Rex Features

Chris Hadfield is getting ready to launch the first album recorded (partially) in space.

Space Sessions: Songs from a Tin Can, will be released on 9 October, with some of the tracks on the 11-song collection recorded aboard the International Space Station. Ahead of the album's release Hadfield has uploaded the official lyric video to one of the tracks, Feet Up.


And recording music in space isn't without its difficulties. Hadfield, who shot to internet fame with his cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity, said that zero gravity played havoc with everything from holding a guitar stable to singing properly.

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"The producer who was helping me, Paul Mills, said: 'Your guitar playing is a little messy.' I said, yeah, you come up here and play guitar," Hadfield told The Globe and Mail. He also explained that zero-gravity caused a build-up of fluid in the head, leading to a swelling of the tongue and vocal cords.

Recording for many of the album's tracks was done in Hadfield's tiny sleeping pod. Using a microphone plugged into his iPad, the Canadian astronaut used a slim Larrivee Parlor acoustic guitar to allow him to play in such tight confines.

Now back on Earth, Hadfield has been working with producer Robbie Lackritz and a team of professional musicians to add polish to his space recordings. Tracks on the album include Big Smoke, Space Lullaby and his now famous rendition of Space Oddity.