Two Voyagers, 35 years on their way

This composition arose from the awe of space and the amazement that man is capable of such projects as sending two unmanned spacecrafts, the Voyagers 1 and 2, into interstellar space. In 2012, some 35 years after their launch, these unmanned probes crossed the boundaries of the solar system and sent masses of measurement data to Earth during their journey. Hence the perhaps bizarre title "Voyager 1&2"

Listening - Hint

Use decent earphones or headphones, otherwise the intro with low and quiet basses will be inaudible.

New sounds

In addition to new electronic sounds from Reaktor and from Max/MSP, concrete sounds were recorded in the studio with homemade contact microphones. To prevent the listener from thinking of the studio techniques rather than the particles flying through space during the musical journey to the boundaries of the solar system, I prefer not to tell any details about these recordings.

Sonifications

In this 8-track composition, some sound files were used which have been made available by space agencies. In these files, received measurement data is transformed into a sonification. This means that the measurement data of, for example, the solar wind and sent back by a spacecraft, are placed in a sound file so that these measurements are converted into sound and become audible. For scientists, sound lends itself to recognising patterns when listened to. This is easier to do by ear than by thousands or millions of numbers in a table.

Creation

The creation concert (first performance) took place in Amsterdam during a beautiful concert with Spectra at Het Orgelpark on 19 Jan 2012. Voyager 1&2 was programmed next to Atlas eclipticalis and Cartridge music, both composed by John Cage.

laatste update: 2021.07.15