ALMA Sounds raffles off new album after Barcelona success

8 July, 2016 / Read time: 4 minutes

The innovative initiative ALMA Sounds has created quite a stir. After its successful participation in the International Congress of Digital Culture and Creative Technologies, Sónar+D 2016 (June 16-18) in Barcelona, Spain, the label Cadenza Records, owned by renowned electronic musician Luciano (Lucien Nicolet), launched a new album entitled ALMA Sounds, with compositions made from ALMA Sounds. To celebrate the occasion, vinyl records will be raffled off to those who publicly share the ALMA Sounds Video on Twitter or Facebook with hashtags #ALMASounds and #CadenzaRecords.

The new album also included the collaboration of producers Felipe Venegas and Diego Errázuriz, giving new life to the sounds generated by astronomer Antonio Hales and Universidad de Chile engineer, Ricardo Finger, from ALMA observations. “From a musical standpoint it was a very interesting experience to work with these sound patterns from the Orion spectra,” says Luciano and adds that “the curiosity of interpreting something from the Universe awakens a unique inspiration and curiosity.”

ALMA Sounds vinyl record. Participate in the contest to win one. Credit: N. Lira - ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) | Download image

Luciano recently participated with Hales, Enrique Rivera (curator of ALMA Sounds), and Mónica Bello (director of Arts@CERN) at a round table at the Sónar+D festival in Barcelona. The discussion, moderated by Fernando Cucchietti from the scientific visualization department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, revolved around ways to collaborate between major scientific institutions and artists, as well as the possible shared language between both interpretations of the world.

Round table discussion on science and art at Sonar+D. From left to right: Luciano, A. Hales, E. Rivera, M. Bello, and F. Cucchietti. Credit: Josefina Lagos | Download image

ALMA Sounds was invited to participate in Sónar+D as a project where creative experimentation converges with scientific research. The exhibit presented was a big success and was highlighted in the “TOP 10 curiosities of the fair” according to the newspaper El Mundo de España. In the stand located in the Marketlab area -where the year's innovative ideas, prototypes and products were exhibited- visitors were able to hear the sounds directly, create their own compositions on location and immerse themselves in an artistic installation of the Universe set to music with ALMA Sounds.

The attendees interacting with the ALMA Sounds strange at Sonar+D, Barcelona. Credit: Josefina Lagos | Download image

The attendees interacting with the ALMA Sounds strange at Sonar+D, Barcelona. Credit: Josefina Lagos | Download image

The attendees interacting with the ALMA Sounds strange at Sonar+D, Barcelona. Credit: Josefina Lagos | Download image

Over 15 thousand people visited the fair during the three days of Sónar+D, in addition to more than 6 thousand views on the streaming channel. The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, visited the project's stand personally, as well as other big names from the international electronic music scene, such as Brian Eno and Richie Hawtin. They expressed their interest in creating new compositions from this sound bank and collaborating with Chilean scientists to interpret and decode more frequencies in a future project.

Brian Eno was surprised by the initiative and was noticeably enthusiastic about being able to interact with visit sounds. Credit: Josefina Lagos | Download image

Richie Hawtin playing with the sounds on his visit to the stands at Sonar+D, Barcelona. Credit: Josefina Lagos | Download image

The sound bank has been downloaded by over 4,200 people from around the world, showing the interest of the artistic community in the data obtained by one of the most important astronomic observatories in the world.

To celebrate these milestones, ALMA Sounds will raffle off 5 vinyl records of the recently launched album ALMA Sounds to those who publicly share on Facebook or Twitter the ALMA Sounds Video with hashtags #ALMASounds and #CadenzaRecords by July 16, 2016.

Winners List: 1. Lorna Aguilar; 2. KatAndrea Vergara; 3. Emilio Ruiz; 4. @normaavila1957 y 5. María Paz Bertoglia.

Additional information

ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA) and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), NSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of South Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO and NAOJ.