite AV media notes |title=Space |year=1990 |type=label |publisher=[[KLF Communications]] |id=SPACE LP1}}</ref>

[[Youth (musician)|Youth]], a friend and colleague of both men, recalled: "Jimmy and Alex were making an album called Space when they had a big argument. Jimmy stormed off, took all of Alex’s bits off the record and released it under his own name. Alex was mortified. I told him not to worry – we’d make a record <!--<nowiki>[</nowiki>"[[Little Fluffy Clouds]]"]--> that was even better".<ref name="made-clouds">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/07/how-we-made-the-orb-little-fluffy-clouds-interview|title=How we made the Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds|type=Interview with Youth and Alex Paterson|first=Dave|last=Simpson|date=7 June 2016|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=7 March 2020}}</ref>

According to Cauty, ''Space'' "was a jam, all done on [[Oberheim]] [[synthesizer|keyboards]]. Loads of [[sampling (music)|samples]]... were chucked in there as well. I started on Monday morning and by Friday it was all done".<ref name="enig">{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=226|title=The KLF: Enigmatic Dance Duo|work=[[Record Collector]]|date=1 April 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916120306/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=226|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> He said: "Nothing was prepared, I started on a Monday morning and just jammed the whole thing."<ref name="Prendergast">{{cite book|first=Mark|last=Prendergast|title=[[The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby – The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age]]|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=New York, NY|year=2003|isbn=1-58234-323-3|page=182|chapter=Ambience in the Rock Era}}</ref>

==Composition==
''Space'' takes the listener on a voyage through the [[Solar System]] from [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] outwards, with vast distances of empty space between worlds represented by periods of [[minimalism|minimalist]] ambience and near-silence.  [[Synthesisers]], excerpts from classical compositions and nursery rhymes (including [[Twinkle Twinkle Little Star]]), [[sine wave|sinusoidal loops]], and communications from space [[flight controller]]s are among the sounds used to describe the voyage.  This musical interpretation of a physical journey is also a characteristic of the early [[ambient house]] recordings ''[[The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld]]'' and The KLF's ''[[Chill Out (KLF album)|Chill Out]]''.

Cauty has called ''Space'' "a record for 14-year-old space cadets to go and take [[LSD|acid]] [to] for the first time".<ref name="enig" />

==Reviews==
{{Album ratings
|rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
|rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="AM">{{AllMusic|class=album|id=mw0000953894|first=John|last=Bush|accessdate=6 March 2020}}</ref>
}}<!-- Automatically generated by DASHBot-->
John Bush at [[AllMusic]] attributes "incredibly sparse ambience" to ''Space'', with "long periods of near-silence [and] only an occasional break for galactic sine-waves and similarly spacy tones". The album is "more important for who's on it than what's in it", he concluded.<ref name="AM"/>

==Track listing==
''Space'' comprises eight contiguous pieces across two sides of vinyl or one track of a CD.

#"Mercury"  – 1:39
#"Venus"  – 2:00
#"Mars"  – 8:47
#"Jupiter"  – 6:34
#"Saturn"  – 2:44
#"Uranus"  – 2:57
#"Neptune"  – 10.28
#"Pluto"  – 3:10

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{The KLF}}
{{The Orb}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1990 albums]]
[[Category:KLF Communications albums]]
[[Category:Jimmy Cauty albums]]
[[Category:1990s concept albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Jimmy Cauty]]
[[Category:Ambient house albums]]
[[Category:Jam sessions]]