Slow Radio

The making of The Moons of the Solar System

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Episode notes

An acoustic journey through our solar system as we visit ‘other moons’. The sounds of distant chains saws, wind turbines, elastic bands and springs are mixed and treated to convey a sense of wonder as we journey to Enceladus and Io.

Each piece accompanies a handmade print which can be viewed via the link while listening, to provide an experience in both sound and vision: https://www.iamthehow.com/store/. As the compositions are ‘slow’, with periods of silence, the use of headphones is highly recommended.

Not long ago the planets and their moons within our Solar System were thought to be void of activity, but now we know there is active geology and climate throughout. The ice bright Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, would sit in the North Sea; a small moon with a big story waiting to be told: thick ice with massive crevasses ‘The Tiger Stripes’ through which the waters of the hidden ocean erupt into the geysers that reach into space. And then there’s Io, one of the four Galilean satellites that orbits the gas giant Jupiter; it is about the same size as the Earth’s Moon, but it’s subject to intense gravitational warping, which most likely explains the high level of volcanic activity.