back to article Thank $deity that week's over. Look, here's some trippy music generated from pixels of a Martian sunrise to play us out

Scientists in England have documented the five thousandth sunrise spied by NASA’s Opportunity rover in the form of interpretive dance music. It was created using a technique known as image sonification. Domenico Vicinanza, director of the sound and game engineering group at the Anglia Ruskin University and Genevieve Williams, …

  1. Martin Gregorie

    Some other algorithmic music

    Thats an odd way to compose music, but the result turned out better than I was expecting from the description.

    For a somewhat more intentional and certainly less random way of generating music, how about a slow-news day piece about Supercollider,

    https://supercollider.github.io/

    - "a platform for audio synthesis and algorithmic composition, used by musicians, artists, and researchers working with sound."

    Something about "burglar music", a programmatic composition method would sit well with a piece about Supercollider, since it should be well suited to composing with this technique.

    Todd Yvega https://www.united-mutations.com/y/todd_yvega.htm

    sorted out how to do this on a Synclavier. You can hear an example of his work if you listen to: 'Calculus', the last track on "Dance Me This", Frank Zappa's last album:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Me_This

  2. onefang

    I like it, when are they releasing the album?

    1. John Gamble

      It occurs to me that they could release an album. There's got to be Terabytes of data from Mars missions just waiting to be put to musical use.

      1. FozzyBear
        Alien

        Awesome if "sunrise" (2001 - A space odyssey) was hidden in amongst all that data.

        1. Mike Moyle

          I was thinking that it had that bass-line drone, but it's no "Also Sprach Zarathustra".

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0z_8Gj7wgE

    2. VinceH
      Thumb Up

      "I like it, when are they releasing the album?"

      Early 1980s, IIRC.

      By which I mean it sounds like it would fit nicely in amongst some of the tracks on Brian Eno's Apollo Atmospheres and Soundtracks album. At least, based on my recollection of it - I haven't listened to it in many years, but I think some of the tracks had that sort of sound to them.

      Obviously, that was Moon/Apollo inspired rather than Mars/Opportunity derived (!), but still!

      1. jonathan keith

        More proof (if it were needed) that Eno's Not Of This Earth.

  3. Geoff May (no relation)

    Tangerine Dream

    Something that Edgar Froese would have been proud of had he not died a few years ago :-(.

  4. sinsi

    Mark Knopfler would be proud.

  5. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    A Suitable Oppotunity For a Funeral Dirge.

    The post is required, and must contain letters.

  6. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    Alien

    Paging amanfromMars 1

    "Soundscape instrumental artists seek profound lyricist to add an extra dimension to their work".

    Having a large collection of ethereal and ambient work which keeps me subdued while soaking in the bathtub I thought it it was pleasant enough but they'll have to up their game from 2 minutes 10 and drag it out for a lot longer if they want to compete with the pros.

    1. A.P. Veening Silver badge

      Re: Paging amanfromMars 1

      I am afraid Valentine Michael Smith wouldn't grok it.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmm... Dark Ambient Drone. Not too bad and "AI" isn't even involved.

    Plus you can use the Youtube Progress bar to see what vertical scanline is currently being dumped to the audio device, right?

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