Friday, January 30, 2009

SPOOKY SOUNDS FROM SPACE 3: The Northern Sounds


The Cluster spacecrafts record the sounds of "the interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere." That's what creates the Aurora Borealis, "The Northern Lights," that not only look spectacular, but sound pretty cool too - like some hard-core electronics, e.g. Morton Subotnik, David Tudor, Cage, that kinda thing.

But it's also kinda scary, like "Electronic Voice Phenomenon."

Auroral Ki
lometric Radiation (ESA Cluster mission)

Reminds me of a brilliant bit of retro-techno by the sadly short-lived Richard Maxfield that was inspired
by the nocturnal birds and insects he heard in New York City parks. As great as this piece is, it doesn't appear to be in print - I ripped this from a 1967 album called "Music Of Our Time: New Sounds In Electronic Music" that also features famous folk like Steve Reich (the first appearance of his seminal tape-loop piece "Come Out") and Pauline Oliveras.

Richard Maxfield: "Night Music"

Maxfield's obscurity is no doubt due to his brief life and career - he jumped out a window whilst on a bummer trip in 1969 at age 42. Someone reissue this man's works, please!





3 comments:

Greg Bishop said...

You must have a better eye than I do at Amoeba.

Hey, do you have the collection of EVP recordings called "The Ghost Orchid"? I also recently acquired the 3 CD set called "Okkulte Stimmen" (Occult Voices.) One track (of an exorcism) is featured at my fairly new blog called Music/NotMusic, if you'd care to visit.

I would really enjoy having you as a guest on my show again soon!

Best,
Greg B.

Mr Fab said...

Great bloggin' there Greg, I've added it to links, and glad to see Flying Saucer Music is back in effect.

I wrote you back a while ago about appearing on your show and never heard back from you :(

Greg Bishop said...

How about March 1st? I'll email you too.