Fascinating! Astronomers of old talked about the 'music of the spheres'.  What we hear on the track is of course an outcome of musical decisions by the researchers, but not invalidated by that.  It would be interesting to hear other viruses put through the exact same process.  I thk that could bring out further insight.  Amused to see this piece classified as 'classical'!

Soothing tempo, sublime harmony. Why this choice of scale, instrumentation? Are the MIDI files available? I wonder how others would reharmonize, reorchestrate, rearrange the same musical form and structure. This is how COVID sounds to MIT researchers. How does it sound to a death metal enthusiast? I would love to hear more variations to reflect the wide variety of experiences we have all had with this same pathogen.

С первых звуков почувствовала дискомфорт в солнечном сплетении  Потом стало полегче.

Melancholic expression of science towards life and death, through music....

Loops of your heart - Cries (2012)

Reachy Prints

Pre-order

Hawkmoth

Contemplation, a spiritual and inner journey by sonic explorer, composer and sound designer Hélène Vogelsinger.  A sound explorer, her music is described as intense and hypnotic. It immerses us in an ocean of sounds that leads us to an altered state of consciousness. A timeless music at the crossroads of minimalism, ambience and orchestral. Her work links the past and the present; the memory of abandoned places and the energy they release were the sources of inspiration for her 2 albums “Contemplation” and “Reminiscence”. 

Performed, recorded, and mixed by Hélène Vogelsinger
Mastered by Stefan Eichinger
Original Artwork by Irie Wata

AstralProjection HélèneVogelsinger

If you download these mixes to listen to later, please pop back here and click the remixers you're into some love for their work before the 26th of May. The remixer with the most heart then wins a Keith McMillen controller and some Plaid swag, http://tinyurl.com/myannzy The original version of Tether can be heard and played with via Jono Brandel's web app, http://tether.plaid.co.uk and is included on our album, Reachy Prints, http://warp.net/records/plaid/new-album-reachy-prints

Tether [Ion Driver Remix]

Project 30.m4a

Live off the board recording of In Threes at Vancouver New Music's Nomadic Streams festival at VIVO, Oct 23, 2015.

In Threes - Live

The original demo of 'Aquamarine'


The new album 'Hollowed' is out now on Planet Mu: http://italtek.bandcamp.com/album/hollowed

Aquamarine (Original Demo)

Debut Single

[Available on Bandcamp http://yarck.bandcamp.com/track/untangle]

Untangle

Union Dusk (live on Sonarchy with Kelly Wyse on piano)

While we cannot see small nanoscopic objects like proteins or other molecules that make up virtually all living matter including our cells, tissues, as well as pathogens such as viruses, our computational algorithm allows us to make its material manifestation audible.  This piece is a musical representation of the amino acid sequence and structure of the spike protein of the pathogen of COVID-19, 2019-nCoV (protein data bank identifier 6VSB [1]). 

MUSICAL DECEIT

A virus’ genome hijacks the host cell’s protein manufacturing machinery, and forces it to replicate the viral genome and produce viral proteins to make new viruses from it.  This musical art teaches us something about the fine line between beauty of life and death as an opposite pole.  As you listen to the protein you will find that the intricate design results in incredibly interesting and actually pleasing, relaxing sounds. This doesn’t really convey the deadly impacts this particularly protein is having on the world. This aspect of the music shows the deceiving nature of the virus, how it hijacks our body to replicate, and hurt us along the way. So, the music is a metaphor for this nature of the virus to deceive the host and exploit it for its own multiplication. 

HOW IT IS DONE: 

What you hear is a multi-layered algorithmic composition featuring both the vibrational spectrum of the entire protein (expressed in sound and rhythmic elements), the sequence and folding of amino acids that compose the virus spike structure, as well as interwoven melodies - forming counterpoint music - reflecting the complex hierarchical intersecting geometry of the protein [2].

Scientific references:

[1] Wrapp et al., "Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation," Science, 2020, DOI: 10.1126/science.abb2507

[2] Buehler et al., "A Self-Consistent Sonification Method to Translate Amino Acid Sequences into Musical Compositions and Application in Protein Design Using Artificial Intelligence," ACS Nano, 2019, DOI: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.9b02180

Viral counterpoint of the coronavirus spike protein (2019-nCoV)

Viral Counterpoint of the Coronavirus Spike Protein (2019-nCoV)

Markus J. Buehler is the McAfee Professor of Engineering at MIT, and a composer of experimental, classical and electronic music, with an interest in sonification. Using an approach termed "materiomusic", his artistic work explores the creation of new forms of musical expression - such as those derived from biological materials and living systems - as a means to better understand the underlying science and mathematics. One of his goals is to use musical and sound design as a novel and abstract way to model, optimize and create new forms of matter from the bottom up, and to assess cross-system design relationships. He is also interested in research to explore relationships between classical music, mathematics, and the physical and biological sciences, an in the mapping of models of consciousness across systems. In recent work he has developed a new framework to compose music based on proteins – the basic molecules of all life, as well as other physical phenomena such as fracturing, to explore similarities and differences across species, scales and between philosophical and physical models. 

Contact: mbuehler@MIT.EDU

Viral Counterpoint of the Coronavirus Spike Protein (2019-nCoV)

Markus J. Buehler

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