by Tristan Rayner in Exhale on Tuesday 21 October 2014
“There’s no sound in space,” you cry. “Space is a vacuum, you dolt!” Yes. It’s true. But what if, say someone like NASA, put up some special instruments to listen to electromagnetic vibrations on the Voyager space probe, and translated it into actual sound? Well, it could be the best music you’ll hear all day.
These recording include the sounds of Saturn’s rings, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, and even what Earth sounds like from millions of kilometres away.
The sounds are interpretations of non-sound vibrations, and you’ll hear that they’re complex and strange and fascinating all at once. And some of them are downright spine-tingling; the rings of Uranus are weirdly ambient, Earth itself is almost romantic, while Uranus sounds like strong wind passing through a crack. We’re not even joking!
Earlier in the year, acts like Beach House, Porcelain Raft, Spiritualized, The Antlers, and others put together a 14-track album using actual recordings from the Voyager space probes to create music, soundscapes and tracks.
This is one of our favourites, from Spiritualized Mississippi Space Program, “Always Forgetting With You (The Bridge Song)” – a bare-bones acoustic track that combines reverb, synth, chimes, and other intergalactic sound effects to pleasing effect.