The Sounds of Mission Control

The International Space Orchestra is a part of a project called “Ground Control” started by French artist Nelly Ben Hayoun.  According to the article published on the Creators Project website Ben Hayoun is known as an experience designer. She is very much so equally enthusiastic about sound and outer space and decided it was time to merge the two together in an authentic way.  Now based in Silicon Valley, CA, home of the NASA Ames Research Center, she approached several members of NASA about grabbing a noisemaker and re-creating the sounds heard in mission control during various space missions.  This collective of scientists and NASA personnel, now turned “kling-klangers”, have formed together as the International Space Orchestra with a mission of playing purely for that which dwells in the cosmos. 

            The notion of playing purely “for space” and not for humans has been going on strongly before the International Space Orchestra.  In the world of popular culture, experimental music innovator Sun Ra had been doing this since he first let the hammer down on a piano string.  Although there is no doubt that Sun Ra and his Arkestra were truly beaming sonic madness off of this planet, from a scientific and physical perspective their message hadn’t truly gone into orbit just yet.  The original idea for the ISO was to merge science and sound together to produce something incredibly original.  Therefore, it made perfect sense to grab individuals who had a few tales involving dealing with the outside world.  In addition to the NASA crew, Ben Hayoun snatched some unbelievably creative, and cool musicians such as Damon Albarn from the British group Blur, and more recently known as the mastermind behind the one-man project known as the Gorillaz.  Albarn definitely seemed qualified, and someone who worked in a frame of mind perfectly paralleling Ben Hayoun’s space crusade.  The group recorded a performance at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in September and plan on having that recording translated into an Arecibo message and sent to a satellite to tickle the aural senses of the vast, dark universe. 

            The International Space Orchestra Nelly Ben Hayoun has put together is strikingly penetrative both technically and culturally.  It is interesting to put an outlet such as sound generation into the hands of the scientifically savvy folks over at NASA and incomprehensible to think about where they could send those sound waves.  There are many distinct and wonderful sounds planet earth has to offer that could quite convincingly make a perfect marriage with whatever sonic attributes the universe has to offer.  Sound is the perfect medium to use as a test subject for wide-bandwidth communication between humans and the mysterious beings to the left, right, below and above us.  There must be great level of enthusiasm not only from Ben Hayoun, but also from anyone who is interested in sound, music, extraterrestrial messages, and the cosmos.  Many times those interests occupy the same individual and there is no doubt that the International Space Orchestra is a giant step towards the primal goal of one day exhibiting and discovering rock n’ roll in outer space.

http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/the-first-ever-international-space-orchestra-broadcasts-music-to-space