🪐 Music Out of the Moon: A Les Baxter Proto-Exotica Landmark

Before Exotica was a genre, before the hi-fi lounge craze and jungle jazz took root, there was Music Out of the Moon. Released in 1947 as a double 7” gatefold vinyl set (Capitol EBF-2000), this surreal and sensual experiment in sound broke new ground—combining wordless vocal harmonies, orchestral arrangements, and, most radically, the theremin (which many credit for establishing the then new lounge genre template).

This is the record that Neil Armstrong loved so much he brought it on cassette aboard Apollo 11 and played it 150,000 nautical miles from Earth. Even Sun Ra was heavily influenced by this one. "Lunar Rapsody" is the defining track of Space Age Pop. First released April 1, 1947.

The Players:

• Harry Revel composed the interstellar themes.

• Les Baxter, years before he’d help define the exotica genre, conducted and arranged.

• Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman, a pioneering thereminist, gave voice to the alien soul of the project.

Across six otherworldly tracks—“Lunar Rhapsody,” “Moon Moods,” “Lunette,” “Celestial Nocturne,” “Mist O’ the Moon,” and “Radar Blues”—this record invites listeners to drift beyond the stratosphere into a dreamworld shaped by lush orchestrations and the ghostly wail of the theremin. It’s music as emotional moodcraft, designed to "affect the sensitive mind in a way that is sometimes frightening… always fascinating," as the back cover states.

This album is widely considered one of the earliest commercial recordings to feature the theremin so prominently. It's also one of the first albums aimed entirely at mood music—music not for dancing or narrative, but for evocation and escape. It predates the first Martin Denny LP by over a decade, yet already teases at the themes of lunar fantasy, sensuality, and mystique that would become hallmarks of the exotica movement.

We’re thrilled to have this strange and beautiful gem in our archive. The gatefold artwork—featuring a reclining model on iridescent fabrics—is a visual extension of the album’s sonic fantasy. This is a ritual record, a psychedelic séance from the atomic age, and it belongs at the root of any serious exotica collection.

 Float into the moonlight.

• Michael Tolle (for Mello Exotica)

To hear the song "Moon Moods" and more...

Mello Exotica's Official "Proto-Exotica" Playlist