Product Description
1 BlueHeavenAbyss (Theme from Water Planets)
2 Bathys=Entropic=RaptureForm=Correlation=QX512
3 A q u a s u n D e p t h s ♆
4 Tidal Spacetime Modulator (Thalassa Sequence)
5 Unknown Colours Drifting in Liquid (Turquoise World Ocean)
6 Arcadia=Geographica=Hydros
7 Geometric Polytidal ᛗ Fluctuations
8 Into the UnderWave (SubWave Ingress)
9 Descent Into the Mollusc (5000 metres)
10 Surfacing Amongst Biofluorescent Systems
11 Journal from Ondine 7b
12 Light Year (D.e.a.d. S.y.n.t.a.x.)
Part Two—The Machines
13 Hydrospheric Extraction Drones Class Ⲑ
14 CryoVault Transport Array Model CX22 (Atmosphere)
15 A p p r o a c h i n g t h e B l u e
16 Micro-Particle Refiners SFPA8
17 Pantheon-Class Hadal Submersible (Pelagia Variant)
18 High-Precision Hydrocleansing Protocols (Water Filtration System)
19 Programmable Bio-Construct Nanobots PBCN
20 Peripheral PLANAR Hydroharvesters
21Wormhole Reversal Σ Trajectory Path BETA3 (Infinite Travelator UTPRM)
22 Completion of Stage-N Operational Loop
#22 on Echoes Radio Best Albums of 2025!
"Now, *this* is a voyage. One album of vast stellar washes and drifts in classic spacemusic style and one album of catchy rhythmic grooves, all coming together in a meaningful narrative flow. An hour and a half of 100% goodness. Check it out, and be sure to read the album notes for the origin (very funny!) and the storyline. An instant favorite." -John Shanahan, Hypnagogue
Style: ambient, electronic, science fiction, space ambient, spacewave, dreamwave
Similar to: Carbon Based Lifeforms, Chihei Hatakeyama, Pete Namlook.
Transmission from Earth:
“We can’t survive much longer… all the ice, all the water… it’s all vaporizing. We didn’t expect this, but it’s obvious we’re responsible. We caused this entanglement hell through our ignorance, and that damn experiment…”
Website with the album’s story: here.
From orbit to beneath the turquoise wave, Water Planets’ electronic sequences and shimmering electronics evoke distant aquatic locations as well as the machines that keep the ecosystems humming. Water Planets is the seventeenth deepspace release and the fifth on Projekt Records. This conceptual double album, accompanied by a rich sci-fi narrative, portrays serene and mysterious water planets: some barren, others teeming with strange alien life.
The first half of Water Planets descends calmly into glimmering, halcyon depths and sleeping aquatic valleys. The tones refract and entwine with luminescent, filtered patterns that hypnotize the ear and inner eye. The atmosphere is always safe, wrapped in warm waves of audio, enriched with quiet intricate detail. Listeners are transported through dazzling undersea gardens of undulating plant life into shadowy crevasses that vanish into the watery abyss. This is sound-as-architecture: an immersive journey through imagined oceans.
The second half of the album shifts to focus on the sustainable technology deployed by humans to retrieve water without disrupting Hydros’ fragile ecosystems. Here, shimmering electronics and textural movement conjure sleek spacecraft, drones, and futuristic vessels designed for gentle water extraction. The tone is subtle, scientific, and sophisticated, suggesting a hopeful, non-invasive response to planetary crisis.
“The idea of the water planets,” Mirko explains, “came from the idea of taking care of our planet in the face of our current mercenary attitude to our home. But initially it came from a much more fun and strange story. My partner Diana was going on a trip, and I was staying behind for work reasons — I was also searching for the catalyst for the next deepspace album. She asked me if I could water her plants while she was away. Knowing that I might forget, I typed the chore into my calendar —”water plants.” Except it autocorrected to “water planets.” I froze. In that second, it all fell into place. The story, the location, the sound of the music. A wormhole opened. It was almost like it was all ready and just needed an outlet.”
Transmission:
“We can’t survive much longer… all the ice, all the water… it’s all vaporizing. We didn’t expect this, but it’s obvious we’re responsible. We caused this entanglement hell through our ignorance, and that damn experiment.
The water is almost gone from Earth… and everywhere else. The Oort Cloud is dry. The Kuiper Belt too. Enceladus is now a dust bowl. And you don’t even want to see Venus. The oceans have evaporated. Rivers are cracked mud.
People are dying fast, except for those in the domes, and they won’t last much longer either.
But there’s something new: IASA has discovered a wormhole they believe leads to Hydros: a system of water planets.
We must send the sustainable drone ships there… no matter what. Otherwise, we’ll all be dead within the year.”
2224. Global warming isn’t confined to Earth, it’s everywhere. The sun, planets, belts, and moons across our solar system: once frozen and stable, have begun heating violently. An intervention, designed to slow centuries of warming, triggered a catastrophic chain reaction. The event is now known as 817, or The Great Quantum Entanglement Disaster. Instead of saving the system, it accelerated its collapse.
Scientists discovered that when humans pollute and alter Earth’s environment, quantum entanglement causes distant celestial bodies to react like a metastatic cancer, spreading across the Milky Way in waves of heat, entropy, and disorder. The old metaphor was that the Earth was a pot slowly boiling. The truth? The pot is now the size of the galaxy.
Within months, most life is gone. All water has vaporized. Survivors number in the low millions, clinging to life inside sealed domed cities. Artificial food and water are engineered but insufficient. Extinction looms.
2225. In a stunning development, a scientist from IASA locates a wormhole near Mars that leads to a distant star system known as Hydros: a system of six water planets. It may be humanity’s last hope.
Desperate governments greenlight a new project: the creation of ultra-sustainable AI spacecraft designed to retrieve water without spreading further environmental damage. These ships must avoid interaction with the Hydros planets as much as possible to prevent the entanglement from following us.
The Hydros System
Hydros is a compact but vital star system orbiting the M-class red dwarf of the same name. Its six orbiting water planets, shimmering like celestial sapphires, hold the key to humanity’s survival. Crucially, Hydros lies far enough from our own ruined solar system to remain untouched by human interference…for now.
To access this resource, a fleet of advanced ships is sent through the wormhole. Equipped for long-distance travel and water containment, they traverse interstellar space to reach the system. Extraction is meticulous and precise, involving engineering marvels piloted by autonomous AI.
Enormous tankers draw water from the planetary surfaces, taking extreme care to maintain purity and minimize disruption. Environmental preservation is paramount. Specialized monitoring ships equipped with next-generation sensors and labs analyse water samples, marine life, and environmental impact in real time.
Autonomous drones and submersibles explore ocean depths, cataloguing ecosystems and geology. Conservationists and scientists work together to ensure that human presence remains sustainable and respectful. The goal is clear: do not repeat Earth’s mistakes.
Reviews Editor –
From Star’s End
Mirko Ruckels brokers the truce between the secular world of technology and the spiritual plane of music. Recording under the name deepspace his vast body of work comes from efforts to preserve the individual self from the colliding course of The Universe. Water Planets (97:43) reveals and conceals just enough. Its electronic designs convey delight, wonder and a New Age nostalgia that fails to fade – all rooted in a Sci-Fi aesthetic ably powered by an active imagination. The music here is warm, shimmering and curvaceous. Through sonic imagery ignited by gleaming synthesizer pads and effects Water Planets plays with great fire and focus. Opening up an abundant expanse we take time to take in passages of beauty and brilliance. Rounded string pads extend above the dramatic rumbling of a deep set bass – leading the listener further toward the center of this cosmic sonic realm. Summoning sounds of orchestral heft our spacefaring romp deploys spectral synths, hallucinatory turbulence and untamable forms. In a few areas the sequencers kick in and so we are treated to a delightful acceleration – reminding us that when adventure beckons we must embrace the call. With its planet pads, delicate atmospheres and galaxy sized harmonies the 24 realizations on Water Planets contain just the right amount of celestial drama. Fully and effectively conceived, at the still center of this engaging work lies the fantastical – and from these delicate shadings the spirit of the musician improves the spirit of our times. -Chuck van Zyl
Reviews Editor –
From Houz-Motik
Water Planets, hydrosonic: an aquatic and synthetic odyssey
When the banality of a reminder—“water the plants”—becomes the trigger for an interstellar sonic journey. With Water Planets, released in August 2025 by Projekt Records, Australian Mirko Ruckels, known as deepspace, imagines an aquatic and musical refuge where ambient blends with science fiction.
In two distinct parts—one contemplative, the other technological—the album unfolds a narrative of anticipation where music becomes the ocean, machines and ecologies intertwine. True to his impressionist sensibility, Ruckels colors these worlds with Ravelian echoes and translucent electronic layers. Released in August 2025 on Projekt Records Water Planets is signed by Mirko Ruckels, aka Deepspace. This ambient album is a sonic diptych: first, a peaceful immersion in the depths, then, a respectful technological exploration. Between dystopian narration and ambient wonder, deepspace signs a sensitive musical stroll.
Sand & Light Wave
The first half flows like slow, translucent water, where each note dissolves into synthetic algae. Ruckels reveals his taste for suggestion rather than evidence: an aesthetic nourished by Debussy and Ravel, filtered by a slow ambient. We perceive an intimate, almost watercolor architecture, where clarity is as fragile as the breath of a reef… The second part is electrified: drones and sequencers cross paths like vessels coming to collect water from the Hydros planets. Here, the musician lets his fascination for the technological future speak, but he retains a poetic nuance. His machines do not destroy; they listen, converse, embrace ecosystems. An ambient that reconciles engineering and delicacy.
From idea to odyssey
Rewind: it all started with a simple typo, the chance of a misspelled “water planets.” — “water plants” became “water planets” — an accident that transformed into a narrative cosmos. True to his approach, deepspace makes the infinitesimal a source of imagination. This album demonstrates his ability to transfigure an everyday detail into an immersive fresco, to stretch the moment so that it becomes a world. Echoes & Resonances: the ambient community quickly hailed this work as one of the most accomplished of his career.
Listeners see it as a double odyssey: “part one is more ambient, and part two is more sequencer driven,” writes one, while another confides: “It’s the best ambient music I’ve heard in years. Lots of variety in its watery style.” In the blue echo of Water Planets, Mirko Ruckels reminds us that ambient music is never fixed: it breathes, expands, reinvents itself. Music like a sound buoy, reaching towards the future, but anchored in a profoundly human sensitivity.