Trioxia

album 2024
(binaural - please use headphones for 3D sound)

available on most other digital platforms

Trioxia is a sonic fable in 3D sound of the evolution of human presence in Earth’s orbit. Starting in 1957, we humans have launched thousands upon thousands of objects into space. Trioxia uses actual orbital data and a fair share of the close to 5000 sounds in this piece are from recordings of various satellites and space missions. The compositional process involved creating the thousands of unique sounds using a mix of recordings of satellites and orbital broadcasts (from the private collection of the Swedish space researcher and radio amateur Sven Grahn) along with sound design using analogue sources ranging from camera shutters and miscellaneous noises, to pinging resonance filters and feedback.

Tracks

1 Trioxia 62'30''

Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957 space has mirrored large-scale political and social developments on Earth. At first, space was an arena to demonstrate power during the Cold War, with heavy investments by both the US and Soviet sides. In time, this led on to the commercial era – providing the means for radio and television broadcasts and overseas calls. Today space is a highly integrated part of society - satellites are at the heart of navigation, communications, cosmology, weather forecasts, monitoring of global climate, and so much more. But as the number of assets in orbit grows, so do the risks! For many space agencies, ensuring that collisions and space debris do not pollute near-Earth space environment, potentially crippling access to space completely, has become the highest priority.

I made Trioxia to serve as an aural illustration of the ceaseless activity right above our heads. It is both as a tribute to our collective ingenuity and industry, as well as a heads-up on the potential for a cascading disaster that is accruing in orbit right above our heads.

Trioxia was conceptualised in 2020 and finished in 2023 due to the amounts of sounds required and the programming complexities to create the music the way it was envisioned. Special thanks to Petrus Hyvönen, Rolf Staflin, Justin Pearson for their invaluable expertise and to Sven Grahn for the use of his archive of recordings. Trioxia was created with the support from the Swedish Arts Council and a KEAR residency grant from the Bowling Green State University, OH, USA.

This music was created in a so-called 7th order ambisonic format. The album is released as a binaural track - please use headphones to experience the 3D-sound as intended.

Nature Always Wins
NAWREC021

released 3 February 2024

created and produced by Girilal Baars
cover by Gijs Weijer

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