Solar System Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Solar System Meditation is a modern adaptation of Johannes Kepler's concept of the Music of the Spheres.

My starting point was the movement of the planets around the sun: their distance, their speed, their angle, etc. These parameters were then used to guide the curation of the sounds where, put simply, each planet corresponds to a single continually evolving sound with its unique frequency and spatial movement. Using the Sound Particles software these spatial trajectories could be simulated in sound and rendered in multichannel format that corresponds to any given loudspeaker arrangement.

The composition is divided into three segments: formation, crystallisation and decay. In each segment different sonic processes are set into motion and create the sensation of "drifting away" from the center to the periphery as well as from past to future. It begins with a primordial Urklang out of which the different planets spring into existence, gradually solidifying their unique characteristics. Towards the end distant stars are heard twinkling in the night sky while the planets slow down their motion to achieve a unified harmony with each other. As we reach the farthest reaches of the cosmos we find the sound of our own breath, uniting the outermost with the innermost, the periphery and the center. 

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The short excerpt below is part of a 13 minutes electroacoustic composition. It was premiered on January 28, 2023 in Hošek Contemporary as part of the CTM Festival Vorspiel in Berlin. Further performances are planned in MONOM Berlin.

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The full piece can be listened to here.