FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[cascaillou]

Building a bridge between Music and Mineralogy!

Or, when my passion for minerals eventually met my love of music through a collection of geology themed musical releases.

Hereinafter are gathered together three distinct lists of musical releases which are all relating to geology, mostly through their cover illustrations, but also often through album and songs titles. These lists are kept regularly updated with additional releases.


PART 1 Crystals, Minerals & Gems
https://www.discogs.com/lists/Crystals-Minerals-Gems/576296

This first list is dedicated to mineralogy, crystallography, gemology, as well as paleontology, speleology, mining, and general geology.
Covers will obviously be illustrated with crystals and mineral specimens, faceted gemstones, mines and quarries, caves and speleothems, meteorites and impact craters, fossils, rock samples, geological formations and geological cross-sections, etc.


PART 2 Lava & Volcanoes
https://www.discogs.com/fr/lists/Lava-Volcanoes/1008272

A second list dedicated to vulcanology, as well as magmatism in general.
Covers are illustrated with volcanoes, lava, craters and calderas, fumaroles, pyroclastic clouds, volcanic rocks, etc.


PART 3 Black Gold
https://www.discogs.com/fr/lists/Black-Gold/1327965

This last list is dedicated to petroleum (crude oil) extraction. Covers being illustrated with pumpjacks, derricks, offshore platforms, etc.


Let's note that some musical releases might actually not exist in physical form (such as vinyl, cd, or tape) but only as downloadable digital files, in which case "Digital release" will be mentioned.
The abbreviation "VnL" will be used to indicate releases which do exist on vinyl record (not excluding the possibility that other formats might also be available).

Any release title is clickable to access the associated Discogs page, where you'll find more information about it (i.e. additional cover and media pictures, available release formats, date of release, involved musical genres, list of track titles, etc.)

"Recommended tracks" (along with links for listening) are provided for the very best of vinyl record releases (but not yet for cd's, tapes or digital releases). In case a link would be broken, just run a Youtube search for the song.

These recommendations cover a large variety of musical genres (such as pop, rock, jazz, blues, folk, classical, reggae, funk, soul, hip hop, electro, techno, ambient, etc.), so there should really be something for everyone!


Here's the link for viewing or downloading the document:
https://www.hostize.com/fr/v/zDoUg2V-2e/the-mineralogical-records-pdf



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[Tobi]

That album cover of Livingstone: Jungle by Night is well-known here in this community:

https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=64744#64744

;-)

[Carles Millan]

[cascaillou]

Their live performance must certainly be worth it. This is a really good album, the music is just as cool as the cover!

Speaking of building bridges between music and geology, here's a fun ongoing event at the crossover of paleontology and rock music:
The travelling exhibit "Rock Fossils on Tour" (currently at Museum am Schölerberg in Germany) https://www.rock-fossils.com
Part of the exhibition team is notably Achim G. Reisdorf, geologist and curator of the natural science collection at the Ruhr Museum, who is also involved in the "Science Slam Sonic Explorers" and "Stone Techno" projects, which are both included in my list. Such a refreshing approach of earth sciences and museology!

[cascaillou]

Carles, I just realized that actually two of your minerals ended up on a vinyl record cover! That baryte from Cerro Warihuyn is yours too!
You can really say that, just like movies, your collection has its own dedicated score :-)

[Carles Millan]

I didn't know. Those didn't ask for permission.

The specimen was posted in 2011 at https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=19958#19958

And the record cover is at https://www.discogs.com/es/release/12018587---Stefano-Pilia-Massimo-Pupillo-%CE%BA%CE%AD%CE%BD%CF%89%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%82-Kenosis

Thanks,

[cascaillou]

What were the odds that two of your specimens would end up on a record cover, as a collector of such records I think that's very cool.
But why not ask them for a free copy then...

Concerning the music, it's not totally my kind but it still is interesting experimental electronic music, which I would describe as some kind of abstract ambient music (as an exemple, the track titled "Credo Quia Absurdum"). The kind of stuff to be listened with headphones, lying down on the sofa on a rainy day...or the kind of atmospheric music you could actually expect at a museum exhibit.

[cascaillou]

To keep going with paleontology, here's a blog about vinyl records created by a british paleontologist: https://thefossilrecords.weebly.com/home/welcome

[cascaillou]

I thought I should share that one: I usually collect only vinyl records, but this is one CD that still made it to my collection, because it was special.
It is from a music label called Time Released Sound which concept is about packaging musical releases into unique artistic collages and assemblages. The thematic of this specific release was about space age, thus genuine meteorite pieces were used as part of the assemblage (the CD being hold in the other half of the can).
I contacted the label owner but unfortunately he couldn't remember the meteorite's locality of origin (which he had bought a batch from ebay for this project).
Interestingly, not two copies are exactly the same, some meteorite pieces as well as an antique astronaut toy figurine are always included in the diorama, but the created scene is just different from one copy to another, for a total of 55 copies. As an example, here's another copy: http://timereleasedsound.com/php/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Above-release-page-image.jpg
The music is in the same spirit than the baryte release mentioned previously, which is to say some abstract ambient music (as an example the track titled "Siderale"). As said, not really my favourite kind of music, but well I can't think of any other music release that would have actual specimens incorporated as part of its cover art, which I thought was cool so I bought it :-)