ROB ASTOR

Music Philosophy
Music is a universal language. It has the power to connect everyone and transcend all barriers.
ROB ASTOR Music
CDBABY Link for ROB ASTOR: Rahu
CDBABY Link for ROB ASTOR: Beyond Marstropolis
CDBABY LINK for ROB ASTOR: Xenophobia
CDBABY LINK for ROB ASTOR: Shine A Little Light Christmas Collection
CDBABY LINK for ROB ASTOR: Marstropolis
CDBABY LINK for ROB ASTOR: Quadrangular Oscillations
"Tropic Of Antarctica" Video
"Flight In Ursa Minor" Video
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ROB ASTOR
Swept up in the tide of discovering music in the modern age through the Internet, ROB ASTOR is an instrumental musician who experiments with a wide variety of soundscapes and successfully brings a common denominator to diverse musical genres. As an independent solo artist, ROB ASTOR has discovered the freedom of being unrestricted by expectations of major recording companies, allowing him to compose and create something unique. Using the Internet as his primary tool, like many other independent artists, ROB ASTOR gradually carves out a spot for himself as a musician in cyberspace.
Massing enough music to fill approximately twenty full compact discs, ROB ASTOR’s musical journey as a recording artist began relatively recently. Partly due to technological changes, and partly due to the fact that he also writes Science Fiction.
The discovery of music, and an endearing appreciation, began early in Rob’s life, as well as the discovery for an aptitude and love of writing. His earliest fiction influences include Public Radio dramas, many of the big disaster movies of the 1970s, and the lightning bolt to set it all ablaze in the form of a movie called STAR WARS. “I owe a great debt of thanks to GEORGE LUCAS,” ROB ASTOR has been quoted as saying. “He shaped my love of music as well as my vision as a writer.”
An eventual love of many musical genres began with the soundtracks of John Williams, who scored all of the STAR WARS films, as well as SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, and numerous others. From there, Rob discovered other instrumental artists through movie soundtracks, including TANGERINE DREAM and VANGELIS. While in junior high school, ROB ASTOR played several instruments in orchestra and band including Violin, Bass Violin, Cello, French Horn, Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon, and Xylophone. Later, he tried his hand at Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and Synthesizers, eventually finding a true musical love in the latter.
While in high school, ROB ASTOR tried to form a few bands, emulating sounds and styles from popular artists such DURAN DURAN and PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION. He wanted to be the male version of ANN WILSON (of HEART). The earliest endeavor was a group called Red Renegades which shifted to Lizard Eyes, to avoid confusion or trademark issues with JOEY RAMONE’s group. After high school, Rob tried to form other bands (The Astor Battalion, City Band), none of which lasted due to lack of interest.
ROB ASTOR put musical aspirations on hold in the 1990s, unsure of how to continue. However, he lead a double existence throughout those years, constantly writing. Stories were published in school and college collections, fueling this other creative side. During the summer of 1990, Rob sold two stories (“This Side Of Oblivion”, “The Dream”) to a magazine called New Blood in Los Angeles.
The Internet explosion began while ROB ASTOR attended college. Seeing a possible new opportunity, he began shopping stories around to e-publishers. He placed “Launch Into History” with one such website. Many of the companies in those early days didn’t last long, making sales and communications difficult at best. Rob’s creativity would not be stopped.
From 1995 to 1996, ROB ASTOR entered the popular L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers Of The Future contest. His story “Headhunter” was a finalist the first year, while “The Fear Of God” lasted to the semi-finals the following year. Rob placed stories on popular Internet sites hosting fan fiction, stories written using the characters and or settings created by other writers. Two that can still be found on FanFiction.net are “Virtual Jurassic Park” and “Persephone”.
Rob’s musical side was once again sparked with creative urges in 1999. After purchasing his first Synthesizer, ROB ASTOR began writing and recording instrumental New Age and Electronica compositions, foregoing any kind of vocals. The sound was compared to musical titans like TANGERINE DREAM (“Lily On The Beach”, “Underwater Sunlight”, “Dream Mixes IV”), JAMES HORNER (“Titanic”), NORM ORENSTEIN (“RoboCop”, “Cube 2: Hypercube”), VANGELIS (“Antarctica”), and SPENCER NILSEN (“Sonic The Hedgehog”, “Ecco The Dolphin”, “Ecco 2: The Tides Of Time”). His sessions from 1999 to 2000 were packaged as SECRET PLACES, remaining largely unreleased.
In 2003, ROB ASTOR was asked by the president of Stoneking’s Island to contribute music to a documentary/reality show/haunted hotel trip about the Moth Man. He also recorded several tracks meant for use in three feature films. A snowmobile accident in March of 2003 put a hold on things for several months while ROB ASTOR recovered from a fractured shoulder. Rob continued to shop his music around in the form of a 5-TRACK DEMO.
During 2004 and early 2005, ROB ASTOR began exploring the Internet as an outlet of getting his music heard. He selected tracks he’d recorded from 1999 up into 2003 and packaged them in a CD bearing the name QUADRANGULAR OSCILLATIONS. In March 2005, Rob joined the digital age of music by placing his first official CD up for sale on a new site in the digital market, Mindawn.com.
An avid video game player, ROB ASTOR discovered his next creative urge completely by surprise while searching the Internet for cheat codes. A group of people at Simtropolis.com were putting together a game based on the popular SimCity games entitled SimMars. They were searching for designers of every sort, beta testers, graphics people, and even musicians. From August to September of 1995, ROB ASTOR recorded enough music to fill a double disc set released as MARSTROPOLIS.
His first spurt of musical growth came from a wide variety of styles. Not only did Rob record New Age (“Trappings Of Time”) and Electronica (“Holographic Nightclub [Dance Of The Boytaurs]”), he broadened himself to include Dance (“Galaxy Groove”), Jazz Fusion (“Gemini Delta”, “Temple Of Red”), Acoustic (“New Pompeii”, “Copernicus Museum”) and Rock & Roll (“Race To Northpoint Station”, “Rock & Red”, “Trans Polaris”). Sticking true to his influences, Rob crafted music with a sound similar to TANGERINE DREAM, JAMES HORNER, NORM ORENSTEIN, SPENCER NILSEN, BIOSPHERE, LIQUID MIND, KEN DAVIS, and found additional inspiration from the sounds of WENDY CARLOS, SPYRO GYRA, CUSCO, MARS LASAR, ZACH DAVIDS, and VANGELIS.
Soon after completing his futuristic musical vision, Rob joined CDBaby.com, a company specializing in helping independent musicians by selling CDs and placing their music with popular digital sites including Apple’s iTunes, Rhapsody, EMusic, AOL’s Music Net (including Yahoo! Music); just some of over forty sites worldwide. Fourteen MARSTROPOLIS tracks were originally slated for inclusion into the SimMars game.
Enjoying his successes as an almost exclusive digital artist, ROB ASTOR quickly began to proliferate, setting up sites to promote his music across cyberspace. Doing so opened up more opportunities. He contributed music to a Coca-Cola ‘lifestyles’ film late in 2005. Rob was also included into the PumpAudio database and joined BurnLounge.com.
Almost as soon as the work of recording MARSTROPOLIS ended, ROB ASTOR was sparked with another creative urge. He set out to create a true soundtrack album, drawing on his love of JOHN WILLIAMS’ soundtrack work. At the same time, he also began recording additional music inspired by SimMars. As if two albums weren’t enough, Rob also decided to finish music he began in 2003, as well as find a way to release session outtakes from the other CDs.
The urge to create new science fiction stories also figured into ROB ASTOR’s creative burst. He placed a story called “The Mirror Crack’d” with TwistedShift.com in April 2006, and “Separation” in the May 2006 issue of Silver Moon Magazine (formerly located at silvermoonmag.com). While working on another story and shaping up his vision for a third album, Rob underwent an appendectomy in March 2006. Unlike the accident of 2003, Rob didn’t loose site of what he wanted to accomplish and quickly returned to his work.
Ten full months went into writing, recording, and producing XENOPHOBIA. Rob’s second double CD, the album is a fantastic Neo-Classical journey of the imagination. It’s a semi-symphonic pseudo movie soundtrack with heavy influences from JOHN WILLIAMS (“Omphalos”, “Nexus Maximus”, “Ouranos”, “Xenophobia”, “Lord Riven”, “In La’kesh [I Am Your Other Self]”, “Tyrant Lizard”, “Enyo”, “Yucatan Cataclysm”, “Zero Hour”, “Quod Erat Demonstrandum”), plus a dose of Renaissance (“Jester”, “Atana Potnia”). All of ROB ASTOR’s New Age/Electronica influences are present (“Tropic Of Antarctica”, “Neptune Rising”), as well as Rock & Roll shades from the likes of HEART, LANA LANE, STEVIE NICKS, and ERIK NORLANDER (“Forest Of The Black Moon”, “Biohazard”, “Kutulu”).
For the first time, ROB ASTOR collaborated with another musician, singer/songwriter and good friend HARRY GRILLO of THE LOVESICK (who also created the cover graphic for Rob's XENOPHOBIA CD as well as for BEYOND MARSTROPOLIS and RAHU), coming up with two tracks for Rob’s next album, BEYOND MARSTROPOLIS. Retaining the video game feel of its predecessor, MARSTROPOLIS, the new double album showcases Rob’s growth as an instrumental musician, most clearly evidenced on XENOPHOBIA. The video game influence again crosses many styles, with a heavy focus on Electronica (“Candy Hearts Moon Kid”, “694 Beta Central”, “Radial Cybernet 3 [Remix]”) and Rock & Roll (“Get Vertical!”, “Monkey Down”, “Chocotopia”). Of course, true to form, ROB ASTOR also included music perfectly suited to video games (“East Kinsei Kaigan”) as well as New Age (“Aphrodite’s Belly Dance”, “Red Awakening”). Experimentation with soundscapes and instrumentation resulted in a sound steadily becoming ROB ASTOR (“Endor-9 Aviary”, “Project Delphinus”, “Neon City”).
With a trip into the world of dreams (QUADRANGULAR OSCILLATIONS), a trip into the speculative past (XENOPHOBIA), and two trips to a bright future (MARSTROPOLIS, BEYOND MARSTROPOLIS) under his belt, ROB ASTOR next targeted the unseen on his RAHU collection. He focused on completing several unfinished tracks (“Walking In The Garden At 3 AM”, “X’hal Minor”, “Aurora On Planet Rahu”, “Six Moons Of Pluto”), composed a few completely new ones (“Hades Playing Piano”, “Silent Movie Romance”, “Liquid Glass”), and offered up a handful of alternate versions of music from some of the previous albums’ session work (“Get Vertical! [Extended Version]”, “Echoes Of Raindrops [Xack’s Theme] [Science Fiction Remix]”). And still, the sway of music over him held strong.
In the summer of 2006, ROB ASTOR released a promotional disc filled with tracks culled from his three recording projects in an effort to garner early interest. This cross section offering features some of the best, and a few of the more unusual tracks (“Wet Socks Dance”, “Rikku”) from BEYOND MARSTROPOLIS as well as four tracks from XENOPHOBIA and one from RAHU (“Summer Rain On Ganymede”).
HARRY GRILLO (THE LOVESICK) told ROB ASTOR about a Christmas CD project being put together by T. S. Klugh Studio. When Rob settled into the idea of recording traditional seasonal tunes, he picked arrangements of spectacular beauty. The finished CD, “Christmas Among Friends”, contains two of Rob’s arrangements (“Es Ist Eine Ros’ [Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming]”, “Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella”).
With newfound energy, ROB ASTOR recorded forty Christmas themed tracks, condensing them down to a single disc holiday offering entitled SHINE A LITTLE LIGHT CHRISTMAS COLLECTION, filled with rare gems and favored standards. The research into the past led Rob in still another unexpected musical direction.
As he worked on the Christmas music, ROB ASTOR also began working on songs of times gone by, tunes popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s. With a carnival-like feel, Rob breathed new life into eighteen pieces of music. Some are fanciful flights (“Come Josephine, In My Flying Machine”, “Daisy Bell [A Bicycle Built For Two]”) while others are pure fun (“Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?”). Rob also recorded a truly ghostly version of “Songe d’Automne (Dream Of Autumn)”. YESTERYEAR CLASSICS contains Rob’s favorite tunes from that period.
Paying tribute to some of his favorite musical artists, ROB ASTOR decided to record instrumental versions of songs by the likes of LED ZEPPELIN (“Whole Lotta Love”, “The Rover”, “Tangerine”), THE BEATLES (“Helter Skelter”, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, “Baby, You’re A Rich Man”), HEART (“Magic Man”, “What About Love”), THE WHO (“Love Reign O’er Me”), FLEETWOOD MAC (“Sisters Of The Moon”), SIMPLE MINDS (“Alive And Kicking”, “Don’t You [Forget About Me]”), and LAURA BRANIGAN (“Self Control”). The diversion proved to have a positive effect on Rob’s being able to complete his music as well as have a lot of fun. (ROB ASTOR doesn’t expect to release his INFLUENCES TRIBUTE COLLECTION until sometime in 2008.)
2007 sparked another busy cycle for ROB ASTOR, starting with the inclusion of music on a German reality TV program in March. In May 2007, Rob began writing music reviews for MyRealTalent.com, helping spread the word about undiscovered music with his upbeat slant. He also landed a spot on 7SEVEN, a promotional album put out by Sonofon Studios based in Germany, as well as securing a spot on T. S. Klugh Studio’s NO RULES. The beta release of the SimMars game includes eleven of Rob’s tracks taken from the albums MARSTROPOLIS and BEYOND MARSTROPOLIS as well as one unreleased track (“New Albany Intergalactic Spaceport”). ROB ASTOR compiled a second promotional disc of his own for 2007 featuring material from XENOPHOBIA, BEYOND MARSTROPOLIS, and RAHU geared for radio broadcasts from San Francisco to Portugal. He also has tracks (“Stardust Speedway”, “Stardust Speedway Bad Future”) on The Dictator Group Netlabel release SONIC REMIXED, a collection of music from the popular Sonic The Hedgehog video games.
Musical inspiration next took Rob into the world of Classical arrangements, specifically GUSTOV HOLST’s “Planets Suite”. With the idea in mind to remake the music with an Electro/Rock blend, ROB ASTOR began working on his next project, AD ASTRA (meaning “to the stars”). Using HOLST’s material as a template, Rob also recorded several original tracks to go with his rewroked versions (a gorgeous New Age take of “Venus - The Bringer Of Peace”, a steamrolling take of “Mars - The Bringer Of War”), including the three part Symphonic Rock “Tiamat” and the dark, brooding, New Age-toned “Pluto”. The album also includes a variety other pieces of Classical and Neo-Classical music (A slowed down New Age take on JOHN PHILIP SOUSA’s “Transit Of Venus”, JOHN WILLIAMS’ “The Asteroid Field”) and music from ancient times with the same feel as the original HOLST pieces (“Hymn To the Sun”, “The First Delphic Hymn”, “Ariel’s Song”, “Oberon Undoes The Spells”).
Much like the recording sessions for XENOPHOBIA, BEYOND MARSTROPOLIS, and RAHU, ideas for music that wouldn’t fit on AD ASTRA presented themselves to Rob, laying the foundation for still another disc of original material entitled BELLATRIX’S MUSIC BOX featuring blistering Rock & Roll (“Bellatrix”, “Neurogenic Cyberspace”, “Equinox”, “Pathfinder”), tender ballads (“Just Because”), New Age (“Kullat Nunu”, “Summerland”), and every other mood in between.
In preperation for releasing his INFLUENCES TRIBUTE COLLECTION, ROB ASTOR recorded additional music spanning 1980s Pop (HEART’s “Alone”; ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA’s “I’m Alive”, “All Over The World”; OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN’s “Soul Kiss”, “Magic”; SHEENA EASTON’s “For Your Eyes Only”) New Age (TANGERINE DREAM’s “Song Of The Whale - Part 1 [From Dawn]”) and Video Game soundtracks (“Dolphin’s Intrigue” from Dreamcast’s Ecco - Defender Of The Future).
With new ideas in mind for music and science fiction, ROB ASTOR continually forges ahead as inspiration strikes.
••••• MyRealTalent has set up a site for Mood Music where Rob plays host. Check it out! Mood.MyRealTalent.com •••••
DISCOGRAPHY
Secret Places (2000)
5-Track Demo (2003)
Quadrangular Oscillations (2005)
Marstropolis (2005)
Xenophobia (2006)
2006 Sampler (2006)
Christmas Among Friends (T. S. Klugh Studio - Various Artists 2006)
Shine A Little Light Christmas Collection (2006)
SimMars Beta Release (Various Artists 2007)
2007 Promo Sampler (2007)
No Rules (T. S. Klugh Studio - Various Artists 2007)
Sonic Remixed (The Dictator Group Netlabel - Various Artists 2007)
Beyond Marstropolis (2007)
Rahu (2007)
7Seven (Sonofon Studios - Various Artists 2007)
Yesteryear Classics (TBA 2008)
Influences Tribute Collection (TBA 2008)
Ad Astra (TBA)
Bellatrix’s Music Box (TBA)
What Color Lightsaber Would You Have?