MusicTech Rewinder - Issue #68

Hey,

it's Friday and here comes your weekly digest of music tech news from the last seven days. Besides news about industry developments, I also stumbled upon some really cool and interesting other stuff on the web.

1) I am a proud owner of one of the copies from the "Voyager Golden Record", the golden disc that was sent by NASA on board the Voyager spacecraft to the outer solar system in 1977. It already passed Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and still keeps flying for billions of miles, ultimately entering interstellar space. The content of the disc is intended to represent humanity to any extraterrestrial civilizations that might encounter it. It contains earthly sounds like booms of thunder, chirping birds, and snippets of more than 55 human languages, as well as music from Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart made the cut, as did those by blues legend Blind Willie Johnson, Azerbaijani folk singers, and rock ’n’ roll pioneer Chuck Berry.

Nearly 45 years later, the Voyager probes are still going, and still posing big questions around sound through the discs they carry. In particular: If the records’ sonic selections are discovered, will aliens have the ability to hear them? And if not, are there other ways for otherworldly creatures to experience the sounds? For Daniel K.L. Chua and Alexander Rehding, music professors at the University of Hong Kong and Harvard University, respectively, the answer to the latter is yes. Read an interview with the two researchers here.

2) COVID brought us a seemingly endless supply of ambient sound generators. If you ever yearned for a mix of light orchestral music and the sound of a trapped fly, complemented by suburban traffic noise, this is app is for you!

3) I was moderating the stage for music tech innovation at this year's Most Wanted: Music conference two days ago and I had a volunteer assisting me who grew up in Southern Africa. She told me about a super famous genre there, called "Amapiano". I had never heard of it but she shared an article about it with me that I want to share with you now too.

In the Zulu language, amapiano literally means ‘the pianos’ but it’s a genre that’s much more complex in composition than the name implies. A kind of Afro-house that developed in the South African townships of Pretoria in 2012, it’s typically a collaboration between DJs, producers and vocalists with throbbing basslines, jazzy riffs and lively percussion. Amapiano accommodates gun-finger-throwing lovers of all things untz untz and waist-whining fans of Afrobeats and dancehall equally.

It's a shame that we, in the so-called "western world", don't really get to know many of the genres from other parts of the world. Why is that? Why are the algorithms of streaming services so narrow-minded? We are missing out on a lot of cool and inspiring music from other places on this planet. This should change!

4) Also, if you are wondering how the world sounds up on Mars, check this video. For the last nine months, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been rolling around on Mars recording audio of its environment with a pair of microphones.

Enjoy reading and have a fantastic weekend.

Cheers,

Matt

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