The Radio Science Orchestra presents
Welcome to Mars
STORY
Join the Radio Science Orchestra at Starmus 2022 for a celebration of space, sound, science and science fiction, charting the unexpected connections between electronic music and space exploration. This audio-visual experience will guide spectators on a journey from Earth to the Moon and beyond, interspersing arranged and original musical numbers with gripping narration.
The Radio Science Orchestra draws on historical vignettes to resurrect and repurpose iconic early electronic works together with new music for the twenty-first century. Chapters include “Sputnik: Fellow Traveller”, “Music out of the Moon”, and “Video Killed the Radio Star: How the Future Began”.
The performance will include contributions from acclaimed international theremin performers, and synchronised HD video projections. In the company of the RSO, expect an evening of “hi-fi sci-fi”, previously-unheard transcriptions and glamourous space-age exotica, revealing astonishing links between the conquest of space and the dawn of electronic music.
STAGE: theremins, ondes Martenot, Moog and modular synthesisers, sounds of the VCS3, concert harp, saxophones, vocal harmonies, melodica, keyboard, electric guitar, bass, percussion, and replica valve theremin (a.k.a. “Flash Gordon’s drinks cabinet”).
MUSIC: spanning Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune, Kraftwerk, Barry Gray, Henry Purcell, Ron Grainer and original RSO compositions, the set will include specially-produced transcriptions of Music out the Moon, music which holds a place in history as the soundtrack to one of humanity's most important scientific achievements.
FILM: drawing on declassified test footage, public information film, B-movies and vintage advertisements, the production will be accompanied by HD film charting the Space Race and Apollo Programme, including the first manned lunar landing in July 1969.
WORD: provided by an acclaimed special guest (TBA), a one-time-only presentation of never-before-heard broadcasts from top secret archival material, interspersed with sampled voices, period audio, and FX from Ground-To-Earth transmission tapes.
THE RADIO SCIENCE ORCHESTRA
A modular Space Age Pop ensemble inspired by the birth of electronic music and the retro future: uniting Theremin, Martenot and Moog, the Radio Science Orchestra brings exotica, neoclassical and lounge from the birth of radio to the atomic age and beyond. The ensemble has met with critical acclaim for its performances at TED, Mexico CDI, Southbank Centre, London’s ICA, the Shanghai Music Festival, the Bath ICIA, the British Library and Glastonbury Festival.
Bruce Woolley (Vocals, Theremin, Guitar, Arrangement)
Bruce Woolley is an English record producer and composer, co-founder of the Radio Science Orchestra. His writing and collaborative credits include Thomas Dolby, Grace Jones, Nicki Minaj, Baz Luhrmann, the Orb and Will.i.am. In 1981 Bruce's international hit - the Ivor Novello Award-nominated "Video Killed The Radio Star" – became the first song aired on MTV.
Andy Visser (Saxophones, Vox, Keys, Arrangement, Electronics)
Co-founder of the RSO, Andy is a multi-instrumentalist, playing saxophones, keyboards, flute, bass clarinet and electronics in various lineups including Death in Vegas, ONL, The Alice Band and the Radio Science Orchestra. He is also a sound designer and has worked on international projects for Sony, Nokia, Dolby, Samsung and Shell’s “Electric Storm”. Andy’s compositions have been broadcast on terrestrial TV and Radio networks. He released his first album “One” to critical acclaim.
Joy Smith (Harp, Keys, Melodica)
Multi-instrumentalist Joy Smith has performed harp with the Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen, The Monteverdi Continuo Ensemble, and the New London Consort. She is baroque harpist for Il Fagioilini and the State Opera in Munich, and is co-director of the ensemble 'Eclipse'. As a multi-instrumentalist she brings knowledge of folk, baroque and classical musicianship to the Orchestra's space-age ensemble, segueing from the the antique to the modern.
Charlie Draper (Theremin, Ondes, Text, Transcriptions)
Charlie Draper plays the space-controlled theremin and the ondes Martenot. He has performed for the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Oslo Opera House, WorldCon Philharmonic Orchestra, British Library, WOMAD Festival, Welsh National Opera House, London ExCEL Centre, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joe's Pub NYC, and been heard on ITV, Channel 4, BBC 1, BBC Radio 3, and BuzzFeed. He has played many principal works for theremin and orchestra, including Schillinger's "First Airphonic Suite" (UK premiere), Rózsa's "Spellbound Concerto", Herrmann's "Suite from the Day the Earth Stood Still" and Elfman's "Mars Attacks!".
“Mars is the only known planet inhabited solely by robots...”
“. . . . For ever since immortal Man hath glowed, with all kinds of mechanics, and full soon, steam engines will conduct him to the Moon . . .”
Prelude, Legacy, Landing - The Radio Science Orchestra
“‘Memories Of The Future is a brave and highly idiosyncratic undertaking ... combining the information-rich commentary .... the music of The Radio Science Orchestra and a dense visual narrative, they manage to execute their concept with considerable panache and charm.”
“By the end of ‘Born Under Sputnik’ . . . . The RSO have achieved something very intriguing. We are no longer calculating or measuring the interaction between the narrative and the music, but are fully absorbed into the newsreel of our memories of the future.”
“Lunar Rhapsody” from “Music out of the Moon” (1947)
“The theremin specifically, and Leon Theremin’s work in general, is the biggest, fattest, most important cornerstone of the whole electronic music medium. That’s where it all began”
First Man - Music for theremin from the 2018 film
References
Albert Glinsky, Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage (2000)
NASA, Apollo 11 Technical Earth-to-Ground Transmissions (GOSS NET 1)
Andrew Smith, Moondust: In Search of the Men who Fell to Earth (2006)
Frances French & Colin Burgess, In the Shadow of the Moon, Vols I-III (2007-2010)