AstroVoyager drops ‘Mission SuperHabitable’ LP

Paris-based composer and producer AstroVoyager has spent two decades building a musical universe where electronic music, orchestral composition and cinematic storytelling can exist as one expansive experience. Behind the project is Philippe Fagnoni, a lifelong music obsessive whose journey has taken him from playing in various bands to developing his own vision of electro-symphonic music. Combining synths and keyboards with waves of strings, opera and pop-focused songwriting, AstroVoyager creates music that feels equally influenced by electronic pioneers and propelled towards something more futuristic.

The origins of that universe reach back to artists such as Jean-Michel Jarre and Klaus Schulze, before expanding into progressive rock, film soundtracks and video game music. Philippe’s influences also include Kavinsky, French 79, Carl Cox, Jeff Mills, Vangelis and Era, resulting in a sound that balances electronic energy with orchestral scale. The ambition is not merely to make music that can be heard but to create an immersive experience in which sound and visuals combine to transport the listener somewhere else entirely.

Philippe began developing AstroVoyager as a way of exploring the boundaries between electronic and symphonic music. The project signed to Dreaming-Musea in 2006, opening the door to a run of ambitious concept albums including Temporal Gravitation, Symphotronic Lunation, ElectrOpera and BigBang. Across twenty years, AstroVoyager has grown into a substantial catalogue comprising four studio albums, ten EPs and three live recordings. Tracks including “Full Moon Rendezvous,” “Apollo 11,” “Architect” and “Tomorrow is a Mystery” have become part of a body of work designed to withstand the passage of time and alongside the recordings, Philippe has continually explored the possibilities of presenting his music on a larger scale.

The live dimension has become particularly important to the project; performances with the Tetraktys Ensemble for ElectrOpera, including its pyromusical outdoor version in 2014, revealed the theatrical side of his output, while BigBang was presented in Dole in 2015 with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Philippe also launched his own label, CosmXploreR, in 2012, promoting progressive and classical electronic music and signing seven albums and a number of electro-symphonic artists during its six years.

Now AstroVoyager is embarking on its most ambitious journey yet with Mission SuperHabitable, a stacked concept project revolving around the search for a SuperHabitable planet. The project has been conceived as a complete musical and visual world, bringing together four EPs and four phases of an interplanetary voyage in a Collector’s Edition album. The scale of the production reflects the ambition, with Mission SuperHabitable landing as the result of four years of studio work involving nearly 30 musicians, expanding AstroVoyager’s established electro-symphonic sound into a powerful combination of electronic music, pop and rock.

Among the new artists joining Philippe is pop opera singer Alexandre Chassagnac, known from The Voice, whose vocals add another dimension to the project’s cinematic character. The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra also plays a central role, bringing the grandeur of a full symphonic ensemble to the electronic stylings. The twenty-four track outing starts with “Escape from Earth,” setting up the voyage with a hazy atmosphere of eerie textures, pulsing synth tones and pattering percussion before “Run Away” crashes with rock-driven energy, where biting guitars give away to smokey synth tones and expressive vocals from Anne-Lyse Regalado.”

Tracks like “In a Flash” pair bubbling synth elements, steady percussive energy and the dazzling violin work of Angie Violinist, casting a transportive musical moment that’s memorable and still emotive even in the absence of lyrics. “Protect the Night Sky,” featuring Jean-Paul Flores, arrives with the blend of staccato string notes as warm orchestral tones flow with the crunch of electric guitar and woozy synths, resulting in a gripping slice of cinematic instrumental music cut with stunning lead guitar work.

“Memento Memori” showcases Philippe’s incredible compositional flair with an orchestral rock jam that rolls with punching drums, intense string arrangement and slick lead guitar flourishes as choral vocalisations add to the song’s grandiosity. “The Sky is the Limit” filters in with stuttering synths and bright vocal leads before slipping into a grooving dance pop scene brimming with catchy melodic hooks and engrossing arrangement.

“Life is Here” glides with gritty guitar rhythms and the march of drums as intricate synths flutter around the mix, surging with rousing rock energy to deliver a thrilling listening experience from start to finish. Closing the album with “Before Flying back to Earth,” the gentle swell of twinkling synths and building orchestral layers are met with moody electric guitar and striking drums to serve up an anthemic finale to AstroVoyager’s sensational new full-length record.

AstroVoyager has spent years treating electronic music as something capable of becoming much larger than a collection of sounds and with Mission SuperHabitable, that philosophy reaches its fullest expression thus far. Readers can also get exclusive access to an unreleased live show via this link.

Listen to Mission SuperHabitable below