Music of the universe
BY MICHELLE DUFF
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Ground Control to Major Tom – can you hear anything out there?
While David Bowie just sang about it, a group of Levin and Foxton musicians and astronomers embarked on a special mission to harness the sounds of space on Saturday night.
About 60 people attended Remnants of the Big Bang – Space Radio, an hour-long concert designed by Levin astronomer Ron Fisher and held at Foxton's historic MAVtech theatre. Accompanied by futuristic visuals, musicians made live electronic music using the sounds that can be heard in space – such as the noise from cosmic background radiation, magnetic storms and pulsating stars, Mr Fisher said.
"We are astronomers, and I'm usually showing people what they can see – so this was about what you can hear."
Most sound in space is cosmic background radiation, a faint static noise similar to when a radio is not tuned in to a station.
Pulsating stars and solar flares also make a "very staticy and swirly," sound, Mr Fisher said.
These were mixed with earth sounds, such as meteors landing and lightning storms, to make the music.
In the second half of the concert, musicians took the crowd on a "musical journey" of what it might be like to leave the earth and travel through space.
They tried to convey the "glitchy and almost dancey" sounds of space travel technology and flying out into the cosmos.
"It's about sort of engaging as many people as we can to start thinking about these things.
"Just for them to think `oh yeah, there's music in the universe'. Astronomers are scientists, but you don't have to be a scientist to appreciate the universe."
The concert was recorded, with the aim of making a DVD.
The Levin Stargazers club and Foxton Beach Astronomical Society helped on the project, which was funded by Creative New Zealand communities and Mr Fisher's business Night Visionz.
- © Fairfax NZ News
