After listening to Terry Riley’s Sun Rings, a NASA Art Program commission performed by the Kronos Quartet, I wanted to dive in deeper into music that was created by or heavily inspired by science. I was hoping there would be several more music related projects funded by the NASA Art Program, and there are a few, but not all of them made it to traditional albums. And the same goes for other science and music collaborations. For this playlist, I recommend using the YouTube playlist as it will be the most complete version or checking out the blog where I’ve linked videos to the works that are not on the Deezer or Spotify playlists. 

I give this playlist a 6/10 Difficult Listening Hour Rating. 

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Music On A Long Thin Wire by Alvin Lucier. Album: Music On A Long Thin Wire
From the liner notes, “A 50-foot length of taut wire passes through the poles of a large magnet and is driven by an oscillator; the vibrations of the wire are miked at either end, amplified, and broadcast in stereo. The thin wire is set vibrating four times at four different frequencies; what results is not the low drone one might expect from a long, vibrating wire, but a complexity of evocative, ethereal chords.”

The End of the Moon by Laurie Anderson, commissioned by the NASA Art Program.
From forma.org, “Anecdotal, wide-ranging and epic, the performance draws on Anderson’s recent experiences as NASA’s first artist-in-residence. Part travelogue, part personal philosophy, part daydream, The End of the Moon looks at the relationships between war, aesthetics, spirituality and consumerism. It explores the meanings of freedom, time and beauty in our contemporary world.”

Sun Rings: One Earth, One People, One by Terry Riley performed by the Kronos Quartet. Album: Sun Rings
Also a product of the NASA Space Program

Swordfern in the Morning by Modern Biology. Album: Plant Music, Vol. 1
From the composer, “All of of these tracks were made using various plants as a source of bioelectricity – with small changes in this property being converted into note changes in a variety of synthesizers. Depending on the time of day, I then quantized the resulting notes into the scale of an appropriate Indian Raga.”

Space Dreams by Domenico Vicinanza. Album: SPACE DREAMS
Truth be told, I couldn’t find any info on this album but this composers does a TON of science-data and music collaborations.

Music for Solo Performer by Alvin Lucier performed by his brain waves.

Aroras by Matthew Burtner. Album: Profiled from Atmospheres
From an NPR interview, “BURTNER: It basically converts the electromagnetic signals into sound waves. So it allows you to listen to electromagnetic signals, and those could be from cars or from lightning, any kind of AC electrical current. But they can also be from the northern lights.”

Sonic Physiography of a Time-stretched Glacier by Matthew Burtner. Album: Glacier Music

Sounds of Space by Sophie Katsner performed by Ensemble Éclat.

When DNA Makes Loops by Amir Bitran.
This work was part of the Muse-IC Project, which commissions works inspired by new scientific research. From the composer, “It’s both useful for me as a composer to draw inspiration from the scientific world, and also useful as a scientist to be able to distill ideas into their most beautiful and most clear essence.”
Full article here.

You are music (a brainmusic video, converting fMRI data into musical sound)
This video is based on a single subject (sound artist Maria Chavez) scanned in the lab of Zoran Josipovic at NYU.

Spiral Galaxy 24968 by Hawkwind
I have no reason not to include this one. Enjoy!