Far High Dark And Wide

When a man such as I finds his wandering eye caught by an album calling itself Music Of The Future, it is very unlikely that he will pass it by without a quick look.

And when a man such as I finds out that the Music Of The Future is a collection of works by Desmond Leslie, released on the quite frankly marvellous Trunk label, it is very unlikely that he will return home without it nestling quietly in his man-bag.

And when a man such as I reads the creators commentary accompanying a suite of space sound, whilst it carries him through the greatest of unknowable worlds, it is very unlikely that he’ll be able to keep it to himself for very much longer.

Music From The Voids Of Outer Space

This is a fairly descriptive work. Opening with ASTEROIDS we appear to journey through, and leave behind, that ruined part of the Solar System, known as “The Asteroid Belt”. We are told musically of the loneliness and desolation of this great ring of cosmic debris and fractured bodies that lies between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars where, (according to Bode’s law) there should be another planet. The belt is either the ruins of a world that got too smart and blew itself up or the embryo beginnings of a future globe. In any case it is not a pleasant place; far high dark and wide.

Desmond Leslie – Asteroid Belt

MERCURY fleet messenger of the Gods is represented in his hurrying by the rhythmic interblending of a humming top (Harrods) and a motor horn (Morris Oxford 1951) and was completed in 1956. It is followed by a recent work originally called “Atoms of Heavy Hydrogen Seeking Fission”, but now renamed, “Comet in Aquarius”.

Desmond Leslie – Mercury, Fleet Messenger Of The Gods

COMET IN AQUARIUS. Comets I believe are the pulsing spermatoza of space, darting on their eccentric orbits seeking new “world eggs” to fertilise. Immensely intangible and tenuous, they come and go, and perhaps one in a million finds a mate and brings forth new worlds as old suns fade and galaxies die. The uneven broken patterns suggest its uneven wanderings. This is a “watery comet” of the Aquarian Age. If it succeeds I should not mind being reborn with it.

Desmond Leslie – Comet In Aquarious

THE WAR HORNS OF MARS. A study in cyclopean blocks of sound – dark red brazen bulges. It should be played with treble and bass lift in the middle passages. Repairs to the ceiling are easily effected with a “Do-it-yourself-Apres-Musique-Concrete-Kit”.

Desmond Leslie – The Warhorns Of Mars

SATURN. The inscrutable blue planet. The great Pendulum of Chronos with its deep cosmic beat, the sudden intrusion of its many satellites. A vast ringed sphere gyrating through the ether, holding the balancing arms of Absolute Justice. A beautiful planet but a disturbing one.

Desmond Leslie – Saturn-Chronos


For more on the life of Desmond Leslie, which shames us all for its expanse and inspiration, have a look at this.

For more on the life of Trunk, which shames us all for its inspiration and passion, have a look at this.





006. The Clint Boon Experience – This Is How It Feels (Space Opera)


Tiny Dancer