A final year sonic arts student from Queen's has suggested a piece to me. He knows I was interested in Music and Astronomy last year and thanks to facebook, is aware that I'm still looking into this area. He came across a piece where the composer has used a pulsar, so I have done some immediate research...
It's called Le Noir de L'etoile (by Gerard Grisey - I have never heard of him but apparently he studied under Messian and Xenakis). This piece employs the streaming of the sound of a pulsar in live performances (a pulsar is a fast torating neutron star which throws energy into space as it spins). I'm aware of how different pulsars can sound from one another; if they spin fast enough they create a blurred buzzing noise, but if they rotate slower they can create quite a rhythmic sound. Grisey used the well-known Vela pulsar, which is the latter type.
Le Noir de L'etoile is written for 6 percussion instruments and transmission of signals from outer space (the pulsar). The interesting thing about this piece is the live transmission of the pulsar sounds - which he employs using a large amateur radio telescope. The Vela pulsar is one of the more accessible pulsars (it is close and therefore easier to hear over interference) so it is easy for Grisey to do without the aid of a massive telescope. And there's something about this method that just seems, well, more live.
I have my own ideas about using live telescope sounds in a performance (via the internet) and I can't help feeling that I will be a much bigger risk taker than Grisey. To begin with, he is using the sound of a pulsar - a phenomena that will sound the same as it did the last time he tuned into it, and it will maintain the same strict rhythm for the forseeable future (but if it did explode during a live performance of Le Noir de L'etoile, it would be pretty exciting). This pulsar also sounds like quite a hollowing rattling beat, similar to the percussion instruments chosen to accompany it. It would appear that he has chosen the most un-alien sound in outer space. The craze of beats and drumming that are heard alongside it give the piece a tribal atmosphere... as though an eccentric drumming group have deicded that it would be outrageous to jam with a pulsar. It might be interesting to understand Grisey's compositional process involving this piece and to find out his objectives. It certainly doesn't conjure feelings of 'the black of the night' for me, but rather a group of percussionists who seem to be competing with a massive neutron star to see who can be louder. The fact that a pulsar was employed as an instrument in this piece is what grabbed my attention (obviously), however as far as radio telescope electro-acoustic pieces go, this one seemed rather dull to me.
