Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570-495 BC) was the first person who called himself a philosofer, a lover of truth. In addition to philosofical-religious teachings such as metempsychosis (transmigration of souls) he is credited with many mathematical and scientific discoveries: Pythagorean theorem, Pythagorean tuning, the sphericity of the Earth and regarding this album the most interesting, the doctrine of musica universalis (music of the spheres). Based on this theory the planets are orbiting according to mathematical equations, ratios and proportions and thus resonating and producing a symphony of music inaudible to human ears.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has led most of the United States space exploration efforts since it was established in 1958. Among other huge and significant achievements they have been able to capture the sound of celestial bodies and transform it to a audible form. When objects move in space they generate slight fluctuations in their magnetic fields. Using radio frequencies in the range of 3-30kHz (VLF, Very Low Frequency) it’s possible to capture these signals. After processing them for us to hear we are able to witness this Harmony of the Spheres. According to metempsychosis every soul is eternal and moves to a new body when the old one dies so perhaps Pythagoras is somewhere there saying: “I told you so!” Or he has been following the eternal dance of the universe for 2500 years up among the stars.

For every track in this album one “planetal audio file” from NASA is used as a founding and inspiration for the composition. The tempo, signature, key and tuning has been calculated from the audio and the music is built around that. For the 90% of the time, the planetal audio runs in the background as a soundscape as it was, uneffected – unaltered. Usually the raw planetal audio can best be heard in the beginning and/or end of each track. They are truly phenomenal and very inspirational. There were some shocking discoveries along the way like that the Earth’s tempo was 80 bpm and it made “musical” cycles in exactly 8 bars! Sometimes it was more challenging as the development of the musical drama (or the lack of it) was not following the laws of drama we humans are used to. The intent was to produce feelings of mystery, harmony, eternal motion, fear and awe – the cold beauty of the universe in a musical form.

AEX wish to express the deepest gratitude to NASA for bringing such great wealth of information from the space exploration so easily available to everybody, to Tuomo for bringing life to the rhythm tracks & his great contribution and support, to Ruokangas Guitars who has provided me Lulu - an electric guitar with a Soul - which was used exclusively in every guitar part, to Ewa for the magnificent cover art and finally to my wife Riikka who has been very patiently listening these wooshes, washes, whistles and whinings for a long time while being very supportive and generous with feedback.
We wish you happy listenings and joyful journeys with Musica Universalis!

Helsinki, March 2021, Anton Epstein