About music and sound - part 1.

Hi there!
I'd like to write some words about the music.
In 2009 HomeGnome and me were working together on a Commodore Plus4 game remake (Fingers Malone) and it was a great success. The game was great, the cooperation-work went flawlessly, and in 2010 we finally met personally at a demoparty! :)
After he asked me to compose music for 10 min space strategy I was more than happy.
Space, scifi, space battles, fighters, etc, etc, these are heartwarming words to me, and everything that is scifi related inspires me a lot.

Tho, there is only killer vacuum without any sounds in space, the game would be flat without any sound and music :)
So, how the hell can we picture the athmosphere out there?
Well, think about the good old scifi movies from the 60-70's. Everything is goin' slowly, story elements are secondary, focus is on the coldness-darkness of space. Instrumental music, Vangelis, good old analogue synthesizer sounds -sometimes mixed with orchestral stuff. Sound effects are coming from synthesizers, bleeps-bloops, twangs, etc, etc.
This is good for a start but not enough for 10 min action. Let's see what is common in today's scifi movies?
Electronic instruments are dominating, sometimes mixed with fast percussion themes while we are in action.
Wait...! Action! That's what we need!
Now there is slow ambient music while you're makin' your moves on the map and we change it to action if a space battle happens. This is a great combination of the two styles, ambient music helps you to set a "space-mood" and the action is faster-dirtier-filled with more instruments and movement.
The only question is: how you can make the transition between ambient and action music without gaps, without any strange fade in/out?

I'll tell you more about technical details in the next part. Be prepared! :)