moon:and:6 is the moniker of Canadian multi-instrumentalist, music producer, engineer and remixer Michael Chambers. A founding member of Canadian indie rock band The Golden Dogs, he has since enjoyed a prolific career as a producer and recording engineer. Out on March 31, 2017, A Brief History of American Space Travel (Maisonneuve Music, 2017) marks his debut album as a solo artist.

A concept album with a strong central narrative presented in nine songs, A Brief History of American Space Travel is almost a love letter to NASA’s endeavours from 1958 to 2011. It’s an immersive musical chronology that gets richer with each listen, due in large part to Michael’s meticulous production work.

A child of the 1980s, Michael’s world revolved around music and technology (having a musician father helped). An endless curiosity led to his first tape experiments at age 12, years of classical piano training up to age 16 and then formal training as an audio engineer through the 1990s.

Fresh out of audio engineering school, he survived a brief tenure at a major record label before deciding to devote himself to independent music. Starting in 2007, he worked under the mentorship of the late Dan Achen (Junkhouse) and quickly became a regular fixture at Achen’s Catherine North Studios in Hamilton, Canada.

While Michael’s work on other artists’ productions is quite transparent, his solo work contains distinct nods to specific influences. His music is infused with French downtempo, 1990s post-rock and the experimental nature of mad men like Brian Eno and Steve Reich. The result is post-rock inspired intelligent dance music made up of synthesized tones, twangy guitars and crunchy drums.

His 2015 single “Launch Sequence A” demonstrated Michael’s ability to make a 1990s electronica vibe sound current, while evoking images of vintage space exploration. That’s an idea that’s stretched and re-stated several times in A Brief History of American Space Travel. Michael’s passion for storytelling, coupled with a knack for finding and transforming archival audio samples into musical mayhem make this debut album a bold and promising start.