Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space – and it sounds absolutely fabulous. Thanks to the good-hearted space cadets at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), there is now a Soundcloud page loaded with fantastic sounds from the furthest reaches of outer space which have been gathered from various missions over the years.
When we think of Nasa sound samples, we usually think of words first. There’s Neil Armstrong’s “one small step” soundbite when he landed on the moon or the “Houston we’ve had a problem” line from Apollo 13 in 1970.
But there’s a world beyond that vocabulary and that’s what makes this Soundcloud such a treasure trove of esoteric noises. There are rockets taking off with much pomp, ceremony and throttle. There’s the sound of lightning on Jupiter, believe it or not. And there are satellites making the kind of glitchy noise electronic music producers spend years trying to emulate in their studios.
Indeed, given the rich, fertile nature of these sounds for sample-diggers and music-makers, you can bet that many will end up on forthcoming tracks. Those who do decide to sample some spacedust and are not after commercials can rest assured that Nasa won’t be sending the lawyers after them as the sounds are not copyrighted. Go ahead and take a walk on the moon.
See soundcloud.com/nasa for more.
