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 1950s.
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.
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: The Space Music of Jonn
Serrie
- 2000 - Hidden World (with Gary Stroutsos)
- 2001 - Lumia Nights
- 2001 - Yuletides
- 2003 - The Stargazer's Journey
- 2004 - Merrily on High
- 2005 - Epiphany: Meditations on Sacred Hymns
- 2006 - Sunday Morning
- 2009 - Hidden World Beyond (with Gary Stroutsos)
- 2009 - Thousand Star
Other projects:
- 1994 - Tai Chi Meditation, Vol. 1: Life Force
Breathing (by Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson)
- 1994 - Tai Chi Meditation, Vol. 2: Eight Direction
Perception (by Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson)
External links