Sound poetry can be inspired by outer space phenomena and permeated by its times, scales, and mysterious dynamics.  In this radiophonic piece, distant planetary winds carry along animal calls, science fiction readings and vocal improvisations.  Blending the experience of having followed the Great Conjunction of 2020 from the countryside, using an amateur telescope, with inspiring passages from Arthur Simack’s short story Desertion (1944), the spatialised version of this 'eve I lectrique' conjunction sets a retro-futuristic immersion into imaginable multilingual and trans-species transmissions.   


credits:::

composition and hostess voice: Ángela Hoyos Gómez

multi-channel version: Ángela Hoyos Gómez and Juan Hernández 

vocal improvisers and readers: Maria Sappho, Isabella Ruiz Gallardo and Leah Stuttard 

voice processor programming: Juan Hernández

source image: Alejandro Aristizábal - taken in Cundinamarca, Colombia 2020.

ConjunctionPodcast

According to the Big Bang theory, hydrogen and helium are the primordial elements in the chemical evolution of the universe. Data and events recounted in different scientific sources that address the primordial abundances of hydrogen and helium — 75.5 % and 24.5%, respectively — were interpreted as structure, rhythm, timbre and signal processing parameters of Heliógena.  In turn, atomic spectra provided data linked to pitch material and geometric shapes of this audio-visual piece

Heliógena Primatica

Titled in honour of British astronomer Cecilia Payne, who observed and proposed in her 1925 doctoral thesis that stars are mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. Spectroscopic data of helium and hydrogen — wavelengths, intensities, notation of atomic orbitals, differences of energy between shells — were translated (audified) or mapped to different musical dimensions. 

Wavelengths were translated to pitches through audification. Intensities of the spectral lines are interpreted as probability of occurrence of the pitches. Rhythm derives from the pitch set by mapping difference in pitch to durations. Timbre is shaped by mapping intensities, notation of atomic orbitals, and differences of energy between shells to different attributes — e.g. modulation indices, frequency ratios between carrier and modulators, envelope stages.

Cecilia (in honour of Cecilia Payne)

_______________nEbulosa carina
___________dos o Tres millones
_____________ de Años
brillo 4 en mil seisCientos 77
______________ mA*ximo en 1843
_________2300 paRsecs
____________ (7 mIl 500 años luz)
_____________ graN erupción
________supernovA impostora
____ homúnculo nEbulosa

Eta Carinae (revised and revisited)

In Helium Flash, the spectrum of helium is examined to consolidate a rhythmic composition and sequencing method based on the interplay of parametric data mapping and geometric analysis of musical rhythm. The track also explores the harmonic language of the helium identified tuning

ulricaduo

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