Righteous Babe released Kurt Swinghammer's album Vostok 6 in 2000, a concept record that tells the tale of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. A combination of gorgeous, undulating melodies, ethereal keyboard interludes, spoken word vignettes and a penchant for Bacharach, the story is used as a spring board for Swinghammer to tackle topics like unrequited love, the Cold War and feminism.

Based in Toronto, Kurt Swinghammer writes songs, scores films, composes for TV shows and commercials, produces, arranges, and engineers recordings of his own material and of other artists, performs as a solo act and in numerous bands, and as a session musician appears on many CDs, including Ani's album To The Teeth.